PRE-TT Classic
Jamie Coward was the man of the meeting at the PRE-TT Classic, clocking up three wins as well as new outright lap and race records for the event. But it certainly wasn’t all plain sailing for the Hebden Bridge man.
John Watterson headed out to the blossoming meeting on the roads to see who was fast, who wasn’t and who was turning a lot of the event into a family race-off. Lovely stuff.
Aluckless Alan Oversby pushed Coward hard in both the 350cc and 500cc races before being forced to retire, while Coward could also argue that he was on for even more possible successes in two other races when he was beset by mechanical issues. Enjoying some of the best conditions of the TT festival, the seven solo races in the Blackfords Financial Services-sponsored meeting all took place on the Bank Holiday Monday.
Jeff Ward, of Sandbach, finally won the 250cc Lightweight on Jeff Carbutt’s Suzuki twin after finishing third in the previous three editions. Pole-setter and the first away, he was initially pressed hard by 2017 and 2018 winner Mike Hose on the Ariel Arrow, but the Suzuki was more than three seconds clear after the first lap. He later admitted that he had misjudged the gearing in the wind. Unable to engage top gear, he ultimately nursed the bike home third behind Ward and Ulsterman Brian Mateer on a similar Suzuki. First-timer Richard Ford rode well on Bob Jackson’s Suzuki, only to retire at | mid-distance. Mateer moved ahead of Hose on lap two and continued to extend his advantage, but he had no answer to Ward’s pace at the front. The latter won by some 10sec, with Mateer 14sec ahead of Hose. Keith Shannon was another 22sec astern in fourth, while Barry Davidson and Geoff Bates completed the top six.
The Junior
Coward racked up the first of his wins in the Junior when he had very nearly a full minute in hand on seasoned campaigner and multiple winner Bill Swallow at the close. After a poor practice, Swallow started way down the grid and was unaware that he had worked his way into a podium place – indeed he estimated that he was about sixth. A terrific battle ensued between Oversby and Coward, with a mere 1000th of a second separating the two Honda twins at the end of the opening lap of the 4.25-mile Billown Course. Coward was in front by 1.1sec at quarter distance in the eight-lapper, with Dom Herbertson at another 0.5sec on the Davies Motorsport Honda. After four laps a mere six hundredths of a second split the two lead men, Coward breaking the lap record on the third circuit, only for Oversby to grab back what had been
his record since 2016 one lap later with a time of 2min 48.230sec (90.947mph). Still neck-and-neck on the next lap, Oversby slid off his Ripley Land Honda exiting Cross Four Ways, but was unhurt. It handed Coward a huge lead of 46sec over Hose, who had been reeled in by Swallow. At the line, Coward’s Craven Honda finished 54.824sec ahead of Swallow, who edged past Hose on the penultimate lap. Swallow endured handling problems in the closing stages, while Hose had gear selection issues with his K4. It was the first time the Coward family name had gone on the trophy since Jamie’s father Paul won it in 2006. Oversby got a lift back to the paddock in the course car and promptly jumped on to Martin Ireland’s 500 Honda-4 for the 850cc race. He trailed Mike Hose’s 730 Seeley Weslake by four tenths of a second as the pair fired down Castletown Bypass for the second time. It was even tighter on laps two and three. Hose stretched the lead to 0.629sec on lap five, but Oversby went a tad quicker on lap six to get to within six hundredths of a second off his 2010 lap record, but he still couldn’t get past the Weslake in what was the race of the day. It was all or nothing on the final circuit and Oversby managed to get his nose in front at Stadium. Hose tried to go underneath the Honda man at the last corner, but Oversby had the better line to take it by 0.198sec. He had gone from crashing to winning his 13th PRE-TT Classic in less than one hour. “The Weslake has the legs, but the Honda is more agile,” said runner-up Hose, who reported a power surge with his bike at the top-end. Dom Herbertson was a distant third. “The bike was handling great but the electrics were fluffier than my pillow. It was continually bogging down. I’m a tree surgeon, not a mechanic,” he said. Newcomer Dean Stimpson, of Doddington, rode a good race to finish fourth on the Izzard Racing Manx Norton, with OAP Chris Mcgahan fifth on the Hughes Honda.
Junior Superbike .
