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The 4th and 5th rounds of the championship were held at Anglesey and attracted an entry of 24. On balance this wasn't too bad considering the average distance travelled. It was the first time the Anglesey meeting wasn't on a Bank Holiday weekend. OK, bank holidays make the traffic a little heavier, but for many it means it doesn't matter too much when you got home as there is no need to get up at any particular time. Once again the weather was a major factor with heavy showers and gale force winds forecast. For once you couldn't fault the forecasters. As it turned out, the rain wasn't too bad for most of the time and unbelievably, only one of the four races over the weekend was even slightly wet. The main problem was the wind which at one point looked likely to cut short the race programme as it never dropped below a force eight. The main casualty of the weather was the BBQ we had organized for the Saturday night, as heavy rain added to the wind problems. We did our best, but it's surprising how long it takes to cook anything in such conditions. With there being four races, it's a bit much to try and run through all the results, so this report will be confined to the highlights. Nigel Lawrence took 3 class wins out of four and one second. The second place came after he stalled it on the line. That would be bad enough at any time, never mind when you're on the front row of the grid. Apparently his whole life flashed before his eyes, or at least the last 45 seconds did. This I am informed by those who know him well is apparently much and the same for him. Joking apart it wasn't the nicest thing to happen even to him and he did well to get through the field to second as he was quite clearly on a mission. Nevertheless he didn't chop anyone on the way through that I could see unless he was careful to do it out of sight. Rob Eley took the win, this being his only Earlystocks finish of the weekend. On Saturday in the Phoenix race, his GS1000 had suffered what at first was suspected of being serious engine problems. As it turned out it was an ignition problem, the pulse generating magnet having escaped from the rotor and damaged one of the pickups. This was eventually found, glued back in place and the pick up replaced. Perhaps surprisingly it held together. The reason he didn't go out in the last race was because his shoulder was playing up during the Phoenix race, two events previously. Steve Cave took the 1300 production honours with 4 class wins including 3 overall second places. Judging by the state of Steve's Katana, he wouldn't have done too many more laps, as the generator cover looked to be not long for this world. It looks like he's going to have to modify the cases somehow. In the 750 class, Dean Martin took 4 class wins despite at times looking to be rather close to the ragged edge. Mel Coote was second in class each time. Tony smith managed three finishes and one accident that Cass tells me was quite impressive when viewed up close. Fortunately this only resulted in minor injuries not like we normally get at Anglesey. Karl Scott took 4 class wins in the 550 class, but this wasn't without problems. He had to use his spare bike as his number one just refused to fire up, there being a total lack of sparks. Shaun tried everything including several CDI units but to no avail and even worse, no sign of any cause of the problem. Cass and Keith took two seconds each with Cass having a fall on the exit from the hairpin. Somehow she lost the front end with no warning at all. We still can't work out how you can loose the front coming out of a hairpin. It could have been a gust of wind or could it have had something to do with the front tyre which had suddenly started to look very second hand. This tyre, bought new in February 2002 and ordered from Avon turned out to have a 1998 date stamp. The only good point to come out of it is that she appears to have taken lessons from Jayne Spooner, who developed the art of falling off at the hairpin with minimal damage to either machine or leathers. The 500 production class was a Michael Hand clean sweep. His main problem of the weekend was keeping his tent anchored to the ground. On Saturday he found out the hard way that he needed more and larger tent pegs. Even this wasn't the answer, as on the Sunday I found him sitting outside just looking at the tent which seemed to have a life of its own. The question was, was it safe to make use of it? In each race the second and third class places were taken by Pete Jarnell and Paul Paynter. Paul is hoping to manage a few more meetings this year. In the 250 class, Richard Insall took 4 class wins and in each case he was followed home by Simon Briggs. Chris Spooner managed 4 finishes this time. It wasn't plain sailing, as his X7 managed to break a ring in one of the Phoenix races. All in all it wasn't too bad a weekend. For one thing, everyone went home more or less in one piece, which is after all what everyone should want. Several not already mentioned, struck problems. Among these were Malcolm Price and Mark Wootton who had both replaced the engines on their Kawasaki 750s and 650s after problems at Snetterton. Malcolm went down to a 650 and Mark up to a 750, neither worked quite as well as expected. Paul Mountain struck problems when the plug thread let go on his RD350. Despite his best efforts he found that trying to find a helicoil on Anglesey or even North Wales on a weekend is stretching things a bit. Pate Mabberley also suffered problems with his GS1000, but nevertheless looked a lot more at home than he did in his first meeting at Snetterton. One who for once didn't have problems, well not too many, was Jayne Spooner. Rob tells me he's been too busy with his GS to even look at Jayne's X7, perhaps that's the reason. While I'm on about Rob he's been doing a bit of work at home with a mini digger. Does anyone really need me to say any more? Just let's say I wouldn't have minded seeing the performance... but not from too close. Steve Bailey. |