BSSOB Race 1 Croft

The 2019 BSSO scooter racing season sprang into life at the northeast’s premier Croft Circuit. A whole new year awaits and class championships are wide open

This year none of the defending champions are racing a full season for various reasons, so there is an excitement that it will give some different riders the chance to shine. Standard class made up the biggest grid of the day as usual, with Vespas making up a quarter of the grid, showing a bit of a renaissance for the marque. Nikita McNally returned to upset a few more people this year, as did veteran racer Mark Shirley on his Piaggio Zip. Indeed, in Group 10 autos, it was Nikita McNally who took a trio of wins over the weekend from Mark Shirley, showing her natural talent! Although only sporting 80cc, they showed a clean pair of heels to a number of 200cc geared scooters.

Group 4 is leaner this year, but it's great that there are still riders taking part in the class. Last year’s champion Chris Geyton will be out for a while, recovering from surgery for bone damage. With previous champion Darren Conneely also absent, the weekend was to be a battle between Dave Bristow, Taylor Sturgess, Jason Metivier and newcomer Peter Dolan. Bristow suffered some early niggles and had a string of non-finishes, so it left Metivier to take a pair of wins, and Taylor Sturgess picking up the other race.

Group 4 Evo is looking to get properly established this year and a great stepping stone between Production and Group 4. Multiple champion Stuart Day is always near the front and certainly shows few signs of 30 years of racing slowing him down. He came away with two wins, but a non finish in the second race let Drew Duncan take his maiden win. Shaun Nickells put in a solid weekend, taking

some three seconds off his lap time.

Production Class is again sponsored by the LCGB and VCB, showing the owners club support for racing their marques. This year looks like it could actually see the small frame Vespa giving the Lambretta riders something to think about. Dave Delaney showed the way home, twice leaving the Lambrettas in his wake, but Justin Price of DSC kept the honour for Lambretta by taking the remaining race win from Jeremy Steel. Peter Molkenthin had a really solid weekend with two third places and a fourth for good measure. Graham Tatton was another rider with uncharacteristic early-season niggles, meaning he only took one podium finish, but again will be a rider who will be right in the mix as the season develops.

Group 6A included John Woods who, rumour has it, is switching to Lambretta later this year, and Nikita McNally sneaking in for extra track time. It was Woods who took the three wins on his larger cc auto.

Group 6 geared specials is likely to be hotly contested, not least by Stuart Day who is back again for another year in the specials class. Warren Wilkinson has switched from auto to geared and as he gets himself dialled in, he certainly has the talent to push Day and others all the way. Steve Wright is back, supported by team DSC. Wright suffered a crank failure so gave team head Darren Scott a load of work to do, but the team managed to cobble together an alternative lower powered engine to at least get track time.

Stuart Day took two wins from Warren Wilkinson, who made him work for it before sneaking a win by just 0.1 seconds across the line in the final race of the weekend to record his first geared win. Expect some monumental battles between those two riders. DSC rider Justin Price took a trio of podiums aboard the new Group 6 machine. Behind them was Dave Bristow, who has built a super trick Vespa P Range, which is a bundle of joy to watch being thrown around.

The season opener has certainly shown that several riders can race for glory this year, and some competitive racing will be going down once again as UK circuit racing marks its 50th anniversary. Words: Paul Green Photographs: Steve Gormley Photography