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

Junior race start with National and Seniors	A rare outing for the BMW M3 Safety Car

National, Senior and Masters Endurance Race

There was some early dramas at the previous days track day - Grant Gaskin lost his engine and race day would see Gasi Racing (Grant & Helen Gaskin/Samantha Godfrey) share the two remaining 600s in this important title chasing round. Making a welcome return was Moores Racing (Tony Jimenez/Mike Eglington/Paul Smythe/R6), also back from their Pembrey smash the charismatic Ducati of Kapital Moto after Phill Clarke made the Italian twin look very second hand. Now recovered from her Round 1 smash at Mallory was Shelley Pike partnering Robert Knoyle under the Roundall Racing banner, the regular Roundalls are over in the Isle of Man for the Manx Grand Prix supporting Pete Gibson as are leading 600 crew Ducks Cross Racing where Grant Wagstaff makes his island debut.

Race day was marred by a crash resulting in the death of Richard Slater, part of the Sorrymate.com team. A one minutes silence was observed by everyone at the rider's briefing where the paddock agreed that two shorter races would run as a mark of respect for the popular competitor, racing for Richie.

Grid positions were set on the basis of an extremely short qualifying session, the race started at 12:42 and would run till 15:30. The grid read; TrackCRAFT (Mark Linscott/Mike Dickenson), East Coast (Phil Reed/Paul Hobson/Dominic Usher/R1), Sweatshop Racing (Hugh Brasher/Mick Godfrey/Rod Lynn/R1), Yorkshire Racing (Trevor Craig/John Hewitt/Shannon Etheridge) and First Form (Paul Robey/Jay Smith). Predictably Trackcraft and Sweatshop shot off like scalded cats, Yorkshire had a torrid time and were almost last of the grid in the company of newcomers Team Lotto (Phil White/Chris Frost) and Apex Racing (Adam Woby/Lee Morris/Nick Matthews). Within a few laps Yorkshire had tagged onto the back of the leading group. Early visitors to the pits was Gasi Racing when Helen's visor misbehaved necessitating a change of helmet which didn’t work either. With the team down to two bikes all was lost at the 40 minute mark when Sam's 600 was out at Riches - with only one bike left it would be impossible to secure much needed points in the Senior 600 class so it was a DNF for Gasi who were hoping to wrap the title up in Norfolk. A very similar could have affected Senior 1000 leaders Well Oiled after enduro man Steve Griffiths slipped on his own oil, ran the transponder back to Mike Naylor's R1 who's bike retired moments later - riders continued on Hazel's Suzuki and they had to cover a minimum distance to secure the much needed points in their bid.

After an hour Trackcraft were 30 seconds ahead of Sweatshop with Freaks of Nature (Mark Whiston/Dave Stewardson) and Extreme Bykesportz (Ian Walker/Dave Wardle) a lap adrift. Only 30 minutes later and the order remained the same with the unfortunate East Coast having a spill which cost them time spent in the garage, the Kapital Moto Duke had run out of petrol on the Revett Straight the rider having to push down to the Esses to take on fuel and Well Oiled continued with the remaining purple bike. Dramas for third spot Freaks who incurred a penalty for 2 minutes for pitlane speeding caused by a sticking gearbox and that dropped them down the order and costing them places on the road and in the table. Their predicament was made worse by another visit to the pitlane shortly afterwards which saw Mark Whiston ride the last stint. With only 30 minutes to go there were dramas for championship leaders, and first Masters on the road, Trackcraft - after a faultless season Mike Dickenson suffered a broken chain on the back straight but managed to get the transponder onto Mark's bike which was suffering from fluid problems so he was nursing the bike to the finish. He was chasing Extreme for the win and the gap came down 18, 15, 13. 11. 10s on consecutive laps but time ran out and Extreme took their well deserved first win of the season. Second was good enough to ensure Trackcraft have won back to back titles for 2009 - a just reward for the meticulous machine and rider preparation and approach to the race season. TM72 (Andy McKnight/Eric Chitty) were delighted with their podium place finishing a mere 13 seconds in front of the well ridden Kawasaki's of First Form Racing. Leading Masters 600 crew Pit Stop Racing earned an admirable fifth in front of welcome newcomers Team Lotto. A & G (Mark Affleck/Adrian Allsop) were in a handy seventh overall which saw MotoGrande champ Allsopp filling in for a missing Gary Jones. 600 table leaders Profibre (Richards Gothard & Durber) added points to their cause in eighth only six seconds in front of new outfit D & A (Allister Haynes/Duncan Knox) on a brace of Hinckley's best with Freaks in an uncharacteristic tenth place.

