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The 9th round of the championship was held at the Derby Phoenix Mallory Park meeting on 6th July. This attracted an entry of 21, which wasn't too bad as we had had an EMRA meeting the previous weekend. Mike Annesley with the 750 Laverda was due to make his first appearance of the season with us, but never made it past scrutineering. It was failed due to it not having an oil catchment tray, despite it being a 1972 Classic Club registered machine. The A.C.U. handbook exempts pre 1973 classic machines from the oil catchment requirement but Derby Phoenix are clearly running to 'Derby Phoenix Law'. For those of you who aren't aware, this relates to certain final instructions, i.e supplementary regulations that were sent out prior to the Anglesey meeting last year. We were race 14 on the programme and after practice there was, how can I describe it, quite a wait. As the hours rolled by, morning became afternoon and eventually 3pm approached and our race was getting close but then there was a problem. Racing was suspended after race 13 and a riders briefing being called as a result of damage having been found to have been caused to circuit property. This put things back even further, but I have to say that I understand the delay was imposed by Mallory Park, rather than the Phoenix Club itself. None the less it was gone 3.20 before the race got underway. They say that you can always find something good about anything if you look at it from enough angles. The only thing I could find was that at least it gave Darren Woods enough time to rebuild his X7s after practice and yes I did say X7s. Darren had Jayne Spooner's X7 as a spare but both struck problems. One of them had gearbox problems while the other holed both pistons. The only solution was to swap top ends and make a good one out of the two. Even this didn't go to plan as bits of piston appeared to have got mixed in with the crank in the "good" bottom end as it seemed more like a ratchet when they were trying to free it off. When the race started, it was Nigel Lawrence and Andy Jackson who drew clear with Andy slowly getting away. However it wasn't to last as Andy overdid it at the hairpin leaving Clive to take second behind Nigel. Mel Coote took third with Mostyn and Tony Smith following him home. Cass was behind him and she was followed home by Keith Chambers, Simon Briggs and Malcolm Price. Mark Wootton followed them home and he was in turn ahead of Pete Mabberley. Pete Scott was next ahead of Howard Friend, Paul Riggs, not Biggs as in the programme, and Rob Patterson. Michael Burrows was next to finish, ahead of Darren Wood. In addition to Andy Jackson, the other non finishers were Glen Graham whose RD400 struck its normal problems and Jayne Spooner who pulled off on the warm up lap with fuel problems caused by a misunderstanding, as "on" on the fuel tap of her GSX400 isn't actually on. Somehow we got the second race in and it was once again Andy Jackson and Nigel who pulled clear of the field. Andy eventually took the outright win just ahead of Nigel with a new lap record of 58.9 sec. Clive Wadey took third and he was ahead of Mel Coote. Mostyn Bullock and Tony Smith were dead heated for 5th place. Malcolm Price was next to finish ahead of Cass, Simon Briggs and Mark Wootton. Keith Chambers was next after none too good a start when his GSX750 (was?) stalled on the line. As the whole of the grid and his whole life flashed before his eyes he was dead last away. Strangely enough, Keith reckons it was one of the best races he's had, no pressure, no worry about someone getting past, just chase everything like a video on fast forward. Jayne finished behind Keith after not having too good a start either. She had to stop and turn left after near enough ramming Keith as he sat on the line and ending up with a two-up GSX1150. Paul Riggs finished behind Jayne and ahead of Pete Scott. Michael Burrows was next to finish ahead of Howard Friend, Rob Patterson and Darren Wood. Steve Bailey. |