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The 13th round of the championship was held at the Derby Phoenix Mallory Park meeting on 7th September. The weather forecast for Sunday was pretty bad and with heavy showers on the Saturday, it looked as if we were going to get our second wet race day of the season. The entry eventually turned out to be 24 although a third of these were late, which resulted in us having 10 modern 750s on the front of our grid. If the entries had been in on time, we wouldn't have had a shared grid and there wouldn't have been any reserves. As it turned out, we had a couple cancel and everyone who turned up got out in both races. Our first race was 11 on the programme which eventually got underway at 2.47pm and as they pulled onto the actual grid there initially seemed to be a problem with the rear wheel of Steve Cave's Katana but it was a false alarm and he set off on the warm up lap. When the light went to green, away they went and it was soon clear that quite a few of the modern 750s on the front of the grid were nowhere quick enough to stay ahead of the 1300 class machines. I had hoped that they would have all got clear of our race to prevent them getting mixed up in it and although it wasn't what we wanted, it was impressive to see how quick the 1300s were against the likes of GSXR 750s etc. As the race progressed, Andy Jackson got the upper hand and finished ahead of Nigel Lawrence. Clive Wadey took third after just being able to get ahead of Rob Eley. Glenn Graham was next to finish on his RD400 and he was ahead of Mel Coote and Keith Chambers. Wayne Hickman on his XJ700 was next to finish, he being out with us for the first time. Wayne had been out on the XJ at the last Cadwell Phoenix meeting in the Phoenix race but looked to be going much better this time. Wayne apparently has done a bit of racing before on a Forgotten Era 125. Cass finished behind Wayne and she was ahead of Malcolm Price who was in turn ahead of Steve Cave. This was Steve's first outing since his accident during the practice day at Croft at the start of the season. In practice he had had problems with the brakes dragging and in the race it was clear that all was not well. After the race it was found that the rear tyre had something in the order of 5.5 PSI in it. Steve Cundall was the next to finish and he was ahead of Jayne Spooner. Jayne's finishing position surprised a few but not anyone who had watched the earlier Phoenix race when there were a number of how shall we say rather determined and aggressive overtaking manoeuvres at Edwinas. Pete Mabberley was next to finish and he was ahead of Andy Charlesworth who was out at this meeting on his CB750. Howard Friend on his Morini was next to finish, just getting the better of Rob Patterson to take the first place in the 500 production class. Paul Riggs took the next place and he was ahead of the X7 of John Turner. This was John's first ever event on the X7 that used to be raced by Robbie Taylor. Dale Eames was the last finisher on an RD250 that he acquired from Malcolm Price when the DKW rotary he was intending to run struck engine problems. In the race the RD didn't seem to be running too well either but it turned out that an experiment with a change of jetting hadn't quite worked out. The only non finisher was Michael Burrows who struck clutch problems with his RD250. The second race was 21 on the programme and by the time it came round it was near enough 5.30pm By this time races had been cut to 4 laps which many weren't to impressed about, but things were about to get worse. When it got underway it didn't take too long for the 1300 machines to get among the modern 750s. Nigel had got up to 3rd overall and was closing on the 2nd placed 750 when the red flags came out, after one of the modern 750s went down half way round Gerrards on the third lap. After a wait while a decision was made, everyone was sent back to the pits. I knew this would be the outcome as soon as the red flags came out and the Phoenix Club decided that a result would be declared after two laps. I don't feel there is any need to, or point, in saying any more about this as most people made their views known at the time. The only thing I could say in its favour is that everyone recorded their best ever race time at Mallory Park which with a bit of luck will stand for all time even though anyone other than Nigel and Andy knows what it actually was. The actual result was Nigel Lawrence taking 1st place followed by Andy Jackson, Clive Wadey, Rob Eley and Steve Cave. Glenn Graham was next and he was ahead of Mel Coote, Keith Chambers and Wayne Hickman. in some ways Wayne may have been lucky the race was shortened as just as he entered Gerrards at the start of his 3rd lap he lost the end can of his exhaust. Cass can pin point the actual place to within a couple of yards as she was just going past him when it dropped off. A few seconds earlier she had been right behind him. As it was, it just missed her but did its best to collect Malcolm Price who was behind her. Finishing behind Malcolm was Steve Cundell, Andy Charlesworth and Pete Mabberley. Jayne Spooner was the next to finish ahead of Dale Eames whose RD250 must have been going better this time out. Rob Patterson was the next to finish being ahead of Howard Friend and Paul Riggs. John Turner followed him home and he in turn was ahead of Michael Burrows. Steve Bailey. |