Race Report: Anglesey
Racing in sunny Wales – a weekend of thrills, spills, broken bones and headaches…
Paul Green brings us up to speed with a fast-paced and action-packed race report.
The sixth round of the Casa Lambretta British Scooter Championship saw the riders taking the trip to the picturesque Anglesey circuit. Being literally a stone’s throw from the sea means the weather can be unpredictable to say the least but this year it was broadly warm and sunny with just one race affected by rain.
The rush of racing…
Group 4 200cc Standards – The first race was red-flagged twice for various incidents, one of which saw Dave Bristow off and the rumble strips inflicting fair damage to the rear loop of the scooter, resulting in some heavy engineering to straighten things back up again.
The second race saw a downpour as the riders were lining up on the grid, with officials and riders ‘scientifically’ holding hands up deciding if it was too wet – but the green lights went on and the race was underway. Chris Geyton is generally a rainmeister, but this time he slid off on the first lap and took out Darren Conneely, who suffered bent forks in the process. Straightening out Darren’s bike was a team effort and even Barry from Team DSC got involved with a unique fork straightening method involving swinging the forks above his head before crashing them into a block of wood on the floor – it worked though…sort of.
Sunday saw Conneely with two flag to flag wins to add to his single win from Saturday. Those forks were obviously now straight…ish! Bristow picked up the other win in the wet race to add to his solid points tally
LCGB Production Class 200cc – As always there was super close racing between the
Team DSC riders but it was Stephen Graves taking three wins with team Justin Price picking up just one. Can Graves turn things around for the second half of the season to reel his team-mate in?
The first race was red flagged for a crash by Liam Dunne, who suffered a broken collarbone. In the restart a nasty crash involving Pat Wickham and Dave Delaney saw the air ambulance called. Fortunately, after they spent time in the medical centre, it wasn’t needed, although both riders went to hospital by road.
The second Saturday race was wet, but it looked like Graves didn’t get the memo and he disappeared into the distance on the production class machine to take a 15sec lead, which was incredible to watch in the conditions. Behind him Stuart Day was starting to find his feet and in a fantastic race with Tim Simpson, both riders excelled in the conditions. Spoiling the Lambretta party was Mad Dog Mackenzie on the P-range Vespa, which he put on the podium after every race.
The racing throughout the weekend in the production class was as close as ever. Andy Barnes made some changes to his set-up that paid off and he joined the group of Graham Tatton, Jeremy Steel and David Marsden for close racing on Saturday but, come Sunday, Tatton had a fresh head on and was a few places higher and also with a fresh head was James Lancaster, who was back on it with a second place on Sunday behind Graves after Price had a non-finish. The weekend will have seen Graves close up a little in the points classification but there is still a long way to go.
Auto Specials Group 6A – Again the super-fast automatics didn’t disappoint. Lee Bamber and Gary Peacock once more provided some brilliant and competitive racing, with little between them, but it was Bamber who came out on top with four wins over the weekend. Warren Wilkinson was just off their pace but he picked up a second place in the final race after a red flag saw Peacock out. Behind them John Woods had a very positive weekend edging out Justin Price.
The special class automatics just edged out the geared specials for fastest laps during the weekend, which is essentially down to improved handling from the more modern machines, but there was comment from spectators who were simply amazed at the speeds when seeing these automatics for the first time.
Group 6 Geared Specials – Unfortunately, the fast improving Taylor Sturgess threw his scooter down the track in practice, leaving the Replay Team the job of repairing his smashed fairing, but it wasn’t possible to fully repair it, so parts boxes were cut up to provide number backgrounds and Taylor raced without the fairing. The spill hadn’t knocked his confidence and he took second in the first race behind team-mate Darren Conneely but a DNF in race two on Saturday. Again Conneely dominated with four wins, but veteran Stuart Day finished an up and down weekend with a strong second place,
showing what he is capable of when his machine is on song. Mark Cook is getting back up to speed after breaking his arm early in the season and his immaculately prepared machine also won him an award for best prepared over the weekend. Mark will be delighted to be scoring solid placings now his season is getting back on track. Conneely is the runaway leader in the group, but the last third of the season could see Sturgess, Day, Mackenzie and Cook battling for the podium places.
Running on the back of the geared specials gives Production Class riders the chance to gain extra track time and shows the overall reliability of the machines with very few breakdowns despite up to eight races a weekend for some of them.
Open Class – Lee Bamber and Stewart Mackenzie made the most of the opportunity of extra track time in this class to develop their machines. With the Anglesey weather kind, it was a fabulous weekend of racing at a track that’s very popular with riders, as it has a bit of everything and when the weather is good it is glorious with the sea in the background and good facilities, including pit garages.
It was a successful weekend for most and we wish a speedy recovery to the injured riders.
You can keep up to date with the championship placings at the new BSSO website www.bsso.co.uk
Words & paddock pics: Paul Green Race photographs: Lee Hollick