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The second round of the championship was held at the New Era meeting at Donington, the first time we have ever run there. We ended up with 24 entered and with that number we hoped all the classes would be run together but they ended up being split at 500cc. The up to 500 machines were out with the Hornets, CB 500 etc while the larger machines were out with the Sound of Thunder class machines. There was very nearly a problem as only a few days before the meeting we realised that New Era had for some reason split the machines at 550cc. As it turned out this only affected Pete Boyles, as he's the only one who actually enters his XJ550 as a 550 but he managed to sort this out just in time. As usual there were separate timed practices and it was soon clear that a few had been around Donington before. Practice however didn't go too well at all for some with a damp patchy track catching a few out. The first of these was Mark Taylor who came off his GT380 at Coppice and suffered an injury to his shoulder, believed to be the usual collar bone. Richard Digby came off in exactly the same place after finding himself behind Nigel Lawrence. Nigel's been round Donington a few times and Richard decided to follow him to get a few lines sorted but it didn't quite work out. It was another shoulder injury and for a while after leaving the medical centre he claims he is a bit unsure about what happened but perhaps its intentional seeing as who got him changed. Colin Young also struck problems but at least he was in one piece unlike this XJ 600 that put a rod through the cases. The first race was the up to 500 which was race two. First to finish was Adrian Sanders, followed by John Turner then John Hardwick, next to finish was Cass she being a couple of seconds ahead of the X7 of Alan Butler. The KH400 of Stephen Jones was next to finish, this being his first meeting since Three Sisters last July, and he was in turn ahead of the RD400 of Pete Scott. The first over 500 race was number five on the programme and when it got underway it was soon clear that Nigel Lawrence, Z1170, and Clive Wadey, GSX1170, were going to upset more than a few Ducati and Aprilia riders. Nigel ended up with 5th overall with Clive only three places back in 8th. Mick Baillie was next to finish on his GPZ 750 after quite a close battle with Pete Boyles on the XJ550 next was Keith Chambers on the Z1100 who just got the better of Terry Davies on a GPZ750. Steve Cundall was next to finish and he was in turn of Trevor Wagland who was out in his first ever race on his Z1000. The previous evening he had been helped out by scrutineering signing on etc by Rob Eley who had been wandering the paddock during the practice day suffering withdrawal symptoms. This helped everyone out, it kept Rob occupied and Trevor learnt all the things you shouldn't do. Pete Mabberley was next to finish, this being his first outing on the 1100 Katana he bought at the end of last season, and he was closely followed by Mike Annesley on his Laverda 750. The second up to 500 event was once again dominated by Adrian Sanders who looking at the results was only bettered re race and lap times by the 1170 machines of Nigel and Clive. In second it was John Turner and he was followed home by Cass. Following her it was Rob Patterson who had changed engines after his RD400 seized in the first race, who was in turn followed by Alan Butler. Next to finish was Pete Scott and he was followed home by Graeme Acott on the MZ250. Graeme hadn't made it out in the first race as his gear change linkage fell apart as he was about to go out. Now I could make some remark about this but as the same happened to Cass's RD in the holding area for the second race I don't think I'd better. John Hardwick failed to finish this one after having quite a spectacular accident at the old hairpin. He had just got past Cass entering the corner when it all went badly wrong with Cass only just managing to avoid him. Unfortunately he ended up with having to have an operation to pin his hand. Steve Jones also failed to finish but his problems were nothing in comparison, a suspect battery. In the 1300 race it was once again Nigel and Clive who took the first two positions with Nigel again taking 5th overall. For at least half a lap he led outright through Craner Curves on the first lap but it was a bit disappointing when the commentator totally ignored this fact and went on about someone on a Ducati , or was it Aprilia, or TL1000 in third or fourth place. Next to finish was Pete Boyles with all but one of the Gpz 750's having fallen by the wayside. Terry Davies went out with what turned out to be a snapped camshaft while Mick Baillie's broke a crank. It was a bad day for Gpz750's as Barry Swailes had also let him down in practice after it ran a big end. All three along with Graeme Acott had been sharing a garage and out of all of them only his MZ finished its second race. Keith Chambers was the next to finish, just ahead of Steve Cundall who was in turn ahead of Andy Charlesworth. Andy hadn't been out in the first race after his CB750 just wouldn't run right in practice, despite running fine during the Saturday track day. After much checking of wiring, coils etc it was eventually realised that he had put a road legal baffle in for the "quiet" track day and that it was a new system he was using for the first time putting the baffle back in solved the problem. Trevor Wagland was next and he was in turn followed by Pete Mabberley and Mike Annesley. All in all it was a good well run meeting but it would have been better if we had all run together. New Era are in some ways a bit difficult for us to run with. They are such a big club and this along with the fact that we don't do many meetings with them means it is taking a bit of time for us both to get to know how each other works. We will try to see if we can all run together at the next meetings we do with them but we can't promise anything. Steve Bailey. |