Hottrax Motorsport Racing Club Motorcycle Endurance Championship
words and photos by Alfonso Lygo

National Endurance 3 Hours

Pre race and this race looked to be a potential stunner which did not disappoint; joining the Hottrax Motorsport regulars were a brace of SMR prepped Fireblades (Up & Coming Hazbeens) in the capable hands of former multi endurance champ Mark Smith Halvorsen and the ‘hot as mustard’ Swan Honda pit chief Pete Jennings. The Hazbeens snapped up pole after morning qualifying ahead of rapid regulars Graphic UK (Dean Skipper/Matt Layt) with the guesting Neate 90 (brothers Sam & Steven) in third spot on their Hottrax Motorsport Le Mans R1 ahead of current championship leaders TM72 (Andy McKnight/Jonty Dixon) who are all about earning points for their championship campaign. Back to racing, former Junior TAG Champs TrackCraft (Mike Dickinson/Mark Linscott) were an un characteristic fourth on the grid after Dickinson almost wrote his R1 off in pre race testing alongside team mate Mark on his splendid ex Stuart Easton Fireblade.

At the start Steve Neate shot ahead until he was demoted by Pete Jennings who began building up a respectable lead ahead of the first rash of pit stops in the first hour. Very early dramas for last year’s champions Sweatshop (Hugh Brasher/Mick Godfrey/Rod Lynn) as the talented Lynn started the R1 from 14th on the grid – there seemed to be gremlins as the Sweatshop machine lined up for the start and after a couple of miles the clutch packed it and the bike stopped at an un recoverable Cascades after climbing up to 8th slot - for Oulton each rider only managed to cover a lap or so in qualifying and it was a frustrating and costly DNA for the 2009 top team who have a mountain to climb for the remainder of the season. Team principal Hugh Brasher was philosophical about the first mechanical retirement in a great number of years racing at the top level, but it was over and out for Sweatshop and an impromptu end to Welshman Lynn’s debut race of 2010 after working away in France.

At the one hour mark the Neate brothers had dropped to third behind Hazbeens and TrackCraft who were separated by a mere 4.7s prior to the leaders pitting. Title chasers TM72 were a steady fourth with Extreme Bykesportz (Dave Walker/Ian Wardle) and Graphic UK topping up the top six. Things settled down after the planned pit stops and the Neates were back leading on the road only feet in front of the chasing Hazbeens. Places were tight for the 600 with no less than six teams on the same lap headed by Ducks Cross (Grant Wagstaff/Martin Landmann) in front of fatblokeracewear.com (Andy Rouse/Andy Buik), Pit Stop (Peter + Marc Dilks), Tango and Crash (John Blundell/Mark Affleck) and Louth Bikes (Adam Kemp/Ralph Naden).

By half way mark the MSH & PJ were top crew with the Neate brothers in their exhaust fumes a lap safely ahead of TrackCraft who held a lap over TM72, the big bike class included Graphics and Extreme who were fast and furious in the wake of the leaders. The top 600 was in P7 - fatblokes ahead of Pit Stop, Louth Bikes, and T & C in fourth despite a penalty for missing pit board signals (should have gone to Specsavers Bongo!).

With an hour left on the clock a scheduled pit stop saw Neate take a lead of 32s from the Hazbeens with the very competitive TrackCraft in third spot only a lap adrift of the leaders. Graphics, TM72 and Extreme filled the rest of the top six, fatblokes were seventh on the road and leading 600 from the Dilks brothers, Ducks X, 1491 (Andy Pulling/Ian Cooper), Cross Ducks (Mike Eglington/Steve Blackney) and Speed n Spares (Rich Clarke/Richard Walker).

The two leaders remained on the same lap for the final hour but with different pit stop strategies and with fifteen minutes to go the gap was 18s with Hazbeens at the front, Macca pitted with 9 laps to go and Steve Neate took over at the front - as the minutes evaporated quickly the gap between 1st and 2nd was 15s with the chasing second place racer lapping 3 seconds a lap quicker. They were quick but not quick enough and team Neate shot over the line with a 2 second lead, such was Pete Jenning's pace he posted the fastest lap of the race on the final tour!

The ultra competitive TrackCraft (aren’t they all?) settled with third ahead of Graphics, TM72 who racked up some useful points in front of Extreme Bykesportz. fatblokes won the 600 class a lap ahead of Louth Bikes, Pit Stop who dropped time and places with a technical infringement penalty and Ducks X a lap safe from 1491, T & C, X Ducks, Speed n Spares, KAKA (Jeff Booth/Bill Calister) and Spark Endurance (Shelley Pike/Rob Knoyle) with stable mates Roundall Racing (Pete Gibson/Simon Allen). Filling the 1000 places were journeymen 120+ (Richie Cunningham/Gary Bransgrove) with a well deserved 7th in class ahead of Extreme 2 (Rob Wardle/Neil Norton), Glynn Racing (Jeff Bywater/Lee Hodge/Sean McDermott), the Enviro BMW (Danny Cheevers/Roger Titman), Terry Thomas Racing (Phil White/James Shervell) and Frost Construction (Douglas Cowie/John Frost).

