WIRRAL HUNDRED AT ANGLESEY 25th & 26th JUNE 2016

 

Overview

We road racers have a ridiculous habit of talking incessantly about the weather and oil spills, and weekends like the 25th & 26th June are the reasons why. The weather on Saturday was generally good but some light rain for an hour or so early afternoon kept us from becoming complacent. Sunday was a huge contrast - it was simply wet, not outrageously so but just wet! We could reasonably have coped with this, but on both days we had major oil / petrol spillages which not only resulted in early lunches on both days, but also a trimming of race lengths. That said, due to the concerted efforts of the officials and marshals and thankfully with only a limited number of fallers (with no serious injuries), we completed the programme with five minutes to spare, and most people seemed to leave wet and weary but with smiles on their faces. The racing incorporated rounds of the ACU/FSRA British F2 Sidecar Championships, the FSRA Post-Classic Championships and Classic Bike Parades, as well as a full complement (two races per day) of W100 club races. Particularly happy were the following riders, who won all four of their championship races – Lee Williams (Powerbikes), Jamie Devine (F600), Jon Wright (G/E Superbikes), Chris Ganderton (Pre-Injection), John Price (Forgotten Era) and Rob Fisher & Rick Long (FSRA Post-Classic Sidecars) The most poignant moment of the weekend was the Tribute Lap on Saturday afternoon in memory of sidecar drivers Ian Bell and Dwight Beare, who had been killed at the TT a few weeks earlier. The Lap was immaculately observed, slowly and in single-file by the sidecar teams and supported on the pit-lane by their teams, and trackside by the W100 officials and marshals. It really was a fitting tribute.

 

 

 

 

Paul Bland Motorsport Formula 600

This class, our most popular, suffered the most from delays and stoppages, but this did not seem to affect Jamie Devine, whose four wins took him from 4th to 1st in the championship. His traditional nearest challenger Simon Napier had a frustrating weekend, with a fall and a DNS on Saturday, and only a 9th (from the rear of the grid) and a 6th on Sunday. This allowed others to vie for the top places and Richard Charlton, Chris Eden, Adrian Kershaw, Mike Norbury, and Rob Varey all had finishes in the top three, emphasising what a competitive class this is. We are always on the look-out for new riders coming to the fore and at this meeting it was undoubtedly Richard Charlton all the way from Durham, who rode a Powerbike with us on a couple of occasions last year, who sprang to our attention with two 3rd’ s and two 4th’s, whilst Rob Varey had his best W100 meeting to date with three 2nd’s. It shows much for the keenness and consistency of the riders that there were very few drop-outs across the weekend; let’s hope that next time in July, they are rewarded with fewer delays and stoppages.

 

 

 

 

 

Powerbikes and Golden Era Superbikes

Running these two classes concurrently resulted in a grid of 25 riders, with Lee Williams and the brothers Jones, top in practice, and Ryan Stafford, new-to-the W100 G/E championship, qualifying impressively in 5th place overall. Lee Williams is an infrequent visitor to W100 race meetings, but he showed why he is currently leading the Thundersport GP1 series with four straight wins. Matt Jones had a 2nd and a 3rd on Saturday but missed Sunday because of a mate’s wedding. Brother David rode on both days and secured three 2nd’s and a 3rd, managing on one occasion to finish less than a second behind Lee, but overall Lee was pretty well untouchable, whether in the dry or the wet, and his 60 points now takes him within 2 points of Matt at the top of the championship standings. The others to feature particularly strongly were Dominic Herbertson on Saturday and Graham Hornby on Sunday. As regards the G/E Superbikes it was good to see the 1000cc V-twin Honda of Ryan Stafford challenge the 750 Suzuki 4’s, and the three 2nd places behind Jon Wright were commendable indeed. John Jones and Neil Percival had good Saturday results but John’s mechanical woes returned on Sunday and we suspect that Neil heard the rain and stayed in bed! Jon Wright is now the clear favourite to take this title.

