Overview

For the third year running we used the two circuits – the 1.55 mile Coastal on the Saturday and the 2.10 mile International on the Sunday, and once again it was well received, so this format for one of our mid-summer meetings seems to be here to stay. Apart from a heavy rain shower before practice on Sunday, we were blessed with warm, sunny weather throughout the weekend, which of course improved the mood and lightened the load considerably. It was also good to see that on both days we had a minimum number of incidents, but two big ones on Sunday each involving three riders did take their toll on our timetable. The coming together of Christian Brew, Seamus McDevitt and Josh Williams at the start of the F600 warm-up lap early on Sunday afternoon was a big and scary one, and kept our three doctors, three ambulances, and all of our first-aid personnel occupied for 48 minutes, hence the need to reduce the race-lengths thereafter. The good news is that all three riders got away with some severe bruising and cuts – lucky boys, and all apparently caused by a rev-limiter issue! The other three-rider incident came in the Lightweight Open & Senior Open B on Sunday, when Harriet Drury, Kaine Sheriff and Jake Major tripped over each other at the Banking; this brought out the red flags, and with the curfew fast approaching, sadly there could be no re-start. Our only other casualty across the weekend was David Jones (no, the other one, the one from Clitheroe), whose fall at Peel resulted in a broken collar bone. Here’s hoping he, and indeed everyone else, will be back with us in October. On Saturday all races went their scheduled 8 laps, but what should have been a bit of a doddle became a bit of a scramble. We did not know whether to laugh or cry, when a very popular former W100 champion and current committee member lost an oil bung from his TZ, spreading a fair bit of oil all the way from the Banking to Peel. 45 minutes were lost cleaning up the mess, but we still love him!

Paul Bland Motorsport Formula 600

This class, our most popular, had a totally different look to it this weekend. Jamie Devine, the championship leader, was missing, and this enabled Chris Eden, with four 6th places, to close within 4 points of him; Simon Napier, who might have been expected to move up had a nightmare of a weekend, with three minor falls, one caused by a puncture, and just one 5th place. The star of the show, by many a mile, was British Supersport contender Sam Coventry, all the way from Portsmouth and paying his first visit to a W100 event, who had four straight wins, way clear of everyone else. Adrian Kershaw also had a good meeting with two 2nds and two 3rds, moving himself up from 15th to 4th in the championship, one behind Sam. Best of the rest were three other new names or nearly new names – Daniel Booth, Joe Ravenscroft and teenager Joe Thompson, the latter recovering well after a spectacular get-off coming down the Corkscrew in race 1. The three final championship races in October will be interesting to say the least.

Powerbikes and Golden Era Superbikes

Johnny Blackshaw, having a break from the National Superstock 1000 series, returned to W100 action for the first time since March, and carried on where he left off then, remaining unbeaten in the four races. Matt Jones with three 2nd’s and a 3rd consolidated his championship lead, and will need only a handful of points in October to clinch the championship, taking over the mantle from his big brother David. Alistair Kirk, a regular visitor from Ireland, and Joe Ravenscroft, were the best of the rest. As regards the G/E Superbikes it was good to see Sean Neary back racing with us, this time aboard Neil Percival’s GSX-R 750; his four wins were impressive enough but finishing ahead of most of the modern Powerbikes put the icing on the cake. Jon Wright consolidated his lead at the head of the championship and is odds-on to come out on top at the end of the season.

650 Twins & Golden Era Supersport

Twins championship leader Barry Furber has been awesomely impressive this year and won all four races, with his main rival Chris Ganderton getting three 2nd’s and a 3rd. No-one is going to catch these two, but it is worth recording that Kevin Baker, another of our very welcome Irish visitors, was the one to beat Chris on one occasion and in addition had two 3rds and a 4th. In G/E Supersport Jon Wright and Martyn Bloomfield were separated by just 3 points at the top of the championship at the start of the meeting, having dominated the June meeting. This time though it was Andy Lee who was the star of the show with two wins and two 2nd’s, beaten twice by Jon, who lengthened his lead over Martyn to 11 points, with all to play for in Ocober. span>

100-500cc Allcomers

A simple formula - what you see is what you get! It is the proddie 400s, which are tending to dominate this year, headed by John Price, Adrian Kershaw, and young Eoin Collins, another Irish up-and-comer. Into the mix this time though came 14-years old W100 newcomer Josh Hodge, all the way from Biggar in Scotland, and trying to regain confidence after a somewhat quiet year so far in the British Motostar Championship aboard his KTM; the visit certainly did him no harm with two wins and two 2nds. John Price and Adrian Kershaw took the other wins, leaving John as the clear favourite to clinch the championship at the final round.

