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The 7th round of the championship was held at the Preston club's meeting at the Three Sisters circuit. This got an initial entry of 22 but 2 had to cancel. Glenn Graham was unable to sort out his RD400 after its problems at Oulton, while Richard Digby had cancelled due to the death of his father-in-law a couple of days prior to the meeting. As results we ended up with 20 which was actually a full grid which in many ways was ideal. Quite a few arrived the previous evening and many decided to walk the track. Most then decided they had better walk it again just to be sure they got it right first time. The general comment was that it looked as if it was going to be hard work but most were surprised that it wasn't what they were expecting. I think some were expecting a seafront kart track laid out in one of the car parks in the industrial estate you go through to get to the circuit. It was a bit rough, weather wise on Saturday and things didn't look too good on Sunday either as it started to rain just as everyone started to sign on. Fortunately it only lasted for half an hour and somehow stayed dry for the rest of the day. The first race was three on the programme and the track was already dry by this time. When it got under way there was a bit of a false start as the whole front row went as one without waiting for the lights. Somehow they all realized and only moved a few feet before coming to a halt. Even stranger, no one further down the grid ran over them as everyone seemed to realize it was a false start. Most had only moved forward a couple of feet if at all and it didn't take too long for everyone to get back in position. The one exception was John Hardwick who had difficulty in restarting his X7 and had to pull off the grid. He did however join the race on the back of the field after a lengthy push by one of the start line marshals. As the race got under way the 750 class machines initially led the way but it wasn't too long before Adrian Sanders made his way to the front. He then pulled clear of the battles that were going on behind him and looked on course to take the outright win on his RD400. However after three laps had been completed by the leaders the red flags came out after an accident involving Paul Harris at the end of the start finish straight. It turned out his RD400 seized without warning just as he tipped into the right-hander. Fortunately it turned out not to be as bad as it first looked. That is if you can say landing on your head and shoulder at 80 mph isn't bad. He ended up right on the edge of the track and was, to say the least, a little unsure of where he actually was for a while so they had no option but to red flag it. By this time we had already lost a couple, with Rob Thorpe having lost the front end of his GT500 at Lunar bend very early on and Michael Baillie losing the front of his GPz750 coming out of the esses. Both got off lightly although Michael seem to be suffering later on the day. The race was re-run over four laps and Adrian Sanders once again made his way to the front and took the outright win. Earlier in the day there were several attempts to put him under pressure with numerous people telling him that anything other than an outright win could only be classified as a failure. This didn't work so we'll have to think of something else for next time. And second place was, and some people found this hard to believe, Rob Eley on an X7. They were a few, and they know who they are, who didn't believe me when I said he'd go well at Three Sisters on the X7. Mind you, they weren't around when he last raced an X7 in 1999. I can remember that far back and to be frank I didn't expect him to finish second, I expected him to either fall off or blow up. More of that later, let's just say he never disappoints. In 3rd it was Andy Charlesworth on his CB750 who also surprised a few. He was followed by Barry Swailes on the GPz750. Cass was behind him on her RD400 while she was clear of Richard Insall on the RD250 who just managed to hold off the X7 of John Hardwick. Terry Davies GPz750 was the next finisher ahead of Gordon Church's BMW 1000 who was in turn chased hard by the X7 of John Turner. Rob Patterson wasn't wasn't too far behind him and he in turn was just ahead of Howard Friend. Jane Spooner was next to finish and she was ahead of Peter Scott whose RD400 wasn't sounding too well. This gave a total of only 14 finishers. In addition to the three fallers, the others to fail to finish were Stephen Jones who was out first time with a 400 engine in the KH250, running on only one or two but never three cylinders, Richard Searl, whose RD50 battery went flat and Aaron Gautry who somehow managed to get the alloy cap to unscrew itself from the spark plug on his X7. Quite a few people had entered other events and one stage I was wondering if we would have anyone left for the second race with such a retirement rate. As it turned out, most got back out for the second race. Paul Harris obviously didn't take part and this allowed Andrew Wrightman, who if no one had dropped out at all would have been third reserve, on to the back of the grid with an X7. He wasn't a member of the club so wasn't eligible for points or trophies etc but was allowed to run at this meeting as we had bought the grid space off Preston club and it added to club funds. In the second race we had departed from our usual grid format and had gone to that run by the Preston club, i.e. grids in finishing order. As usual there were winners and losers. The main losers being those who failed to finish and started at the back of the grid. The main advantage went to Adrian Sanders and with no one in front on the grid, he led from start to finish although Andy Charlesworth may have got alongside him for a few yards at the start. As the race progressed, the small machines again started to get the front with Cass taking two laps to go clear of the 750s to take second overall. Behind her, Rob Eley was going well and eventually got himself up to third and on the last lap seem to be closing on Cass slightly. Now I may be biased as he was nowhere near close enough as they went out of sight into Lunar bend, the last corner, but I just knew something was going to happen. I didn't think Cass would throw it down the road or let Rob beat her to the line but as Cass came out of Lunar Bend still in second place you can guess the rest. Let's just say that the 750s of Michael Baillie, Barry Swailes and Andy Charlesworth who finished in that order soon found a rather large object blocking their way. Close behind the 750s were the 250s of John Turner and Richard Insall, with John just coming off best. Terry Davies was the next finisher and following him were 4 machines covered by a little more than one second. Rob Thorpe got the best this group on his GT500 but only 0.2 seconds behind was John Hardwick and the same time gap existed between him and the next to finish, the KH400 of Steve Jones. Rob Paterson followed them home and he was in turn followed by Howard Friend. Gordon Church was next on the BMW that he had agreed to sell to Pete Scott the previous evening, not that you could tell. Jayne Spooner was the next to finish and she was ahead of Aaron Gautry. Pete Scott had to pull off on the warm-up lap as the alterations he had made went the wrong way, while I'm not certain if Richards Searl actually went out. I do know that his RD250 caught fire or tried to set fire to itself in the paddock but I can't remember if it was before or after the race. Steve Bailey. |