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The 13th and 14th rounds of the championship were held at the Preston Club's Anglesey meeting and attracted an entry of 22. As usual it was quite windy when we arrived on the Friday afternoon and as more people rolled up the wind seemed to increase with each new arrival. On Saturday morning it was still windy, no still very windy, and as a result a few hadn't had too much sleep, being kept awake by the sound of various awnings being torn to pieces. It was however reasonably dry. The first race was 6 on the programme and by the time it got underway we were already a few down for a variety of reasons. Adrian Sanders did attempt to go out but pulled off after the sighting lap as his RD400 just wasn't right despite attempts to solve the problem that had shown in practice. In the race it was the two 1300 class machines that led the way with Steve Cave just getting the better of Clive Wadey by 0.4 second to close the gap slightly in the 1300 championship. These were well clear of the next machine home, the 750 class machine of Pete Boyles. I can't actually remember if he went out on the XJ550 or the GSX750. The next home was Rob Eley who was once again out on his X7 who just managed to get the better of Richard Insall on his RD250. Andy Charlesworth was the next to finish and he was ahead of Cass who was taking it a little bit careful. She had only had the stitches out of an operation on her ankle on Wednesday and had been told to keep off the ankle and take it easy for six weeks. If you don't push it too hard and as you're putting no actual weight on your ankle on the bike she decided that if you really tried you could convince yourself you were complying with instructions. Her idea was to have a nice incident free run and keep out of trouble but this nearly went wrong when Barry Swailes came off at Radar on the first lap. All I can say is it was a good job I had put different i.e. better brakes on the RD. Later on she had another close call when Mark Taylor just managed to run in the back of her under straight line braking on the approach to the hairpin when he found out Cass' RD stopped better than his GT380. According to Mark he knew he wasn't slowing down enough but for some reason just couldn't avoid Cass' back wheel even though everything happened in slow motion. Perhaps it wasn't any fault of his, the last time his GGT380 was raced with us it did have something of a reputation of running into people. Behind Mark was Rob Patterson who was in turn followed by Terry Davies and Pete Mabberly. This was Pete's last outing on his GS1000 it having already been sold to Paul Cockings who raced the 550 Katana with us at the last Mallory meeting. It's a big secret regarding what he's replaced it with or he thought it was until everyone seemed to know within a couple of days. I suppose I should really keep it a secret from those who don't already know so I'd better not tell you it's Dave Gibbs' GSX1100. Jayne Spooner was next to finish she being ahead of Darren Wood who was in turn clear of Alan Butler. During the race there had been slight signs of rain, which had in fact been forecast for later in the day but what came just after the first race was unusual even for Anglesey. To say it rained didn't do it justice as within a few minutes of it starting the track started to flood. They managed to get race 7 in but then had to call a halt. It soon became apparent that it would be more than a halt as the track had flooded. I heard some in the paddock muttering that it couldn't be that bad but I didn't hear anyone complaining after they had been to School corner to have a look. I don't think anyone could argue that 30 to 40 feet of standing water up to 2 feet deep meant anything other than cancellation of the rest of the day's events. The end result of this was that double points were awarded for the result of the first race. On Sunday the weather was much the same i.e. wet and windy but it soon changed rather quickly just as the first Earlystocks event got underway. They had just about completed half a lap when conditions just went downhill quicker than I could believe possible. Within no more than 10 seconds it went from rain to more like standing in front of a high-pressure fire hose and the red flags came out after one lap. A few and a mean a few, thought it should have carried on. I have to say that I agreed with the decision to stop it as did I feel most others. One who was definitely pleased it was stopped was Graeme Acott who managed to come off on the warm up lap. The wait for conditions to ease allowed him to make the restart. When it did get underway, Steve Cave soon made the break and was chased by Rob Eley who this time was out on his GSX1100. He should have started on the front row of the grid but a bit of a problem with those on the assembly area gate resulted in him starting towards the rear of the grid in a 250 grid position. He couldn't quite pull back the gap. In third was Adrian Sanders who had changed engines, he was followed home by Richard Digby who somehow was credited with a fastest lap of 1.00.8. This was 2.8 sec faster than anyone else and 8.2 sec quicker than John Hardwick who finished only 1.6 seconds behind him in the race on his X7. If the times are right, and I do have some doubts, Mr Digby (Dick Dastardly) is even more erratic than even we thought. Clive Wadey was next to finish, he not finding the conditions to his liking. He was followed by Rob Patterson, who was in turn ahead of Pete Boyles. Andy Charlesworth was close behind him He was in turn closely followed by Alan Butler Barry Swailes was next to finish and he was in turn followed by Jayne Spooner and Darren Wood. John Turner was next to finish, he being ahead of Graeme Acott and Terry Davies who sounded like he was on a two and a half cylinder GPz750. A couple decided not to go out in the restart and I don't blame them. A couple of others also struck problems, one of them being Mark Taylor who came off at the hairpin. Mark was then joined by Graeme Acott, who on the slowing down lap found his front brake lever had gone missing. It's the first time I can recall anyone falling twice in the same event and still finishing. The conditions for the last race were just about the same and a few decided it wasn't worth going out as there was nothing to gain for them championship wise but a lot to lose. Rob Eley decided to go out on his X7 and to the surprise of some, made it into the lead within the first lap. As the race went on, Adrian Sanders managed to get into second and was closing on Rob and by the start of the last lap it looked as if it was going to be close. When they crossed the line to take the chequered flag it was Adrian who was just ahead. Adrian was however penalised with a ten second penalty for overtaking Rob on the last lap under yellow flags and he ended up third in the results behind Steve Cave. Richard Digby was next to finish. He was once again just ahead of John Hardwick. Clive Wadey followed them home and he was in turn ahead of John Turner who for some reason went much better in this latter race. Rob Patterson was just behind him and he was in turn clear of Pete Boyles. Barry Swailes was next to finish and he was ahead of Andy Charlesworth, Darren Wood and Jayne Spooner. Steve Bailey. |