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The 10th and 11th rounds of the championship were held at the Derby Phoenix Cadwell weekend meeting on 26th and 27th July. This attracted an entry of 26 although Colin Young and Michael Burrows were Sunday only entrants. However not all made it. One who didn't was Robbie Taylor, who was due to make his first outing of the year, but he sold his X7 on the Thursday night. On the Friday night the weather didn't look too promising but as someone pointed out we would have until well after dinner for the weather to improve. As we were race 11 and 19 on the programme with 20 and 21 being 'B' and 'C' finals for the 1300 open this looked about right. As it turned out, the weather was fine on Saturday morning so now the question was "would it last until after dinner"? Our first race eventually got underway at 2.44pm after several stoppages in the earlier races. It was Andy Jackson and Nigel Lawrence who made the initial running and got clear of the rest of the field. The win went to Andy and this was repeated in the second race that eventually started at 6.04pm. Mostyn Bullock took two 3rds in the 1300 class with Pete Mabberley taking two 4ths. In the 750 class Karl Scott took two wins on his first outing of the year while Simon Briggs took a 2nd and a 3rd. Mel Coote came off in the first race but made up for it with a 2nd in the second race. In the first race he came off on the exit of Charlies and although he walked away almost unscathed he gave a couple of the marshalls a bit of a turn. As Mel got to his feet it soon became clear that there was something seriously wrong with this lower right leg. From the way it was flopping around it just couldn't still be attached properly to the rest of him. Apparently even the race office picked up the rising panic in the marshall's voices as they tried to describe a rider who had ripped his lower leg off but just didn't seem bothered about it. At one stage the race office who were aware of Mel's false right lower leg, were in near hysterics. Alec Gilfillan took a 3rd and 5th in the 750 class on his first visit to Cadwell for many years, while Keith Chambers took two 49ths. Steve Cundall meanwhile took a 5th and 6th in class. Pete Jarnell had problems in the first race but took a 7th in class in the second race. Mark Wootton came off in the first race when the throttle stuck wide open at the end of the start finish straight. Fortunately he got away with it quite lightly but he didn't make the second race. In the 500 class, the finishing order in both races was Glenn Graham, who has now got his RD400 reliable, Cass and then Jayne Spooner. Something tells me I shouldn't have said anything about Glenn's RD being reliable but it can't have any effect can it? In the 500 production class the finishing order in both races was Paul Paynter, Howard Friend and Rob Patterson while Darren Wood only had to finish to take the 250 class which he managed to do twice. It rained again on the Saturday night but once again it was dry on the Sunday morning. The first race got underway at 2.10pm, so at least it was a bit earlier than Saturday. Once again it was Andy and Nigel who drew clear and Andy again took the outright win, something he repeated again in the second race. It must be said however that Nigel was cutting the gap down on each of the four races over the weekend in the last it was only 0.6 sec. If only we'd carried on till Monday and got a fifth race. Mostyn took two 3rds both overall and in class while Pete Mabberley took two 4ths in the 1300 class. Karl Scott again took two wins in the 750 class with Mel Coote taking two further 2nd places. Simon Briggs took 3rd in class in the first race but had to settle for a 4th in the second race while Keith Chambers got a 4th and 3rd in that order. Graeme Acott took a 5th in the first race but had to pull off the grid when one of the carbs on his GPZ 750 decided it was going to flood, well I suppose It shows catch trays do have a purpose. They stop overflowing fuel spilling on the floor by keeping it around those nice and warm exhausts so it evaporates away. Graeme wasn't intending to race with us at all this weekend but stepped in at very short notice on Barry Swailes machine when Barry was unable to race. Mark Wootton was back out following his fall the previous day and finished with two 6ths in class. Steve Cundall got a 7th in the first race and a 5th in the second. In the 500 class it was a straight repeat of the Saturday with the class order being Glenn Graham, Cass and Jayne Spooner in both races. In the 500 production class, Rob Thorpe and Paul Paynter both took a 1st and 2nd each with Rob taking the advantage in the first race. Rob had suffered a seizure on his GT500 on Saturday but had made a few running repairs that were clearly holding up well. Howard Friend took a 3rd in the first race followed by Rob Patterson, but in the second race the places were reversed. In the 250 class Darren Wood had more competition as Colin Young and Michael Burrows were both out only on the Sunday. Michael must have struck problems in Sunday practice as he didn't get out in either races. Colin however fared better taking two class wins. This was Colin's first visit to Cadwell since he broke his collar bone a couple of years ago on the only bit of track he shouldn't be using this time, the club circuit hairpin. Darren Wood took two 2nds in class. Steve Bailey. |