Rhys Hardisty was elated and somewhat emotional to win the Junior Superbike Post-classic event that had been the domain of the late James Cowton for the previous five years. Tom Snow got the holeshot, but Gary Vines led at the end of the first lap by a third of a second from Hardisty. The Welshman was in front on lap two, but Coward was on his tail little more than one second astern at quarter distance. At half-distance the gap was down to 0.021 of a second in what was another extremely tight race. Coward got his Binch Racing Yamaha in front by 0.14sec on lap five, with team-mate Vines suffering from the left wrist that he fractured earlier in the season. Hardisty was back in front on the next circuit and almost nine seconds to the good going into the final lap after Coward stopped to make adjustments to a slipping clutch. “That’s for the King of Castletown – James Cowton,” said Hardisty after stepping off his 2003 Yamaha TZ at the close. “The 250 has been playing hard to get, but I like a posh girl,” he quipped. “The brake lever was spongy; I cooked it on the first lap.” Vines admitted it had been hard work. He had led off the line but he said he did not know his way round the course like Coward and Hardisty. “After three laps I started struggling with my wrist and I could no longer stay with them,” conceded the Colchester man. Seasoned campaigner Davidson was happy to grab the last step on the podium after what had been a close contest with course newcomer Stimpson. “It was a good battle,” said the Ballymena man. “I’ve also raced against him back home in Northern Ireland.” Coward, who had briefly led on lap five, nursed his bike home in fifth place; Yamahas dominating the top six places courtesy of Tom Snow.
The Singles
Normally the curtain-raiser to the meeting on the Saturday afternoon, the Singles event instead opened up the final afternoon of action on the Monday and one of the highlights was the contest for family bragging rights between the Owens of North Wales. Meredydd Owen led the way on lap one by 0.151 of a second from Oversby, with Will Loder third, Hefyn Owen fourth and his uncle Bob fifth. Oversby moved into the lead on lap two with the 7R AJS, followed by Loder and the three Owens in line astern in third, fourth and fifth. Keith Shannon was already in charge of the 250cc class. The Owens remained together on the road for the bulk of the race until Hefyn overshot Cross Four Ways on the final lap and slipped to fifth on the Seeley 7R. Ahead of him, father Meredydd secured third by a mere two tenths of a second from his brother Bob on the leading Aermacchi. They were 12sec off the pace of runner-up Loder on the Greeves Oulton that his late father John had also raced to podium finishes in the race on several occasions. “I did everything I could to stick with Alan and I got really close on the final lap. Unfortunately a back-marker got in my way at Stadium Corner. “It’s quite a labour of love this Greeves, but it’s a dream come true to get it on to the podium after watching my dad do the same years ago.” Oversby’s 14th PRE-TT Classic win was closer than the 3.449sec margin suggests, but he knew Loder would be thereabouts: “It was damp to start with, but it dried out towards the end. The Greeves was a tad quicker on the straights.” Meredydd said the family contest had been fun, but added: “Give him [Bob] an inch and he’ll take a mile.” 250 class winner Shannon finished seventh overall on his Cotton Telstar in among the 350s.
“I had no clutch from lap two,” revealed the St Helens man. “I nursed it home, but I knew something else was slowing it down and I realise now that the chain was jamming on the frame. It’s an old bike.” He was 35sec ahead of the Ducati of Adam Ward, who said the race was too long. “Three laps would be enough,” he suggested. The third 250 was the Honda ridden by Geoff Bates of Thornton Cleveleys. “The bike’s brand new,” he revealed, “but it’s all 1970s bits, nothing replica – it’s not been ridden before.”
