Brands Hatch- Saturday 12th/Sunday 13th April 2008- Race Report

“The perfect racing weekend for Dix and Beere”

As with many meetings in this early 2008 season, the weather played a major part in proceedings at Brands Hatch for the NG Road Racing meeting…. Although to be fair rain with intermittent and we had plenty of dry sunny spells… which was probably a better option than the snow the week previous that called a halt to the BSB meeting.

The rain caused some major problems for some big names, as James Cox, Charlie Bishop, Martin Sharpe, Dan Kift, Daniel Frear, Josh Day and Chay Newton, all proven race and championship winners fell foul. With Bishop and Day in particular being skittled by others errant machines.

Others like Joe Symonds, Nigel Wright, Mark Compton, Rich Bearcroft and Michael Blank suffered tyre choice problems. The worst of which was Nigel Wright as the defending Mini Twin champion was caught out in the worst of conditions with a full set of slicks on…. The same happened to Mark Compton on his Sound of Thunder Aprilia Mille although Mark in typical Compton style said he actually had a lot of fun slipping and sliding the big v-twin around !!……(mind you he did take a big bang on the head at Pembrey last year !!)

If anyone mastered the wet then dry/sunny mixed conditions it was Matt Dix and Rob Beere on their distinctive orange and black No13 F2 600 CBR Baker Sidecar outfit. The East Sussex based pairing with backing from ID & C Bands Ltd had an unblemished weekend. They set the fastest lap in practice 1.5 seconds quicker than anyone else…. Took both qualifying race wins and both final wins….. and during one of the good dry spells set a new NG F2 Sidecar lap record. They lead every lap of every race and took maximum points in both the CSC Open Sidecar and Century 2000 F2 Sidecar classes. Their biggest win saw them over 20 seconds clear of their nearest rivals…. And to cap it all went home with handsome points leads in both series. These performances gained them the Rider of the Meeting Award to add to everything else that they had achieved over the weekend. Neither the Open class LCR Yamaha of Rod Robinson/Shellie Smithies or the 1000 Suzuki of Ian Drowne/Garry Andrews had an answer to the flying Dix/Beere pairing, and the next F2 was generally over 30 seconds adrift, as the orange no13 sailed (literally in some of the wet races !) to emphatic victories.

The Phoenix Open saw the first final go James Cox’s way on his Team Phyco R1, while Joe Syomonds troubled Open campaign continued, after looking good for second, when his rear tyre started to chunk on the last couple of laps. That allowed Michael Blank on his Suzuki to close in the 4 second gap and pass Symonds on his faltering R1. Top British runner Pete Jennings joined the fray on Sunday and took the win with Symonds this time staying ahead of his season long rivals Mark Compton and Lee Keeble as it was Blank’s turn to falter in the wet conditions.

After a 12-month lay-off Jodie Duffill on the Smokey Joe ZXR returned to the NG grids and showed he has lost none of his aggression or entertainment value with two good wins over Chris Beverley and Patrick Mills. Les Vallender once more showed he is enjoying the return to the A and R Racing F400 class with two strong third placings on the True View Ariel RVF.

Racing brothers Daniel and Graham Frear hoped to make it a family affair in Saturdays George White 600 Final but after a race long three way battle with Joshua Day. The young Cirencester rider split the two brothers, although to be fair it could have gone any one of three ways, with each of them on lap record pace in the dry conditions. Sundays race was very wet however and saw Frear D loose the front end of his France and Li Asia R6 at Graham Hill, collecting Day and his Yamaha in the process. Frear G then took to the grass and rejoined on his CBR RR dead last, eventually battling back into 9th to pick up a few valuable points. David Thomson on his Alive IT ZX6R kept his head through all the mayhem to take the win by some 6 seconds from Christian Hazell and Alex Bailey.

