Round two of the Bemsee season saw the class head north to Cheshire and the glorious ribbon of tarmac that makes up Oulton Park.
Ronnie Harris converted pole position into a clean four-race sweep in the Properly Protected Limited MRO Minitwins, consistently heading brother Bill Harris and William Howarth across the weekend. Jack Noble was the leading rookie finisher in all four races.
In race one, Ronnie Harris controlled proceedings to win by five seconds over Bill Harris, who had his hands full with Howarth, who was less than a second back in third, as the leading trio broke clear early. Race two proved far tighter at the front, as Harris narrowly beat Howarth by just six hundredths of a second, while Noble made it onto the overall podium in third.
Ronnie Harris again led home Bill Harris in race three, this time by over eight seconds, as Howarth completed the podium. In race four Harris completed the clean sweep, this time winning by nearly six seconds over Bill Harris, with Howarth again third, a slender five hundredths of a second behind in a tight fight for the runner-up spot. Noble once again led the rookie classification in eighth, maintaining a consistent presence just outside the top group across the weekend.
Honours were shared by Lucas King and Maximus Hardy across the four ACU Team Green Junior Cup and Senior Ninja races, with the pair trading victories while consistently leading the field. Alfie Garrod and Danny Huskinson were also regular front runners.
In the first exchange King, on the NW Racing/Cable House Kawasaki Ninja 400, secured victory by a little over a tenth of a second over Alfie Garrod, with Danny Huskinson, on his Art of Racing Kawasaki Ninja 400, completing the top three as leading senior. After a DNF in race one, Hardy bounced back to win race two from Huskinson by only a tenth of a second in a close senior battle, while Garrod took third overall and the junior class win, himself less than a second off the win, with King just behind in fourth.
It was a tenth of a second again that split the winner from the runner-up in race three, as Hardy beat King, the latter securing the junior win, while Dan Bray made it onto the podium in third overall, as Garrod crashed out with two laps to go. In race four, Hardy again led King across the line by the same margin, with Bray in third, half a second down and just half a tenth up on Huskinson.
In the BMZRC 250s Alexander Mann - on the HS Racing-backed machine - took the opening race win ahead of Andrew Wales and Chris Kent, before Wales, sponsored by Show Control International, topped races two and three, with Caleb Wright consistently second. Mann returned to the top in race four, heading Wales and Wright once more.
Anthony Johnson, on his 765 Triumph, dominated the Helmet City MRO Supersport 600 & Clubman 600 races with three wins.
In race one Johnson led Sam Hirst by a healthy nine seconds, with Gareth Cunningham a safe third. William Howarth was the leading Clubman rider in seventh overall. Race two followed a similar pattern at the front, with Johnson winning by a similar margin over Jack Muir, while Cunningham again secured third place and Howarth again topped the Clubman class in sixth overall.
There was a closer finish in race three but it was still a comfortable win for Johnson, as he edged Muir by four seconds, with Rhys Forrest completing the final podium of the weekend., as Cunningham narrowly missed out, three tenths off Forrest. Howarth continued his consistent run as top Clubman runner, finishing sixth overall.
Frazer Lysaczenko and Keaten Leatherland shared the wins in the L&W Contractors Rookie 600s, with the pair consistently at the front across all four races and margins between them often minimal. Lysaczenko took victories in races one and three, while Leatherland responded in races two and four, including a narrow two-tenth-of-a-second win in race two. Behind them, the podium places were varied, with Stephen Roberts, Andrew Morris and Albert Hall all stepping onto the rostrum.
Race one saw Lysaczenko lead Leatherland by a second, with Roberts third. Race two was closer, as Leatherland edged Lysaczenko, this time with Morris third. In race three, Lysaczenko returned to the top step, winning ahead of Morris and Hall, as Leatherland crashed on the final lap. In a shortened race four, however, Leatherland bounced back and secured his second win, beating Lysaczenko, while Roberts claimed third ahead of Hall, with Morris dropping to sixth after a post-race penalty for a yellow flag infringement.
The Seton Tuning MRO Powerbikes, Clubman 1000 and Retro 1000 races produced three different overall winners across the weekend, as Harrison Crosby, Jake Hopper and Jonathan Perry each took an overall victory.
Crosby, on the Trail Group Honda Fireblade was the first winner of the weekend, with fellow Honda-mounted pilot Hopper second and the leading Clubman, though he was some 12 seconds adrift. Brad Mercer made it three ‘Blades in the top-three, half a second back of Hopper. Clinton Wood, on a GSX-R1000 Suzuki, was the top Retro finisher in 11th overall.