As for the scores on the doors; in the litre class TM72 maintain a slim lead over Graphic UK who are some way ahead of pre season favourites Sweatshop and Neate 90, again all to play for until the final race of the season at Cadwell, after visits to Anglesey and Pembrey. fatblokeracerwear.com deservedly lead the 600s, for this race Buik deputising for an almost recovered Colin Norris, enjoying a sixteen point lead over nearest rivals Louth Bikes. Nottingham’s Pit Stop Racing are third only a bit ahead of Tango and Crash, Ducks Cross and Spark Endurance.

Junior Endurance - 3 Hours

With a mouth watering prospect of a brand new venue for the Hottrax Juniors to perform on there was no form guide to go by as Insignia (Rob Loveday/Einar Torlen), who had been showing so much promise of late, were fastest in qualifying on Saturday morning. Insignia were a slender 0.2s quicker than Sherwood Suzuki (Carl Dodwell/Sean Everett), who also managed to dip below 1m 59s ahead of D n A (Dan Jennings/Adam Parsons), M and M Racing (Lewis Mason/Robbie Moore) and the returning Billericay Coachworks (Tim Gorringe/Kevin Maxted) ahead of BLDS (Bill Lilly/George Harvey), Banzai (Rupert Thompson/Ben Jenkins), AV-IT (Andy Carpenter/Marcus Langford) and TM17 (Gary Buck/Ash Rothwell). In a really open race it was Insignia who capitalised and started work on stretching out a lead on Banzai, Sherwood, Billericay and AV-IT with TM17 in sixth. D n A fell at Cascades, remounted and continued on lap 1 whilst Insignia continued to dominate for much of the first hour until the second round of pit stops which saw Billericay take over the lead from AV-IT, Sherwood, Old & Bold (Paul Burbage/Richard Lloyd), M & M, BLDS, TM17 a lap down and only a smidgen ahead of former front men Insignia.

Billericay continued to lead on the road at the half way stage sharing the 47th lap alongside AV-IT who have enjoyed being at the sharp end for the first half of this season and they were on a charge as were Insignia and Sherwood. Top 600 outfit at this stage was M & M a whole lap up on BLDS, Louth Bikes Junior B (Perry Cooper/Charlie Wragg) and the brace of Ducatis running under the L A Stone banner (Tony Hathaway/Tim Howard).

Insignia collared the lead back and began to get away from the lads from Essex, top 600 plot M & M were in prestigious third on the road ahead of the AV-IT one litre machines and Old & Bold were in fifth place and climbing ahead of BLDS with TM17, using the same 750 Suzuki that completed the earlier National race in the hands of Andy McKnight.

In the third hour there were big dramas for the hard working M & Ms as shortly after a scheduled pit stop the green Kawasaki just stopped out on circuit which meant a big delay before the team could continue making progress, having been as high as third on the road and the top 600 team. It was also in the closing stages that ‘hoping to maximum points’ TM17 dropped from a handy sixth place to 23rd after an unwanted excursion by Ash Rothwell who was thankfully reported OK by the medics at the end of the race. As the end of the 180 minutes of racing approached Insignia lead Billericay by just under a minute when Insignia dived for the Pitlane for a splash n dash coming out just in front of the second place bike and a gap discernable only with a stopwatch. In the closing few laps the gap grew steadily from half a second, 3 seconds, 7 seconds and at the drop of the chequer the gap was a mere 11 seconds.

Insignia nailed the win they deserved, from a top performing Billericay Coachworks team, Old and Bold’s fast riding and smart pit work rewarded them with a personal best of third place ahead of the consistently strong pairing of AV-IT Racing all finishing on the same lap. The leading 600 crew BLDS Couriers was fifth on the road a lap down on the litre machines giving Bill Lilly + his enthusiastic team that elusive but much deserved win. Three more big bike teams appeared on the score sheet – Pirate Racing (Andrew Mann/Paul Whiteman) having a good day at the races in front Racing Snakes (Ian Charles/David Etherington), Banzai, second 600 team D n A, Ridgeback (Mark Clark/David Stolliday), Louth Bikes Junior B team, Apex Racing (Adam Woby/Nick Matthews, 121 Ride (John Coleman/Dave Toombes) and the first of the boy’s in blue at JR Racing (Mark Roxbrough/John Burr) who were joined at Oulton by JR Racing Juniors (Aaron Harte/Chris Jennings) who finished in 24th spot after mowing over a team mechanic in the process in their keenness to exit the pit lane. Finishing in 25th was Redmond Insignia Racing (Drew Tommons/Jamie Loveday) - young Jamie being son of race winner Rob, a chip off the old block no doubt!

It was a huge grid and there were 29 finishes out of the 33 starters, the racing was fast and furious – in the championship tables which will remain intact until the end of August; AV-IT are only a couple of points ahead of Insignia who are ten points ahead of a cluster of very competent teams including Ridgeback, TM17, Banzai and Old & Bold. In the 600s, BLDS Couriers, D n A and JR Racing are all covered by 8 points in front of L A Stone and MC Racing, all to play for with three more rounds to go.