 

 

 

650 Twins & Golden Era Supersport

After an impressive debut at the TT, Twins championship leader Barry Furber carried on where he had left off with wins in the first three races but blotted his copybook with a DNF in the fourth. This DNF enabled his main rival Chris Ganderton to gain a point on him across the weekend with three 2nd’s and a 3rd. Richard Charlton, impressive in the F600’s, was equally so on his Twin, and won the fourth race, whilst it was good to see Sam Cross back with W100 after his foray into Ireland, improve all weekend, securing a 3rd place in the final race. In G/E Supersport Jon Wright and Martyn Bloomfield were separated by just 3 points at the start of the meeting and with two wins and two 2nd’s each, that was also the position on Sunday evening. Steve Beale, Andy Lee, Barry O’Neill and Ray Stevenson were the best of the rest in a class which attracted 18 riders

 

 

 

 

 

100-500cc Allcomers

A simple formula - what you see is what you get! It is the proddie 400’s, which are tending to dominate this year, and on Saturday Adrian Kershaw did the winning, whilst championship leader John Price came to the fore on Sunday, extending his lead in the championship. Bryn Owen made his first W100 appearance of the season on his now elderly 125GP Honda, always kept Adrian and John in sight, but at the same time had to keep tabs on the chasers led by young Irishman Eoin Collins, Chris Lewis and Mark Disley.

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Injection, Forgotten Era and Classic

It was not our intention to run the Forgotten Era and Classic bikes with the Pre-Injection boys, but 10 days before the meeting we had just six F/E entries and two Classics (yes, only two, and one of those was a non-starter!), so rather than cancel them, the decision was made to run all three age-categories together; any concerns we had about the speed differentials soon disappeared when the two fastest F/E bikes qualified 3rd and 4th in a field of thirty and only a handful of riders got lapped. So all-in-all a successful compromise, which hopefully we will not have to repeat in future, but as always this will depend on the numbers of entries received for each class.. The PI rules could not be simpler, if the bike has two wheels, is over 500cc and has a carburettor, it is eligible. For riders of older 650 Twins and Golden Era Superbike and Supersport bikes it is also an opportunity to have two more races each day. Chris Ganderton on his R1 had established a small lead in this championship, but his four wins has propelled him well clear of the rest. The R6-mounted Martyn Bloomfield with a 2nd and three 3rd’s takes over second place, whilst there were also good rides from John Jones, Meirion Thomas and Eddie Venn. In the combined but depleted F/E & Classic races John Price was untouchable at the front, his main competition coming from Eoin Collins and Chris Lewis, whilst it was good to see W100 stalwart Dave Edwards pick up a 3rd place in the third race, only four-tenths from securing 2nd – he is old enough to know better! The worst and best Classic race news of the weekend was Paul Brandon melting a piston on his TZ in practice, enabling to taking up his now customary grid marshal’s post in time for racing.

 

 

 

 

 

W100 Open Sidecars and FSRA Post-Classics

Retirements have hit our sidecar fraternity hard this year; however, with some of the British F2 Championship contenders wanting additional track-time and with nine teams entered for the FSRA Post-Classic Championship s, we managed to get 18 outfits on to the combined grid. The worry is that it will be downhill for the rest of the season. The sadly-departed Dwight Beare & passenger Ben Binns led the W100 championship prior to this meeting; that lead is now inherited, somewhat surprisingly, by Manxmen Michael Jackson & Callum Crowe, who moved up from equal thirteenth with two wins, a 2nd and a 3rd. Just 3 points behind are Kevin & Steve Morgan with Charlie Morphet & Paul Halibuton in 3rd a further 6 points behind after securing a win in Race 1 and no other finishes. Ten-times TT winner Rob Fisher & sidekick Rick Long on their pre-injection Yamaha have brought a much-needed buzz to the FSRA Post-Classic championships, and their class was obvious with four impressive wins, ahead of Bruce & Ashley Moore and Alan Warden & Ross Jackman on each occasion.