In a wet race two Hopper claimed the overall win and with it another Clubman victory, finishing ahead of Grant Thomson with a healthy margin of over 16 seconds. Mercer completed the top three as race one winner Crosby dropped to fourth while Wood again secured the Retro win.
In the final race Perry was this time the runaway winner at the front on his Gordon Huxley Racing Honda Fireblade. Mallinder was second, with Thomson third. The top Clubman runner was Tommy Jones in sixth overall, with Hopper absent from the action. Wood completed his hat trick of Retro wins in 10th overall.
The SF Parts & Austin Jacobs Thunderbike 500 series saw plenty of tight battles across the weekend. The first outing was won by Mark Osborne, who also won the C1 class; he crossed the finish line just under two tenths of a second ahead of Joe Holdsworth. Shaun O’Hara completed the top three overall and won the C2 category, while James Fitzsimons topped the C3 class in fifth overall. Holdsworth went one better in the second race, winning both the overall and C1, narrowly ahead of Adrian Kershaw and Luke MacRae, the latter claiming the spoils in the C2 class. Max MacRae just missed the podium in fourth but was the C3 winner.
Luke MacRae emerged as the man to beat on Sunday, taking two overall wins and two C2 class victories. In race three, he finished ahead of C1 leader Kershaw and C3 winner Max MacRae. It was another close contest in the fourth and final race, with MacRae again first overall though less than a second ahead of Finn Chalk - the C1 victor - and Kershaw, the C3 winner, third.
There were three winners from four races in the The Clothing Kings Thunderbike Sport class, as Logan Stone secured a brace of wins, with Rob Saltmer and Adam Jamison also getting in on the victories. Stone won from Josh Harvey and Rob Saltmer in the opener, followed by a win for Saltmer in race two, followed closely by James Fearn and Morgan Creasey.
Stone returned to the top step in the first race on Sunday, followed by Jamison and Saltmer. Jamison then went one better as he and Stone reversed positions in the final race, with Saltmer again third.
Morgan Creasey and Tyler Donovan evenly split the wins in the Thunderbike Ultra races, with Connor Swyer, Ramone Hunte, Clinton Wood, Matthew Wren, and James Underhill also battling near the front. Creasey got off to a winning start on his Suzuki GSX-R750, with Swyer second, Hunte third, and Donovan fourth. Donovan then took his first win in race two, holding off Clinton Wood and Swyer, with Creasey disqualified for a technical infringement.
Sunday’s races also saw Creasey and Donovan exchange victories. Donovan won race three, in front of Creasey and Swyer, which was followed by Creasey taking his second win, narrowly beating Donovan by just over two tenths of a second, while Hunte again took a third.
In the Extreme class Tony Russo bagged himself all four race wins. He finished ahead of David May on every occasion, with Matt Hinnells thrice third. In the final race Shaun Wallis completed the podium. There were slim margins of victory in the club’s growing SuperTwins class saw an intense battle throughout the four races, with Ted Wilkinson on the Aprilia RS660 and Jorge Halliday on the Triumph 660 sharing the spoils. It was Halliday that struck first, winning race one less than half a second ahead of Wilkinson, with Michael Bampton completing the podium. Race two and the top two swapped positions, while Bampton was again third.
The rivalry continued on Sunday, and Wilkinson took the chequered flag less than three tenths of a second in front of Halliday. A restarted final race ended with Halliday on top and Wilkinson absent from the final classification. As a result Brampton was second and Ben Brown was third.
The new Open 500 races were shared unevenly between Sean Crone and Luca Wilkinson. Three wins went the way of Crone, each time ahead of Wilkinson. Wilkinson took his sole victory in the second race, winning from Crone. Jake Donkersley was third in three of the races, but a retirement on the opening lap of the final race left Archie Ormrod to swoop in and end the weekend with a trophy.
Kevin Wholey was in dominant form in the Twistgrip Motorcycles Yamaha Past Masters, and controlled the opening race from the front on his TZR250, leading from lights to flag. Haydon Smith followed in second and Mark Haigh completed the podium in third.
Smith was closer to the winner in race two, but Wholey secured another win, though the pair were separated by less than two tenths of a second. David Ball pipped Haigh to third.
Wholey made it three wins from three as Ball moved up into second and Richard Hayward climbed to third, before Wholey completed his perfect weekend. Haigh took second, while Richie Welsh claimed his first podium of the weekend.
Round three of the British Motorcycle Racing Club’s season takes it to Donington Park and the GP circuit on May 8-10.