Hottrax Motorsport Racing Club Motorcycle Championship Race Reports
words by Alfonso Lygo

Pictures by RyanWildman at British Sport Photography

Sorrymate.com National and Junior Endurance


Tyre choice was crucial for Superpole on Saturday, after mixed weather over the preceding week. It was a rapid start from top 600 runners and winners M & M (Lewis Mason/Robbie Moore) but it was the much fancied Sweatshop Racing who took an early lead with their third rider line up of the season, the current Michelin Power Cup points leader Mike Dickinson joining Mick Godfrey with regular man Hugh Brasher away on 2012 Olympic planning commitments.

For TM72 (Andy McKnight/Steve Neate) Anglesey was their swansong race and they took the front spot after five laps, only to be overhauled by Sweatshop. After mid race rider changes TM72 maintained a slender lead over Sweatshop, the winning margin less than three seconds, in 3rd spot were M & M looking for a third win on the trot after a testing crash for Lewis on Friday ahead of Half a Chance Racing (Andy Carpenter/Townsend) with BLDS Couriers (Bill Lilly/Jonty Dixon) and Pit Stop Racing (Mark Affleck/Peter Dilks) filling up the top six and second 600 crew home in blustery but dry track conditions - setting the grid up nicely for the Le Mans start for the three hour.

Race on Sunday afternoon.

With 28 starters and Jonty Dixon posting fastest lap - expectations were high for an entertaining Round Three of the series.

Raceday was a combination of wind, wind and more wind. Sweatshop got the flyer from the start chased by BLDS, Derek Redmond 4 (Neil Garnham/Tony Rogers), M & M, Half a Chance, Blujets (Carl Hodgkins/Ash Rothwell) and Sherwood (Carl Dodwell/Paul Whiteman). First casualty was John ‘Yogi’ Burr who dropped the Initiatec 600 before continuing back to the pits, Martin Landmann parted company with the DucksX R6 entering the pit straight after which RAF Man Al Waring spilt the Roundall Racing bike running the transponder back to team mate Si Allen before recovering + fixing the R6 for later.



At third distance Sweatshop and TM72 were separated by 17s a lap up on M & M, DR4, Insignia (Einar Torlen/Rob Loveday), Half a Chance, TANC (Chris Mason/Andy Rouse), BLDS, Blujets, Visorvision (Tom Nicolau/Rob Barnes) and Banzai (Ben Jenkins/Rupert Thompson). Early signs of trouble for our leader was when Mick Godfrey stopped briefly at Rocket to fiddle with the Traction Control which sounded as if it were in ‘tractor mode‘. Chasing 600 team Pit Stop Racing (Mark Affleck/Peter Dilks) had lost a load of time in their early stint with naff tyre choice and were now paying the price. Thirty minutes into the middle hour and Steve Neate pushed the TM72 R1 into the lead with Sweatshop struggling for any form of consistent race pace. More dramas for 1491 Endurance who were leading their class before a fuel capacity gamble dumping the R6 motionless out on the circuit which led to disqualification from the race. DR4 were leading their class before Neil Garnham tried to exit pit lane without the obligatory arm band costing them a detour back to his team gifting an advantage to Blujets who leap frogged into the class lead. Just before two hours were up Roofix Racing's Dean Smith high sided coming
onto the pit straight dumping a substantial oil slick on the racing line
- safety car was deployed for the best part of twenty minutes causing a rash of planned pit stops on the 2 hour mark which saw TM72 leading from the relentless Sweatshop, Insignia, top 600 team (just for a change) M & M, Half a Chance, DR4, BLDS, Pit Stop, TANC, Visorvision and Blujets.



The pace car re entered pit lane with 45 minutes to go and Dickinson was miraculously leading on the road with a single lap over TM72, this changed when a planned pit stop occurred. At the same time Jonty Dixon and Rob Barnes were down exiting the Corkscrew, Jonty continued whilst Rob returned his transponder to the pit lane for his team mate to continue. As the race entered the final thirty minutes TM72 luxuriated in a one lap lead over the ‘difficult to ride’ Sweatshop ZX10, DR4 were enjoying being back in third in front of Blujets and top 600 crew M & M. DR4 were in for challenging times, they picked up a penalty and that resulted in two visits to the pit lane thus dumping them down on Blujets who also incurred the wrath of the pit lane police, at the same time Ian Charles (Racing Snakes) made his way back to the paddock on foot having retired at the other side of the track. TM72 comfortably maintained their safety margin over Sweatshop - the real drama was the battle for National 600 honours, double winners M & M were top dogs throughout the Anglesey race whilst Pit Stop Racing had been ten places down on the road after an hour but only five after 120 minutes, suddenly Pit Stop were within a sniff of their class leaders, 12 seconds down with 12 minutes to go so it was nail biting stuff for both teams. 



