Motorbike season to ignite at Trac Môn
THE 2017 motorcycle racing season at the Anglesey Circuit gets underway this Sunday with an event organised by the Wirral 100 Motor Club.
The club’s championship calendar comprises three further visits to Anglesey and one to Oulton Park with all modern bikes from 100 to 1000cc catered for, as well as older pre-electronics and classic machines, and the ever-popular sidecars.
The 1000cc Powerbikes class has attracted some real talent for this meeting, led by TT star Dan Kneen and his brother Ryan from the Isle of Man, Alastair Kirk from Ireland and leading national rider Johnny Blackshaw from Warrington.
The Formula 600 races have an entry of more than 50 riders, with several Welsh residents likely to be in contention.
These include the 2016 champion Jamie Devine from Broughton, Barry Lee Evans from Amlwch, who has a second place in a Manx Grand Prix to his credit, and Chris and Carl Jones from Holywell, whose father Ian dominated the first meeting held at the Circuit in 1992.
In the support classes, Welsh riders, and in particular those from Anglesey, have tended to be the men to beat in recent years, and this year looks no different.
Chris Ganderton from Amlwch looks a strong favourite for the 1000cc Pre-Injection class, which he dominated last year, whilst in the category for 600cc machines, Meirion Thomas from Brynsiencyn looks set to improve on his third place from last year.
In the Golden Era class for pre-2001 Superbikes, former champion John Jones from Colwyn Bay starts as favourite, whilst Andrew Ganderton, also from Amlwch, should feature strongly in the 650 Twins class.
In the Classic Bike races, the 2016 champion Hefyn Owen, born and bred on Anglesey, is likely to have father Meredydd and uncle Bob as his nearest rivals.
This meeting has attracted 130 rid- Picture: NEIL LAMBERT ers from all parts of the north west of England, North Wales, the Isle of Man and Ireland, and there will be 16 races during the day. Timed qualifying practice starts at 10am, with the first race scheduled to start at noon.
Adult gate admission is £10, and under-16s are admitted free of charge.
The club has a pre-season test day on Saturday and the opportunity is also being taken to train any biking enthusiasts in the various safety aspects of marshalling.
Anyone over the age of 15 who is interested in this should get in touch either via any existing marshal, or via the contact names on the club’s website www.wirral100.co.uk or Facebook page. No previous experience needed.