Kear and Lamb get their season off to a solid start
GLOUCESTERSHIRE riders Austen Kear and Jason Lamb have both made a solid start to their campaigns as the British Historic Racing 2022 championships got underway at Mallory Park.
Kear, from Prestbury, is defending his title in the 250cc Specials class after taking the 2021 championship in the last race of a Covid-truncated year. Previously a front runner aboard a 500cc Manx Norton, he now competes on a rare 250cc Bultaco Metralla from 1968.
Allocated 15th spot on the grid for his first of two races, Kear received a reminder that 2 stroke machines can sometimes be tricky to get off the line: “I got a terrible start” said Kear, “but I went out wide and started getting through the field. I was up to about 8th on the second lap.”
BHR run various classes in each race and Kear soon found himself in a battle with Jack Hebb, a rival from his Manx Norton days. Hebb’s bigger machine had the advantage on the straights but Kear’s nimble Bultaco was quicker through the corners. It made for a fun race but meant that class leader Andy Hunt had moved out of reach, so Kear had to settle for second.
Starting from fifth in race two, Kear made a much better start but Andy Hunt, who is likely to be the main opposition this year, had made a flyer of a start and was already off at the front.
Kear said: “I got a much better start but Andy managed to get away. I got into another dice with Jack Hebb and we had a lot of backmarker traffic to deal with, so was happy with another second place.
“It’s been a good day and decent start
to the season – we’re just reviewing what we could have done better and looking forward to the next round at Cadwell Park”.
Cinderford rider Jason Lamb is competing in the Japanese Solo 251-350cc class where the 350cc Honda K4 is very much the machine of choice.
Lamb takes the view that rather than fight for position he concentrates on doing the best possible lap time and the results will follow.
He was proven correct at Mallory on the same Honda he last raced at the Classic TT in 2019.
“I got a good start in race one” he said, “and the bike was going really well. I was concentrating on keeping up momentum and staying with the leaders. Lapping the back markers got a bit scary!”
Lamb took a very close second place just over half a second behind Matthew Hebb’s (son of Jack) similar Honda.
Another good start followed in race 2. Lamb said: “Somebody pushed me out wide going round Gerrards on the first lap and it cost me several places. I re-grouped and went for it and soon got the places back.”
He got into another close battle with Matthew Hebb, this time for third place and again finished a fraction of a second behind and less than two seconds behind class winner Andrew Taylor.
“I felt after race one that I could go faster” said Lamb, “and in race two I did my best lap at Mallory, getting under the one minute barrier for the first time at 59.87 seconds – that’s less than a second off the class lap record. It’s been a good day and I’m pleased.”