To be published in whole or in part on the ACU (News) website

MANXMAN SIMPSON WINS THE ‘ANGLESEY GRAND’ 

The Wirral Hundred club’s final race meeting of the year on 8th & 9th October marked the 30th anniversary of the Club’s first meeting at Anglesey, and as well as the final races in the Club’s 2022 championship season, it incorporated its flagship ‘Anglesey Grand’ scheduled to be run over two 12-lap legs of the international circuit, with £2,000 of prize money on offer.

Anglesey Grand

The surprise packet in qualifying practice was Marcus Simpson (1000cc Suzuki) from the Isle of Man, a debutant in the Grand and an emerging talent in Irish racing, in particular. He qualified fastest, 0.2 secs ahead of Jamie Coward (1000cc Honda), best privater at the TT for the last two years, with Joey Taylor (1000cc BMW), representing Wales. in third. Coward was destined not to start, because his team needed to leave early to beat the weather in the Irish Sea, whilst another of the pre-race favourites, Dublin’s Michael Sweeney, was back in 7th place on the grid.

At the start of the 1st Leg, Simpson took the lead from Sweeney but the prospect of a close scrap was ruined when Sweeney had to retire on lap 6 with a technical issue, leaving Simpson to win by an impressive 6 secs. Adrian Kershaw, one of the circuit regulars, was back in 8th place at the end of lap 1, but worked his way through to 2nd place by the end of lap 10, but he was then overhauled by another Irishman, Emmet O’Grady on a very quick R6. Joey Taylor, Barry Dimelow and Joe Farragher claimed the next three places.

Simpson’s fastest lap in the 1st Leg brought him pole position for the 2nd Leg, with Sweeney and Kershaw alongside him, and this time it was the more experienced Sweeney who hit the front initially but was then headed by Simpson at the end of laps 6 and 7; Sweeney was back in front again at the end of lap 8, and the prospect of an exciting finale to the race was ruined by drops of rain and the inevitable red-flags. The top two were 10 seconds clear of the battle for 3rd place, where Taylor, O’Grady, Dimelow and Kershaw, in that order, were separated by just 1.4 seconds. Sweeney’s DNF in the 1st Leg put him out of contention in the aggregate result, so Marcus Simpson was a clear winner ahead of Emmet O’Grady and Adrian Kershaw; Barry Dimelow won the Award for the best 600 outside of the top three.

Championship races

Whilst the Anglesey Grand races were the main focus for the spectators, it was the other 27 races across the weekend that determined the finishing orders in the various club championships. Saturday provided good weather conditions for racing, dry, still but somewhat chilly, but on Sunday it was decidedly windy, but fortunately the threat of rain did not materialise until the back-end of the day. All credit to the riders, particularly on Sunday, for keeping the number of incidents to a minimum.

In the AS Racing Club Supersport series Barry Dimelow, the 2021 champion, went into the meeting with an almost unassailable lead from Barry Furber, and his two wins and a 2nd in the three races, clinched him the title again. Jamie Coward won the other race, whilst Emmet O’Grady, so impressive in the Grand races later, and Joe Farragher, a 17-year old from Warrington, both with 2nd places, also made their marks. This year the Club has begun to successfully develop a class for older 600cc machines – Club Supersport Pre-2011 – and the top three in the series - the Manxman, the Englishman & the Ulsterman, Joe Yeardsley, Josh Potts, and Glenn Walker - were 1-2-3 in each race. Keith Ferrari was the best of the rest.

In the Carl Roberts / Emjess Racing Powerbikes class, James Chawke, another Irishman, had developed a useful 16 points lead from Paul Sommerville and Liam Thornton; the chasing twosome had disappointing meetings and three solid rides by Chawke clinched him the championship. The races were won by Jamie Coward and Marcus Simpson (twice), whilst Joey Taylor made a solid return to W100 action with three top-four finishes.

The Pre-2012 Powerbikes series has been dominated by Mike Bampton and he had clinched the championship ahead of this final round. Robert Coppock with three wins and Geoff Lunn with two 2nd places were the most successful riders at this final round.

Ahead of this meeting the perennial champion Tim Bradley had built up a 15-point lead in the Golden Era Supersport class from Matthew Jones and two 2nd places by Bradley was enough to clinch the title, whilst Jones did enough to stay in 2nd place. The race wins went to riders making their first starts in this class this year – Manxman Paul Cassidy with three wins, and Tim Poole, the winner of the Anglesey Grand in the three years from 1999 to 2001.

In the 700cc Twins class the experienced Barry Furber topped off a dominating year with three wins and a 3rd, whilst Jamie Coward won the first race before he went home for an early bath. Others to feature strongly were two yet more Irishmen - Liam Chawke, whose one 2nd and two 3rd’s, gave him 2nd place in the championship, and Darragh Crean, who had two 2nd’s on his first visit to the circuit.

Prior to this meeting Mike Bampton was 18 points ahead of James Leatham, both on ZXR750’s, in the Pre-Injection championship, and Bampton with two wins and two 2nd’s extended his lead. Michael Sweeney, also Kawasaki-mounted, won the other two races, and Paul Cassidy with three 3rd places also made his mark. Ian Pattinson, who started the meeting in 6th place, had three 4th places and a heavy fall in the final race of the day – but by then he had gained enough points to clinch 3rd place in the championship.

