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The 5th round of the championship at the EMRA meeting on the 9th of May, attracted an entry of 34. The best I can recall for years. The downside was that two people ended up as reserves. It was good to see such a good entry, especially as Chris Satchwell had put up a cup prize money for best results in class overall. On Saturday night, Malcolm Price made his final appearance at one of our meetings as he had announced that he was flying out to New Zealand at 4pm the following day and that he had a one-way ticket. This was something that he been planning for a while, but it came together quicker than he expected. He has already been in touch and has bought two GSX1100s to go post classic racing. It's the closest that they do to proper racing down there. They all run Freddie Spencer and Eddie Lawson replicas so Malc is going to build a bright yellow Nigel Lawrence replica to put the cat among the pigeons. Practice was wet and oily but strangely enough it wasn't a sidecar or Simon Briggs (who once got a mention the National car racing press due to an oil leak at a plum pudding meeting) or even Rob Ely who were responsible. It was in fact Paul Riggs who had the vacuum fuel tap on his GPz750 stick open. This filled the sump with petrol, which was then pumped straight out of the engine breather along with all the oil as soon as he went out for practice. This caused a bit of a delay while they cleared up what they could and as a result of first race didn't get underway until 12:15pm even though it was race four on the programme. When it did get under way it still slightly damp but drying quickly. Race 1. In the 1300 class, Clive Wadey was ahead of Steve Cave, these taking the first two places overall. Pete Mabberley was 3rd in class, finishing 16th overall, while Gordon Church took 4th in class. In the 750 class, the order was Chris Satchwell, Michael Baillie and Pete Boyles taking 5th, 6th and 7th places overall. Barry Swailes took 9th overall and he was followed in class by Alec Gilfillan in 11th, Colin Young 13th, Andy Charlesworth 17th, Mark Wooton 18th, Paul Riggs 19th and Terry Davies in 24th overall. In the 500 class, the order was Glenn Graham then Adrian Sanders, these taking 3rd and 4th overall. Next in class was Cass taking 8th overall, followed by Mark Taylor who finished 28th. In the 250 class, Andy Jackson took the class win in 10th overall ahead of Richard Insall in 15th, he was in turn well clear of the next 250 Aaron Gautry in 26. In the 500 production class, Rob Thorpe took 1st in class while finishing 14th overall. In class he was followed by Phil Underwood, Rob Patterson and Alan Butler in 20th, 21st and 22nd overall. Next was Pete Scott 25th, Steve Jones 27th, Richard Searl 29th and Paul Harris 30th. These results will not tie up with those that you've picked up from the race officers. EMRA had a bit of a problem with time keepers or rather lack of them and the results weren't up to the usual standard. All posted times were correct but somehow they had managed to credit both Rob Thorpe and Paul Riggs with five laps instead of six. We tried to get them amended as we knew exactly where they finished but the time keepers were already sinking without us throwing bricks at them. Race 2. When it came to looking at who was up for the prize money and cup or should it be the other way round, it looked as if it was likely to be between Andy Jackson and Rob Thorpe, barring breakdowns etc, as both had been over 20 seconds ahead of the next in class. The second race, event 13 not a good sign for some, got underway at 3:25pm. It was once again the 1100s of Clive Wadey and Steve Cave who headed the field for a while. However Glenn Graham had other ideas and one stage got ahead of both of them at Edwinas. Glenn was going very well but he must have got a little confused and thought he was back at the New Era Cadwell meeting as he had a "YPVS moment" at Edwinas on the last lap. For those of you who don't follow this, please see Glenn for a full explanation. Anyway Glenn ended up on the floor and the "YPVS" (in this case, Clive Wadey's 1100 Katana) limped home in a wounded State just ahead of Steve Cave. Pete Mabberley and Gordon Church again took 3rd and 4th in class. In the 750 class, the first race winner Chris satchwell went out of the race on the warm-up lap when his GPz shorted out and blew a fuse. This left Pete Boyles to take the class win ahead of Michael Baillie, Barry Swailes and Alec Gilfillan taking 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th overall. Following them in class it was Colin Young, Andy Charlesworth, Paul Riggs and Terry Davies whose GPz didn't sound too well. In the 500 class, Glenn Graham's accident handed the class win to Adrian Sanders who took 3rd overall. Cass finish second in class in 8th overall after a bit of a nightmare on the start line when the ignition cover came loose on the warm-up lap. It was only being held on by one pin that wouldn't unscrew by hand. She was pushed off the grid and stormed off, looking in not too good a mood. Meanwhile I started to feel rather ill about the prospect of either having to face the music or just start walking home. Anyway, she had taken her gloves off when one of the start line marshals, managed to get the cover off, so she put the goves back on and made a bit of a late start. As she got underway, the leading riders were through Edwinas and she was unsure how close they were to lapping her. Mark Taylor was the next in class finishing 22nd overall. In the 250 class, Andy Jackson's chance of the Cup ended when he was beaten by Richard Insall. They took 12th and 13th overall. Andy never mentioned it on the day but reports later indicated that his X7 went off colour during the second race with a blown head gasket. Following them class was John Hardwick in 16th followed by Aaron Gautrey in 23rd. In the 500 production class, Rob thorpe again took the class win finishing 11th overall, not second to last as shown on the results. He was well clear of the second production machine, the RD 400 of Rob Patterson in 17th, who was just ahead of John Turner who took 18th overall. Following him in class it was Alan Butler in 20th, Pete Scott 21st, Steve Jones 24th, Paul Harris 26th and Richard Searle 27th. Mark Wootton, the first reserve didn't get out in the second race and Michael Burrows the second reserve didn't get out in either race. Rob Thoepe was well pleased with the trophy while Linda looked pleased with the prize-money. We would once again like to thank Chris for putting up the prize-money and trophy. We would also like to thank everyone for being so open about where they finished, as at one stage it looked as if there were a lot more problems with the official results than there actually were. Ironically the one who suffered most was the eventual trophy winner, Rob Thorpe who was listed with two second from last places. Steve Bailey. |