GETTING SERIOUS
The CRMC was at Mallory Park for its penultimate 2019 meeting and with club and ACU championships coming to the boil the competition was intense, as reported by Graham Lawlor and Pete Morris.
1. Typically fraught proddie action as the FZ600 Yamahas of Ash Beckett (37), John Warwick (58), Dominic Clegg (4), Martin Ratcliffe (7) and Adam Reeves (8) arrive at Shaw’s hairpin under the proverbial blanket. After five hugely entertaining races it was two wins each for championship leaders Warwick and Beckett and a first 2019 proddie victory for Reeves.
2. James Fixter (Triumph 750) takes a tumble after a heavy Saturday shower made track conditions tricky.
3. A big entry and some new, if temporary, partnerships meant that the sidecars produced close racing in both the 750cc and open classes. Typical action here as Andy Street/alan Cracknell (76, MRE Imp 998), Jason Reilly/kevin Hunt (58, MRE BMW 1200) and Jack/dave Gristwood (Moorespeed BMW 1070) power their way round Gerards in close order.
4. The Minnovation/acu Classic 500 championship maintained its reputation for great entertainment with a brilliant scrap between Richard Molnar (Molnar Manx) and Minnovation G50 team-mates Lee Hodge and Joe Barton. A Barton win would have put him in an almost unassailable position but Molnar’s last gasp victory over Hodge, with Barton a close third, meant that everything will be decided at Snetterton’s final round.
5. The Hercberg International/acu Post Classic round saw the winner, Lee Hodge (Minnovation P&M Kawasaki 1260), receive the magnificent Charlie Sanby Trophy from Charlie’s race mechanic, Wally Maisey. Hodge set a new CRMC Mallory outright lap record of 50.709 secs (97.26 mph) on his way to defeating team-mate Joe Barton by 0.62 seconds with Ant Hart (TZ350) a very distant third. The win lifted Hodge to a two point championship lead over Barton with just Snetterton to come.