Round 4 - Race Report

The weather was hot, but the racing was hotter at Mallory Park on Sunday (11th July), with record speeds and a new lap record by Danny Kent at 50.113 seconds, a speed of 99.85mph. My theory is that the riders were in a hurry to get their hot leathers off as soon as possible, so had to race at such a fast pace!

The first Allcomers race was the closest big bike race I can remember seeing at Mallory with the first four riders covered by two-thirds of a second after ten laps. Richard Cooper put the Hawk Racing Suzuki into the lead straight away with Leon Jeacock on the Specsavers Suzuki, Danny Kent on the Buildbase Suzuki and Charlie Nesbitt on the Superstocker in line astern. The order stayed the same until half distance when Danny Kent moved into second getting within less than a tenth of a second of Cooper, but three laps later it was Jeacock back into second again, finally snatching the win on the final lap, Cooper second at 0.38seconds, Kent 0.425, and less than a quarter to Nesbitt. Bjorn Estment finished fifth while the battle for the EMRA championship continued with Mikey Leeson just beating Ashley King for sixth overall, but maximum championship points.

The second Allcomers race was the final race of the day, but well worth staying for as Leon Jeacock spent ten laps fighting off the constant challenge of Danny Kent, who came incredibly close to a 100mph lap trying to get the lead, but ended one-twentieth of a second down at the flag but with the 50.113 lap record under his belt. Nesbitt had a watching brief in third while King and Leeson continued their scrap until Leeson slowed in the last two laps.

The first Mallory Trophy race went to Leon Jeacock who led from start to finish, with Richard Cooper challenging for three quarters of the race but dropping in the final stages with Mikey Leeson third after another race-long scrap with Ashley King. In race two Danny Kent spent the entire race chasing and harrying Richard Cooper, but the ex-world champion was never able to get by and finished four-hundredths of a second in arrears. King and Leeson resumed hostilities and have now managed to gain one win and one second in every round each to hold joint first place in the championship

The meeting began with the open 600 race which saw Barry Burrell finish ahead of Franco Bourne with championship leader Ricky Tarren third and former EMRA Supersport champion John Lea fourth. Burrell looked set to win again in race two but Joe Howard who started from the back of the grid was sixth on lap one, fourth next time round and by half distance the Rochdale rider was second with a two second gap to close. It took until lap nine for Howard to take the lead, holding on to beat Burrell by three-quarters of a second. Ricky Tarren took third despite a late charge by William Jones.

Mitch Ducran dominated the Twins races with Jamie Ingham taking second ahead of George Davies in race one, that order being reversed in race two. Mitch also took victory in the open 500 events beating George Bedford in race one ahead of Charlie Atkins and Cameron Brown who had been giving a bit of a team demonstration on the FHO junior supersport bikes. Race two saw Ducran win again but after Atkins had held off his team mate for the whole race, he discovered a bigger threat in Tyler Viveiros who came from the back of the grid and snatched second on the last lap.

Richard Blunt won the first CB500 race from Owen Monaghan, but it was Monaghan who took the second race from Daniel Love who spent the whole race scrapping with Stephen Sewell.

The first of the 125-450 and Classic Era races followed a familiar pattern of John Lea running away at the front with Shane Panes Classic Era Kawasaki taking second overall and the class win. The second race went to Payne with Lea second while the 450 class was a scrap between Charlie Atkins and Kieran Kent, which Atkins won by nine thousandths of a second.

Aaron Staniforth took victory in both pre-injection races which is pretty normal, but he had to really battle to keep Michael Horberry behind him in race two.

Kyle Abell continued his run of victories in the Rookies, but the second race was a real battle with Chris Taylor leading in the early stages before Kyle retook first place.