James Cox added the L and J Mechanical Services Powerbike win to his tally on Saturday taking the flag 6 seconds clear of Michael Blank and Joe Symonds, with the ever improving Lee Keeble in 4th on his R1. Cox set the fastest lap of the weekend at 49.3 and looked good. Sunday however saw Symonds take an early lead with Charlie Bishop and James Cox working hard to chase down 2 time Powerbike champ. Cox ran a little wide on the exit to paddock, and lost the bike, which then collected the unaware Bishop causing a lengthy stoppage. Symonds had to finally give second best to Pete Jennings at the restart but with Blank and Keeble behind him he is still looking at the bigger championship picture. Cox and Bishop now face an uphill struggle to get back on the pace for the Henderson National R1 Cup series.

The first Team Spidey Sound of Thunder race was thrown wide open after James Parry and Martin Sharpe, running P1 and P2 went down and out at Clark Curve. Both on Triumph 675’s, Parry the race leader had his front wheel wash out, although he said that he was not pushing hard as it was the first lap. Sharp on his MS Midland 675 had nowhere to go and followed Parry into the gravel. That left Mark Compton on his Anusol Aprilia (!) Mille the chance to grab top points, which he did. Joey Redding had a great run through the field on his elderly VTR SP1 to grab second ahead of Greg Gibson (1098) and Andy Peck (Mille). Parry bounced back for Sundays race but Shape did not venture back out on track. Parry had very hard comeback ride up against the storming newcomer Duncan Knox, on yet another Triumph. Knox from Hereford revelled in the conditions and rode on the limit to just head home the vastly more experienced Parry. Andy Peck grabbed more good championship points for third with Saturday’s winner Compton in close attendance.

Darryl Alexander dominated proceedings on his Chrysler Jeep Specialist SV650 in the Big C Mini Twins with wins all weekend, qualifier and Final. However despite a catalogue of problems steady riding saw ’07 series winner Nigel Wright on his N and O Racing 800SS Ducati go away from the weekend with the ’08 championship lead. Nigel’s issues so far have included, miss matched pads and disks… wrong tyres…. and a jump start penalty……but as he say’s “he’s still leading the title chase”.

Dan Kift should have had two wins in the DTR Metzeler Streetstocks 1300 but after a convincing win on Saturday fell at Graham Hill Bend on Sunday whilst holding a 6 second advantage over his nearest rivals on his Protint CBR 1000. That left the way open for Hilary Phillips to take his first class win on his new Lily & Doreen GSXR. The 700 class saw Nicholas Andrews and Andy Hayes share the wins with Marlon Butchers showing well on both days with a pair of podiums. In the Race Trader 400 Streetstocks Richard Troth didn’t seem at all troubled by the tricky conditions on his 400 Honda to take a clean sweep of wins.

Luke Harvey had trouble during the qualifiers for the Refined Recruitment 125GP class, but somehow managed to collect himself for the finals with a win on Saturday and third on Sunday. Whilst Corey Lewis grabbed solid points with two top threes, you could see that the 13 yearold wanted to grab the best possible set of points without making a mistake in the awful weather that the 125’s had to contend with. That left Newcomer Matt Hillier free to show his exuberant style to good effect, and although looking a little ragged on occasions racked up second place on Saturday, and a storming win on Sunday which was enough to have him awarded the Newcomer of the Meeting trophy. The Steve Lynham F125’s saw Scott Mead and Sam Coventry share the wins on 125 Aprilias but it was Rowan Miler from Waterlooville on his 80cc Metrakit that will be smiling largest as he grabbed the championship lead come the end of the weekend.

Mark Linton and Jodie Duffill battled out both Dara Brady 400 finals. Linton on his TZ250 and Duffill on the ZXR400. Linton got the better of it in both races but Duffill gave us some great entertainment, as he had to ride the wheels of the lesser-powered F400 bike.