M & M played a sensible finish to their race happy with a six second gap and a class win to join the two already nailed this season! Other heroes of the dying moments were Sweatshop who, despite their problems managed to un lap themselves from worthy winners TM72, a fitting end to the UK racing career of 2010 Endurance Champ Andy McKnight before he rocks off to Oz with partner Alex, in North Wales ‘Yoda’ was ably assisted by young Le Mans veteran Steve Neate who rode an immaculate race on his R1. Insignia had worked hard to finish third on the road and third in the National 1000 class. National 600 winners and runners up M & M and Pit Stop were the blunt end of the top five ahead of top Junior 1000 winners Blujets. Two more National 1000s in the form of Half a Chance and BLDS ahead of the dumped DR4 -Junior 1000 runners up ahead of sixth Nat 1000 TANC Racing who fought an honest race ahead of final podium place for Junior litre teams - Banzai Racing. On the road in twelfth place were leading Junior 600 crew; Martin + Peter Brand on a pair of Brand Brothers Racing R6s grabbing a large handful of points towards their endurance debut season. Runners up to BBR were TDM Racing (Michael & Terry Merritt) only a lap down with the next three crews all on the same lap and separated by 11 seconds; Sorrymate.com (Richard Dilks/Fergus Dalgarno) and the ever enthusiastic Apex Racing (Nick Matthews/Adam Woby).




Michelin Power Cup 1000

Superpole



Following Daz Bellworthy's shock retirement from racing it was Shane Pearson who started on pole for the Superpole race on his Fireblade over 2s quicker than SBK City's Rhalf Lo Turco. Mike Dickinson’s first win in this series has been long overdue and whilst Pearson set off in a hurry, Mike shadowed the Fireblade until pouncing to take the lead captive. Greg Allsop was looking good in third and manger to fend off the attentions of Lo Turco until falling off the corkscrew at the thirds distance allowing the Brazilian into third ahead of ZX10 mounted Tony Kielty. James Osbourn and Andy Rouse came home in front of Matt Bishop and Steve Sarson - separated by an eye’s blink of 0.6s



Race 2


It took Mike Dickinson 3 laps only before he pushed the quick starting Pearson out of the way for the lead, Lo Turco was always there abouts but could only hold onto a points reaping third spot. It was Greg Allsop and Kielty who had a race long battle over fourth after Allsop started from the back of the grid, Greg nailing it on the last lap to take fourth spot prisoner - Osborne and Rouse were the next two on the road, finishing ahead of Steve Sarson.




Race 3


Mike Dickinson left nothing to chance when he maxed out with points, he grabbed the lead and hung onto it keeping Pearson at bay with a finishing margin of 8 seconds. Allsop, again starting from the back of the grid made great progress in the early stages but didn’t make it beyond a quarter distance. Rhalf nailed his third podium finish of the weekend from Kielty, Sarson , endurance man Rouse and Matt Bishop on his BMW.



Michelin Power Cup 600

Superpole


A notable absentee from Anglesey was Danny Imberg, who was away on vacation, leaving top Nottingham racer Ady Allsopp to steal pole from Mark Affleck with Mark Dilks in third squeezing top rookie Richard Charlton into fourth and final spot on the front row. Allsopp was unable to hang onto his advantage and it was up to Charlton to fight out the lead from Nick Green with 'find of the season' Charlton taking the win by over 8 seconds. Allsopp bagged valuable points with his third place just in front of a chasing Anthony Park. Grant Wagstaff hoped to make hay in Imberg’s absence but felt his head wasn’t in the zone at Anglesey, he still had a decent run from dead last up to sixth after three laps to make a worthy fifth at the end displacing a charging Adam Woby who scythed his way through the pack and Marc Dilks. We lost brother Peter at half distance when he was up for a top six finish.




Race 2

This race was all about Scottish Newbie Richard Charlton who took the lead on lap one and built up a 5 second gap over runner up Nick Green, third man Park was always under real threat from Wagstaff and the top four were never going to be troubled by fifth place Allsopp, a light shower meant riders had to have a bit more respect for conditions. Marc Dilks and Mark Affleck were safe in 6th & 7th, spare a thought for the improving De Leon who was sixth on the opening lap but slipped down to twelfth after vision problems, a shame after such a promising start. 