 

 

 

Anglesey Open Races

The Lightweight Open has tended to be dominated by 650 Twins, and sure enough Barry Furber, the Twins championship leader, won both races convincingly, and moved to the head of this championship as well. Chris Ganderton and Kevin Baker followed him home in a very dry Race 1, whilst Mark Copeland and the other David Jones did likewise in a very wet Race 2. The intention is that at the end of each day the Senior Open should bring together the cream of the Powerbikes and the F600’s, but sadly the delays on Saturday meant that The Senior Open Race 1 was postponed to the first race after lunch on Sunday, so both races were held in wet conditions. The wet track tends to act as an equaliser at Anglesey, such that there is a tendency for the more manageable 600’s to be on a par with the Powerbikes, particularly on the Coastal Circuit. All credit then to Lee Williams who managed to secure another win but only by 1 second from the very wet blanket that covered Rob Varey, Jamie Devine and Simon Napier at the end of seven hectic laps. Race 2, the final race of the weekend, was inevitably restricted to those with mileage still left in their bodies, bikes and tyres, but once again there was the inevitable ding-dong at the front, this time involving Lee, Jamie and Simon. Lee made his only mistake of the weekend slipping off at the Banking, and it was Simon who clinched a well-deserved victory after his misfortunes in the F600 races, and this took him to the top of the table, at least for the time being.

 

The Anglesey Classic Parades

13 enthusiasts entered the Parades and they certainly seemed to enjoy the experience on Saturday, less so when the rains came on Sunday. The spread of machinery on show was impressive – from AJS 7R’s to Honda 4’s to a Velocette, a Kreidler, a DMW Hornet and more – they all stayed upright for thirty minutes and not a drop of oil was spilled, and the solos were not even put off by the sidecar in their midst.

 

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ACU British F2 Sidecar Championships

It is a pleasure each year to host a round of these Championships at Anglesey, when we get to see some of the best sidecar competitors in the UK, competing over the physically-demanding Coastal Circuit. The 2015 W100 champions Steve & Matty Ramsden have been really making their mark on the national scene this year, and after qualifying on pole, they took an early lead, kept calm and won by a massive 30 seconds, with Lewis Blackstock & Patrick Rosney (third in the W100 championship in 2015) claiming the overall runner-up spot and a win in the Cup category for the less experienced teams. Steve & Matty were no doubt ‘helped’ in Race 1 by the mechanical retirements of championship leaders Peter Founds & Jevan Walmsley and of fellow-contenders Lee Crawford & Patrick Farrance, but all was to change in Race 2. Because of the wet conditions the race was shortened from 20 to 16 laps, but again it was the Ramsdens who set the pace, pursued by Crawford / Farrance, with Founds /Walmsley losing ground in third place. There seemed to be an inevitability that Steve & Matty would be caught in the final stages by Lee & Patrick, but whether they could actually get past in the dismal conditions was the question. Then on lap 14 disaster struck the Ramsdens as they ran into the back of a tail-ender they were about to lap coming down the Corkscrew; both outfits were in dangerous positions, Lee & Patrick squeezed past to take the lead, and then the race was red-flagged. Peter & Jevan finished 2nd with Lewis & Patrick again on the podium in 3rd place.

 

 

 

Special awards

Fastest lap of the weekend – Lee Williams - 1min 08.937 secs – 80.94 mph

Fastest 7-lap race average of Saturday – Lee Williams - 79.76 mph

Man of the Meeting – Barry Furber with six wins out of six, just ahead of Lee Williams with five wins out of six

Officials’ & Marshals’ awards - to each one of them for making all the right decisions and for their support and toil in keeping things going on a challenging weekend of rain and oil.

Charitable donations - to those, including the Club, who provided donations to Wales Air Ambulance and Blood Bike Wales over the weekend.

Quote of the day – or was it a hint to her husband? “I know it’s been raining a while, but I think the caravan windows are open” (a radio message to race control).

Initiative Prize – to one of our Welsh officials for sourcing a Welsh flag and a pole, as an emergency measure when we were faced with temporary problems with the start-lights.

Booby Prize – to that same Welsh official, for stapling the Welsh flag to the pole upside-down!

Dave Francis – June 2016