To round off the weekend we had the Newcomers events. The Gardy Vardy Tuning Newcomers Open saw Duncan Knox rack up his second win of the weekend on the 675 Triumph to show that he enjoys a wet track. Whilst in the smaller division, the Louigi Moto 400 it was Ben Marsden that crossed the line first for the win albeit by just half a wheel from Sam Coventry. Sam, who regularly riders the F125 but was having an outing on a full blown RS125 GP Honda in Purbrook Garage colours. Coventry came from a long way back to challenge Marsden in the final run to the flag, but Mardsen’s CBR 400 just had the edge. This certainly shows that young Coventry is ready for the step up to the GP bike.

We now look forward to Snetterton on 10th and 11th May.

Download this report in pdf format.

ACU National 250GP Championship & NG Cup Race Report

Brands Hatch saw the first rounds of the ACU 250 GP National Championship and NG Cup, and if this weekend is a taste of things to come, we are in for a year of top two-stroke excitement.

Jason Davies on his TW2 Motorsport TZ250 set the pace in qualifying and looked to be odds on for a win, setting a pole position time 0.6 second better than his nearest rivals. When the lights changed though for the first race Davies did not make the best of starts settling back into 5th place as they rounded Druids for the first time. However in his eagerness to make up time, the experienced Jason admitted he pushed “too hard too soon on cold tyres” and the bike slid out from underneath him at the bottom of Graham Hill Bend. Two laps later the heavens opened and the weekends troublesome weather caused the race to be halted. On the restart Ben Johnson (Double M RS) Chay Newton (Refined Recruitment TZ) and Darrell Higgins (DTR Racing TZ) along with Bruce Dunn and Rich Grindling made a small break early on. It was a break that was to prove decisive and eventually, Johnson, Newton and Dunn forged ahead. Dunn found the pace just a little to hot in the latter stages, and got a rough run through the backmarkers loosing the vital tow, whilst Johnson and Newton had better luck. The hard aggressive riding Newton looked eager to make a late charge in the last couple of laps, but the in-control Johnson had all the moves covered and took the win from Newton by just over 1.5 seconds and Dunn just a further 5 seconds adrift. All this with pre-race favourite Jason Davies stranded trackside as a spectator.

Sunday’s race gave us even more drama as after 5 laps the rains come down once more, again bringing out the red flags. Tyres were changed are the call was given to return to the grid. But an unfortunate Newton hit some standing water on the return to pit lane and the Yamaha hit the deck…..snapping off a footpeg. As the rest of the field formed up to set off on the warm up, Newton and the team worked frantically. Rules are rules and Newton was forced to start from the back of the grid, complete with new peg.
When the lights changed pole sitter Jason Davies was in no mood to make any more mistakes and set off to put the rest under pressure. Johnson, Rich Grindling, Mark Linton and Darrell Higgins set about the chase, and just as Higgins was looking to be the man to set about chasing down Davies the experienced Team DTR TZ250 rider lost the front at Paddock Hill.  Sliding a long way in the wet conditions Higgins thumped into the barriers luckily escaping serious injury. Johnson and Linton had no response to Davies’ pace this time and raced it out to the flag for runner up spot, with the 20 points eventually going the way of Chesterfield’s Johnson giving him a healthy 20 points series lead after the first two races of the year. But with Davies some 8 seconds ahead, the pre season tip must be confident once more.

And what of the luckless young Chay Newton, well from the back row he fought through to 9th place before dropping the Yamaha at Graham Hill Bend ending what was looking like a very possible to 5 finish.

Paul Lumb, on his Ken White Signs/AK 2-stroke TZ took both NG Cup wins from Mike Wilson on Saturday and Paul McCullagh on Sunday. Lumb was happy that he was able to mix it with many of the National runners especially in the wet conditions.

As an added bonus for the 250GP competitors Neal Fraser of Fraser’s of Gloucester has stepped up to the mark with some very welcome round on round race day cash for the top three in both National and Cup series.

Download this report in pdf format.

 

Russ Gardner
(Press Officer – Commentator – Bike Sport News Contributor)

Tel : 01242 679939  -  Mobile : 07799 047 996  -  Mail : russell.gardner@tiscali.co.uk