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This meeting eventually had an entry of 20. A couple of these were late entries and as a result started further down the grid than they would normally. One regular who was missing was Nigel Lawrence who was heading south to the Misano round of the WSB, no doubt in his official capacity of supreme advisor on the technique of "what you need to do is". After which no one is known to have stayed awake, the remainder of the advice being one of the great unknowns. Two out for the first time this year were Mark Daniels and Pete Scott both on RD400s. Mark had survived the trauma of lending his RD 250 to Simon Briggs at Cadwell and was out for the first time on the modified RD 400 last raced by Kevin Ambrose and before that, Christian Ambrose, Richard Cheetham and way back in 1992 Glenn Graham. Pete, meanwhile, was out on the production RD400 last raced by Charlie Vowles. Pete last raced with us way back in 1997 on a RD400 that he subsequently sold to Peter Adarns. Strangely enough, Pete was at Mallory expressing an intention to get his or rather Pete's old RD back out. Also out with us for the first time was Dick Bradburn on a Z750 previously used by Dean Martin and before that owned by Glynn Williams. Dick got the bike from Steve Eley who had intended to race it, but never managed to get it fully sorted after a rebuild and before you ask Rob never laid a hand on it. The first race was 6 on the programme and when it got underway it was Glynn Williams and Clive Wadey who made the break and eventually Glynn came out best by a margin of a couple of seconds. Steve Cave eventually made his way up to third and he was followed home by Karl Scott and Cass. She was followed home by John Correia who managed to pull clear of the GSIOOO of Mostyn Bullock. Mostyn was in turn ahead of Tony Smith who in turn was ahead of Adrian Sanders and Richard Insall. There was then a bit of clear track back to the next group which was headed by Mark Daniels. Mark was quite happy with his RD 400 saying it was a totally different machine in all aspects to the RD250 he had run. Mark was ahead of Andy Charlesworth who was less than a second ahead of Paul Paynter. Paul in turn was only 0.11 sec ahead of Phil Underwood who had been leading out of the bus stop on the last lap only to miss a gear on the run to the line. Gordon Church was only two seconds further back, ahead of Pete Scott who had slight fuel starvation problems when the link pipe between the two sides of the tank split. Chris Spooner failed to finish after his X7 nipped up, while Dick Bradburn found out he still had more work to do on the carburation as it refused to run under load. Michael Hand's RD400 was running fine but he still managed to inflict some damage on it by losing the front end at the hairpin. The second race went much the same way, with the first four places being a repeat of the first race. This time, fifth place was taken by Tony Smith and he was followed by Mostyn Bullock. Mostyn was closely followed by Cass after a race long scrap that saw them swap position on average at least twice a lap. Behind Cass was Richard Insall and then Mark Daniels. Chris Spooner was next, having been able to do a salvage exercise on his X7. Paul Paynter followed him home after managing to get ahead of Andy Charlesworth. Gordon Church followed him home, ahead of Phil Underwood. Pete Scott was the next to finish, ahead of Dick Bradburn whose Z750 was running better, but still with a way to go. John Correia was the last finisher after suffering ignition problems. Michael Hand made it two non finishes, as his RD looked to have suffered from electrical problems. Adrian Saunders's RD engine suffered a seizure. Steve Bailey. |