The Senior
Conditions for the Senior 500cc race were akin to a sheet of sandpaper – wet and dry. While it was dry on the start and finish straight, a mile and a half away at Ballabeg the road was decidedly wet. Oversby led Coward by six tenths of a second after a single lap, with Stimpson and Herbertson even closer together in third and fourth. Coward, riding Ted Woof’s Craven Manx Norton, had put 1.9sec between himself and Oversby on the Ireland Honda after three laps but all of a sudden it was back down to 0.159sec at half-distance when Oversby threw in a lap record of 2min 41.743sec on the fourth circuit. It remained neck-and-neck for the next lap but then Oversby retired at Williams’s corner, halfway round the course, with clutch failure. This gifted Coward a 17sec lead over Herbertson going into the final two laps. He eased back to cross the line 13.4sec ahead of Herbertson on a Honda K4, with new boy Stimpson third on a Manx at another 16.8sec. Bill Swallow was challenging for the final podium position on the last lap when he left his braking a tad late at Cross Four Ways, touched the bales at slow speed and fell over. There was little or no damage but it cost him at least £150 in prize money, elevating Ben Rea to fourth on the Steadplan Honda ahead of a trio of G50s in the hands of Meredydd Owen, Will Loder and Bob Owen. “It’s a bit sketchy out there at the moment,” reported Coward after registering his 10th PRE-TT Classic win. “Alan [Oversby] got past me at one stage but then he stuck his elbows out – I think the clutch went on his bike.” Herbertson said he got caught up in the traffic at the start, enabling Coward and Oversby to get away from him. Stimpson had tried to tag on with the leaders to learn a bit, but he was well happy with third: “The track is really good, but more sketchy than the Irish roads – the walls are a lot closer!”
The Superbike
Coward’s easiest win of the day came in the Post-classic Superbike on the Kraus Racing ZXR750 he described as a “real piece of kit”. He led by a margin of four seconds at the end of the opening lap from Adrian Kershaw and event newcomer Paul Jordan on similar machines. A surge of power flipped 2018 winner Mikey Evans over the top of Graham Wilcock’s version, breaking his collarbone, sidelining him from the TT. Coward was 12.5sec clear at the halfway point, little having changed behind him. As the Yorkshireman continued to build upon his lead, Jordan closed in on Kershaw and the gap was less than half a second with three laps to go. Try as he could, the young Ulsterman was unable to get past Stockport man Kershaw for more than a brief spell and they ultimately finished five seconds apart. Alan Brodie, of Denny, near Falkirk, broke the Kawasaki domination of the top six when slotting his 750 Suzuki into fourth ahead of Ben Rea and newcomer Andrew Farrell. Coward broke lap and race records on his way to winning by a margin of 24.36sec. “I felt comfortable at the pace,” he said. Kershaw, who had grabbed the initial holeshot, said he kept his head down. “I knew someone was behind me. I missed a gear coming out of Ballakeighan and he got past, but I got him back at Ballabeg.” Jordan said he played it safe on the wrong tyres, but admitted it was just like racing back at home.
The Sidecars
After years of trying, Yorkshiremen Rod Bellas and Danny Quirk won not one but two sidecar races at the PRE-TT Classic. The BLR Imp pair rode to a comfortable victory margin of 15.6sec in the opening race, when wheels were spinning everywhere in the wet and miserable conditions. They repeated their success over Tony Thirkell and Trevor Johnson (1070cc BMW) in the second race 48 hours later in considerably better weather. Thirkell and Johnson made the stronger start to the opening race, but were overtaken by Bellas and Quirk on the exit from Ballabeg. The latter pair led by 1.9sec at the end of the first circuit, with Keith Walters and Alun Thomas a further four seconds down in third on the 1000cc BLR Honda. The lead had gone out to 7.6sec at half-distance in the four-lap event and it stretched even farther to 10.7sec with one lap remaining. At the close, Bellas and Quirk were entering the winners’ enclosure as Thirkell and Johnson crossed the finish line. They, in turn, were 5.4sec up on Walters and Thomas. Patrick Geffray of France and Andrew Haynes of Aldridge were fourth on a second 1070cc BMW MRE. Race two was even more convincing, with Bellas and Quirk getting a good break early on from pole position. They were 6.5sec ahead at the end of lap one, a margin that had grown to 18.2sec at three-quarter distance over Thirsk man Thirkell and passenger Johnson of Rochester. It looked to be heading to a carbon-copy top-four, but Walters and Thomas hit problems in the closing stages, enabling Geffray and Haynes, who had overshot Cross Four Ways on lap one, to grab the final podium place. Pleased with the double, Bellas said he’d had a crack at the lap record in the race, after unofficially achieving it in practice, only to miss it by one 500th of a second. Runner-up Thirkell said he would have preferred a bit of precipitation but was happy with a brace of seconds in his third visit to the event.