The 100-500cc Allcomers championship has been dominated this year by the reigning champion Andy Jackson and the teenagers Ted Wilkinson and Oliver Morgan-Edwards, and sure enough they each did enough to retain their 1-2-3 positions in the standings. There is a special mention, however, for three W100 newcomers, who all scored top four positions at this meetings – Stephen Gorton, Connor Sellers and the 14-year old Greg Marshall.

In the Steve Dale M/Cycles Forgotten Era races for machines up to 500cc, Dan Hanby, the champion-elect was absent through injury but two wins each for Stephen Gorton and Tim Kermode was enough to elevate them to 2nd and 3rd respectively in the championship.

At the end of Saturday Anglesey Vans Senior and Junior Open races took place. The Senior race was won by Marcus Simpson with Adrian Kershaw 2nd and Barry Dimelow 3rd In the Junior race, Michael Sweeney took the win on his Kawasaki twin. Unfortunately Sunday’s final races of the day had to be cancelled, because of a combination of rain and oil, and this meant that Kershaw won the Senior championship by the 2 points he gained over Dimelow in Saturday’s race, whilst it was by then impossible to catch Andy Jackson in the Junior class.

Finally for the solos, there was a non-championship ‘Frolic Race’ on Sunday for those Formula 600 and Powerbikes riders not competing in the Anglesey Grand. Glenn Walker and Jamie Williams were separated by just 1.2 seconds after 9 laps, and picked up the two main trophies, some reward before embarking on their journeys back home across the choppy Irish Sea. Simon Critchlow was 3rd.

21 crews ensured that the sidecar races were particularly entertaining. Prior to this weekend, in the Chris Forster W100 Open Sidecar class, the pairing of Craig Hauxwell & Derek Taylor had a 45 points advantage over the British F2 championship contenders Steve & Matty Ramsden, and were therefore favourites to take the title. In the event all four races were hugely entertaining with the Ramsdens taking victory in three races by less than a second in each; the Hauxwell / Taylor duo duly took the other win. Former W100 champions Steve Markland & Owen Rigby on their F1 outfit had four solid finishes which promoted them to 3rd place in the final standings. It was good to see former British champions Alan Founds & Jake Lowther return to action after their big accident at Brands Hatch in April, and claim two 3rd’s and two 4th’s; they promise to be back in earnest next year. The W100 Sidecars were joined on track by the teams competing in the final round of the nationwide FSRA Wintec Pre-Injection Sidecar championship. Four wins out of four clinched the F1 championship for Mark Burns & Steven Winfrow, and it was pleasing to see that the series co-ordinator Dave Tibbles, with Raitch Greenwood alongside, did just enough to stay in 2nd place ahead of Gary Fairhurst & Billy Andrews. In the F2 category, three wins went to Kieran Clarke & Andrew Johnson but these were their first points of the season, and the other win and three 2nd’s went to Liam Saunders & Ben Stell; this overall performance clawed back 19 points on the championship leaders, but one 2nd and two 3rd’s was just enough to clinch the championship for Andrew Bingham & Steven Dalton, by just 5 points. A great final round.

W100 Club Champions 2022

100-500cc Allcomers - Andy Jackson

Steve Dale M/Cycles Forgotten Era - Dan Hanby

700cc Twins - Barry Furber

Golden Era Supersport - Tim Bradley

Pre-Injection - Mike Bampton

AS Racing Formula 600 - Barry Dimelow

Formula 600 Pre-2011 - Joe Yeardsley

Carl Roberts / Emjess Powerbikes - James Chawke

Powerbikes Pre-2012 - Mike Bampton

Chris Forster Open Sidecars - Craig Hauxwell & Derek Taylor

Anglesey Vans Senior Open - Adrian Kershaw

Anglesey Vans Junior Open - Andy Jackson

Other Wirral witterings

Fastest lap of the weekend – Jamie Coward: 1 min 28.524 secs, 85.40 mph (it was a pity he was unable to compete on Sunday)

Via the Irish Sea – We had 11 riders (plus a sidecar passenger) from Ireland and 7 from the Isle of Man successfully competing at this meeting; it would be good if we saw more of them next year!

Casualties – Crashes were few and far between, with Danny Taylor (hand fractures) and Ian Pattinson (hip and hand fractures) the most seriously injured; we wish them both a speedy recovery.

Crash of the weekend – A technical issue was the cause of the spectacular over-shoot that befell 14-year old Ben Phipps on his arrival at the Corkscrew; at that age, however, they bounce well on grass, resulting thankfully in no more than soft tissue injuries.

Non-racing highlight of the weekend (1) – that had to be the presentation to John & Ann Griffiths, retiring after marshalling with us since the Club first visited Anglesey 30 years ago. The wonderful tributes on our Facebook pages only added to the occasion.

Non-racing highlight of the weekend (2) – that had to be the Riders’ Forum held in the Technical Bay early on Saturday evening. It was an encouragingly constructive sharing of views on how the Club should proceed in 2023 – a reality check and food for thought for the riders and for the committee.

Thank-you’s – in these somewhat difficult cost-of-living times, it was a delight to see so many trackside marshals present and also, faced with unavoidable absences amongst our assembly area and pit-lane teams, to see others step in to the breach. Too many to mention individually, but you know who you are – well done and thank you.

Annual Dinner & Presentation of Awards - Just a reminder that the Dinner and the Presentation of our Championship Awards for both 2021 and 2022 will take place at St David’s Park Hotel, Ewloe, near Queensferry, on Saturday 4th February 2023. Invitations and details will be sent out before Christmas and we ask please for the full support of riders, their family and friends, and all marshals and officials.