Race 3

It was inevitable that Grant Wagstaff would get his head in gear for the final 600 MPC race and that Adrian Allsopp, so strong in the 2010 series, was overdue a race win - it wasn't easy for either. Charlton got a flyer from Allsopp with Green and Wag in tow, until Green went off exiting Church, Allsopp took the lead on the penultimate tour putting Charlton into second before Wag passed the Scotsman on the uphill run to Rocket. Park was a handy fourth ahead of the Pit Stop trio - Affleck, Marc Dilks and brother Peter, with Ketchell, Clifford and George Harvey rounding out the top ten.




MotoGrande 1000

Race 1

Julian Hughes on his Suzuki made pole his own from a chasing Phil Brooks with Adrian Beevor and Andre Fenton making up the top four. JH converted pole into a convincing win with a 20 Second lead over R1 pilot Phil Brooks who displaced Adam Beevor from second place which he made his
Own for the first half of the race. Lee Wilson was fourth half a second in front of Kris Saunders with Ash Daughtrey making the first half dozen, a sliver in front of Andrew Fenton - the next three riders were covered by just over a second; Stephen Bridle, Rhalf Lo Turco (handy practice for the later Michelin Cup races) and Adam Reeve.




Race 2

Julian Hughes captured the lead from the word go and never headed over the 12 laps. Brooks was second and sealed this on the opening lap despite the attentions of Lee Wilson who came third with a gap of just over a second. The ever improving Lo Turco hung onto his solid fourth ahead of Kris Sanders, Andrew Fenton and Stephen Bridle who slipped down from a stonking start.



Race 3

Replicating the results of the opening race on Saturday we saw Julian Hughes make it three on the trot ahead of Brooks and Rookie Beevor who finished just over a second from Kris Saunders, with Ash Daughtrey, Stephen Bridle and Andy Fenton the next to cross the line and wrap up the whole Hottrax weekend.


MotoGrande 600

Race 1

A smaller than normal grid was headed up by the naked Suzuki 600 Streetbike of Mark Stanier from Andrew Nicholson and Kieran Rowe - all covered by less than half a second. Stanier was unable to hold onto the lead and it was left up to Jamie Harrison and Andrew Nicholson to scrap over P1, Nicholson was able to fend Harrison off until half distance when Jamie started building up a 10 second lead. Stanier hung onto bronze with a generous lead over Jake Kay, Colin Norris, Warren Verwey and the Hornet of Martin Crabb.

Race 2

With the wind still a bit of an issue it was Nicholson who got the holes hot from Harrison, Hornet man Crabb was down the field but on a bit of a charge.
Colin Norris managed to hang onto a string 3rd at the start before losing a couple of places at the end to Verwey behind Jake Kay in third and Harrison finishing 8 seconds ahead of Roger Slater. 600 pilots reported that lap times were generally a second down on the previous days due to the wind and finishing outside the top six were Crabb, Apex Racing man Nick Matthews, Tony Bradshaw and Derek Redmond runner Wayne Crossman.




Race 3


The status quo was maintained for Harrison, Nicholson and Kay as they replicated the finishing position from the earlier race, naked Suzuki man Stanier was a handy fourth ahead of elder statesman Norris with Verwey in sixth ahead of Crossman, Lund and Slater with Nick Matthews topping out the top ten.




Ducati Desmo Due

Double Brands winner Neil Appleby spent some time following eventual runner up Matthew Lawson before coasting to his first win of the weekend to win by a slender margin. Steve Mason held onto third ahead of Andy Challis and leading Class B runner Ronald Jolley, Phil Wilcock, Alan Parkes and West Bridgford’s Steve Hands made up the Top Ten.


Appleby stole the show in Race 2 with a 5 second advantage over Steve Mason with Andy Challis in third. Lawson couldn't make a podium place and came on fourth ahead of Pike and Wilcock, Parkes and Hands this time in a handy eighth spot.



The Desmos had a run out on Sunday as well with a depleted field given some new faces a chance to shine; Steve Mason, Andy Pike and Paul Beadbury occupied the podium with Wilson, Tesseyman and Jenkins making up the top half dozen.

Allcomers Race: Saturday ran like clockwork and we had time for a 10 lap thrash which saw lanky Fireblade wrestler Andy Rouse, also competing in the 3 hour endurance and the Michelin Power Cup, take a win from Jake Kay (less than a second away), Steve Bridle, Paul Barker and Kieran Rowe.



Desmo Allcomers: Steve Mason won the five lap thrash comfortably from Pike, Jenkins, Wilson, Ellis, Darravalla and Andy Turner - great fun!