Fastest lap - TrackCRAFT 1m 10.033s

National, Senior and Junior Endurance Race

Following a few minutes to separate the departing Masters machines and the still continuing to race National and Seniors, they were joined by a mass of Junior competitors and the grid reformed with Sweatshop at the front heading TM72 Juniors (Claire Bowyer/Sarah Jordan) , Moores, BLDS (Bill Lilly/Jonty Dixon), East Coast and Graphic UK (Dean Skipper/Basil Bannayi). Soon after the start AMR Endurance's (Bob Robson/Simon Taylor/Al Waring) KTM ran onto fumes down Rivetts costing them time to recover the situation and dropping them down the pecking order. With the race starting just before 4pm it was only 20 minutes later that separate incidents involving Signs Express Racing (Lloyd Magruder/Richard Howes) and Pirate Racing (Martin Norris/Dion Robinson) who have received useful sponsorship from tankslap.co.uk caused the pace car to make another appearance. On the hour mark the National/Seniors showed Sweatshop leading from the well driven Moores R6 by a not insignificant 10 laps with East Coast in third, AMR were fourth after recovering from lack of juice ahead of the first Senior 600 bike of Apex. In the Juniors non regulars TANC Racing (Chris Mason/Ash Joyce) were 24 seconds ahead of the motoring Banzai (Rupert Thompson/Ben Jenkins), BLDS who so nearly won the last round at Pembrey and TM72J all teams had completed 48 laps with all to play for. Around half way point during the race which would finish at 18:30, it was still Sweatshop leading the way from Moores who were being run out of the same garage, ahead of East Coast who were 16 laps down on the leaders after their on/off track dramas. AMR were back up to speed a couple of laps ahead of Costello Redmond Racing (Andy Dix/Neil Garnham/Pete Douglas) with Apex sixth on the road in front of Yorkshire and Well Oiled bring up the rear with the Suzuki 1000. The top eight Junior outfits were separated by only a couple of laps and these were now headed by BLDS after some fast laps by Jonty Dixon, TANC, Banzai and TM72J, NR Racing (Nathan Horsfield/Ryan Peters), Project 39 (Andy Rouse/Colin Norris), GT Racing (Keith Tribe/Brad Patras) and Spellfame (Andrew Main/Richard Lloyd) - all within a couple of laps. Leaders on the road Sweatshop incurred the marshall's wrath for passing under yellows and that cost the a 60 second penalty but that was less of a drama given their advantage of second place. With half an hour to run there were no place changes to report for the Nationals and Seniors, however it was different gravy in the Juniors. TANC held a lap over Banzai, BLDS and Project 39 who had picked up some speed, with a quarter of an hour to go TANC and BLDS were on the same lap and close, moments later the timing screens in the pit garages momentarily showed BLDS in the lead, however time dictated the need for a pit stop just before the end to necessitate a rider change and that meant TANC rode tactically and rapidly to win the Junior 1000 class only 50 seconds ahead of the chasing black and yellow machine of BLDS Couriers - two second places in two weeks are good for the points tally but where is that elusive win? Third and a lap down were Banzai who were a lap up on TM72 Juniors and Project 39, separated by only half a minute. GT rounded off the top six after a healthy afternoon finishing off ahead of Spellfame, NR Racing, Graphics and TAR.

Fastest lap - East Coast 1m 11.017s

Fastest lap - TM72 Juniors 1m 13.478s

Championship Preview

Our second visit to Snetterton in the season has certainly shaken the points up a bit going into the final round at Silverstone in five weeks time. Sweatshop had already bolted down the National ProSuperbike title with five wins from five starts and must be looking to win again at Silverstone, second, third and fourth are still up for grabs in this class and the busy National Supersport class is the property of Ducks Cross Racing who are also supporting Jon Railton in the national KTM RC8 series and endurance rider Grant Wagstaff who is making his Manx Grand Prix debut. It's still all to play for in the Senior classes - with Gasi's DNF at Snetterton, Apex can catch and pass them at Silverstone but Gasi can win as long as they keep going, in the one litre division Well Oiled Racing, Costello Redmond Racing and AMR Endurance are all within four points so it's winner takes all.

TrackCRAFT have wrapped up the Masters 1000 with four wins and a second, Extreme have also guaranteed runners up spot despite some recent hot riding from TM72. Freaks who had a 'mare' at Snetterton will work hard to improve their finishing positions in Northamptonshire, in the 600s either Profibre or Pit Stop can grab the 600 so it will be tight. Mathematically NR Racing can still loose the Junior 600 cup to Project 39 but it would take a push but it will still be a battle royal for the top three places, in the litre lot its all up in the air with Graphics, Spellfame and GT Racing all up for the title so expect fun and games in this crowded and busy class. The final round is at Silverstone on Saturday the 19th of September with practice and racing all day.