Pre-Injection)

The P-I 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. With four wins at the June meeting, Chris Ganderton on his R1 had established a 33-point lead in this championship; four convincing wins again at this meeting has effectively clinched it for him. Martyn Bloomfield, with a series of 4th, 5th and 6th finishes at this meeting, is in a relatively safe second place, but there is hardly anything to choose between Andy Lee, John Jones and Meirion Thomas in their battle for third. The fact that two other new riders Rob Temple and the orange-jacketed Josh Fox were also in the mix and had a 3rd and a 2nd respectively shows how competitive this class is, particularly amongst the older R6s and the steel-framed Hondas.

Forgotten Era and Early Stocks

Classic entries for this meeting were again hugely disappointing - first there were three, then there were two, then there was one, then there was none, and all this by early Saturday afternoon! Fortunately there were a few more F/E entries and once again it was John Price and Eoin Collins, who led the way; John won the two races on Saturday comfortably from Eoin, but there was drama in the first race on Sunday, when John with a comfortable lead slowed dramatically on the last lap and eventually stopped, giving Eoin a welcome win. It was back to the normal order in the final race on Sunday, but the result was much closer; they were separated by only 1 sec at the end. Another rider having his first meeting with us also stood out – Will Bryant had a 2nd and three 3rd’s, well done Will! The Earlystocks Racing Club guested with us again aboard their pre-1990 twin-shock air-cooled production bikes, and the nine riders were very welcome additions to our F/E grid. Alex Gilfillan on his Katana 1170 won Saturday’s races, whilst Sean Gauchwin and his 750 GSX-R were top-dogs on Sunday. They were a delight to deal with and we look forward to welcoming them again in future. .

Sidecars

Where have they gone?

W100 Open Races

Barry Furber, the Twins championship leader, also won the first three Lightweight Open races leading up to this meeting, and true-to-form he won both races this weekend. The two races were very different though. In Saturday’s 8-lap race Barry had to contend throughout with young teenager Josh Hodge on his Motostar KTM and the gap at the chequered flag was 0.3 secs only, with Josh setting the fastest lap at an impressive 1 min 13.121 secs, 76.31 mph. Scott Wilson, Kevin Baker and Sam Cross, all on Twins, were the best of the rest. Sunday’s race sadly was much shorter with the red flags coming out when the leaders were on their third lap; Barry though was again in front and with Josh a non-starter, he was 12 seconds clear of Kevin and Sam. The Senior Open race was over-subscribed so we took the opportunity to run a Senior Open ‘B’ race concurrently with the Lightweights. James Evans narrowly won both races, from Leon Worsley on Saturday and from Rich Baker in the shortened race on Sunday. Spare a thought for the disabled rider Michael Reynolds, who for safety reasons has to start all of his races from the rear of the grid; he had moved up to 4th place when the red flags came out and could surely have finished higher had the race run to its full duration. 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, and this was certainly the case in the 8-lap race on Saturday. Matt Jones led from the off, but slid off at the Corkscrew on lap 2, leaving the way clear for Johnny Blackshaw to take victory on his big Kawasaki, nearly 5 secs clear of Sam Coventry on his middle-weight version. Championship leader Simon Napier had his best ride of the weekend finishing 3rd, 0.3 secs ahead of Daniel Booth. Sunday’s race was somewhat different though, although Johnny was still in no mood to be beaten. This time Matt kept it upright and finished 2nd, albeit over 3 secs behind Johnny, whilst Joe Thompson recovered from his bike-damage issues of Saturday to claim 3rd place ahead of Chris Eden and Graham Hornby.

Fastest lap of the Coastal Circuit – Johnny Blackshaw - 1 min 08.156 secs – 81.87 mph Fastest lap of the International Circuit – Johnny Blackshaw - 1 min 28.215 secs – 85.69 mph Fastest 8-lap race average of Saturday – Johnny Blackshaw - 80.41 mph Fastest 5-lap race average of Sunday – Johnny Blackshaw – 84.40 mph Men of the Meeting – Johnny Blackshaw, Sam Coventry, Barry Furber, Chris Ganderton & Sean Neary (all unbeaten in their classes) Spirit of Anglesey Awards - to those in the paddock fraternity who took part in the fund-raising Alzheimers’ Memory Walk on Saturday evening, and especially to marshal Mark Bailey who organised it. Save of the Meeting – the quick-wittedness of the un-named rider making sure the next race didn’t start, after he suffered a major loss of oil on his slow-down lap Quote of the Meeting – by the mother of that same rider, referring to the oil leak: “Well what do you expect, he’s a plumber” Put-down of the Meeting – by the chief timekeeper, when confronted by a rider brandishing a race result sheet and vehemently insisting it was wrong: “No, you have just finished race 22, that sheet is for race 16”.