Scooter Racing Comes Home
BSSO riders have a love/hate relationship with Three Sisters. Its tight, twisty and a great leveller, where riding skills count as much as engine power.
It’s the first time in a few years that scooter racing has been to the northwest’s Three Sisters Circuit. Since the last visit it now has a new company running it, and has been resurfaced and had a general tidy up all round. For many riders it was a first visit to the spiritual home of scooter racing, but for others it was a return to a place they knew very well. Three Sisters can have a habit of throwing up a few surprises, one of which was the return of sibling rivalry in the form of two of the Conneely brothers back for a play, and the talented Nikita McNally out on a new special class
Zip scooter.
Group 6 Geared Specials was the biggest class, again benefitting from production class bikes getting more track time. Former champion Darren Conneely came back for the weekend and with the first race being held in extremely wet conditions, he showed his class and the strength of his replay race scooter, and in the two races he finished he ran away, gaining over a second a lap on the rest of the field. Behind him, Chiselspeed’s Chris Cook was back out and picked up two third places, with Warren Wilkinson taking two second places. In the third race it was DSC veteran Steve Wright taking the win by under a second from Warren Wilkinson, showing that age and experience is a great asset around this tricky circuit. SRP Stuart Day must have completed several thousand laps of Three Sisters in his 30 years of racing, and he put in a solid weekend with a second place and two fourth places to show for it. Darren Conneely naturally posted the fastest lap of the weekend with a 1min 3sec lap.
Group 6A Auto Specials was battled out by Nikita McNally and John Woods, and was 2-1 in favour of Nikita at the end of the weekend.
It was great to see Stephen Hamilton out on an auto. You just can’t keep that man away from scooter racing and the familiar grin was never far away.
Group 4 benefitted from the Conneely brothers’ return and with the first two
races being (very) wet there was an interesting mix of results. First surprise was that although in a different class, Nikita McNally was very close to matching Darren Conneely’s lap times in the first race and took a second place overall, splitting Darren from Jason Metivier, with Steve Conneely following them home. This was after several riders had helped with brushes sweeping standing flood water off the track! In the second race Steve Conneely had found his sea legs and took the win by 0.85secs from his hard-chasing brother, showing that his wet weather skills are still there.
Group 10 Auto Standards was a runaway for Nikita, who quickly got to grips with things and was battling right at the sharp end, showing she has very natural wet weather talents, no doubt honed by her motocross background.
Production Class Auto saw DSC’s Stephen Hamilton take a clean sweep on the team’s Gilera Runner. Tom Shaw piloted the Scomadi to a second place in the first race, but unfortunately didn’t feature in other races.
Production Class Geared saw the usual intense and entertaining battle between Graham Tatton and Justin Price, and once again it was Price who just came out on top 2-1, with two of the races being under a second gap over the line, showing just how well matched these two riders are, locking out the first two places in each race. Dave Delaney campaigned his small frame Vespa to two third places. It’s always good to see a small frame Vespa swooping round Three Sisters, echoing the memories of Norrie Kerr and Terry Frankland doing the same thing in years gone by. Justin Offland continued his ever-increasing speed and took a fourth and a third place from the weekend.
Group 4 Evo was another class with different winners over the weekend. First win of the weekend was for Pete Molkenthin, who saw off Stuart Day by just 0.2secs across the finish line, but then Stuart Day got himself sorted and took the remaining two race wins. Drew Duncan took a solid set of third places, pushing back James Lancaster into fourth.
With the season coming to a climax it was a fabulous weekend for scooter racing despite the weather. Even a few riders who normally have a grumble about Three Sisters were smiling at the end of the weekend after some great racing, despite the thrills and spills that the weather caused. The final two rounds of the 2019 season will see scooter racing at Cadwell Park, but then the season finale at Lynden Hill will be a month later than usual, bringing the season to a close at the end of October.
More info: www.bsso.co.uk