HOTTRAX National Endurance
Championship – 6 hours
Series leaders GBMoto (Mark
Smith Halvorsen, local ace Torquil Paterson and very experience rider Roger
Bennett, making a welcome return to GBMoto on the Yamaha R1) managed to grab
pole from local specialists – Grant Racing (Bruce Binnie/Forbes Cowan – Suzuki
1000) who have their base in the Knockhill paddock, a business run by Scottish
600 specialist and race winner - ‘Wee’ Bob Grant. Missing from the grid were
Uprite racing who arrived at the track with the borrowed Moores Racing R1 but
managed to drop a valve in testing.
Moores
also supported Harvey Mushman Racing (Hugh Brasher/Mick Godfrey/Vance John – R1)
who arrived with Motorcycle , riders but no crew or race tent, Welshman Vance had
initially been down to ride for Uprite but switched camps after the R1 expired.
The early part of the race
saw northern racing protagonists, Binnie and Bennett circulate in very close
company before initial pit stops commenced, by the one hour mark GBMoto held a
lap over HMR who were in front of the Moores Racing R6 (Tony Jimenez/Mike
Eglington/Jim Agombar) with Grant Racing in fourth.
The Pace Car made an
unwelcome appearance on the 2 hour mark, as Team Viking’s Paul Clarke and one
of the Radtec Junior riders went down at the hairpin. Paul’s team mate, Crispin
d’Albertanson managed to recover the stricken 600 and continue sharing the
riding with Barry Salmon. Clarke was knocked out for a short while but
recovered with bruised pride and backside. After 179 laps, former World, European
and British Strongest Man – Forbes Cowan, a big man who loves his racing, dropped
the Grant Racing machine and retired back in the pits with front brake
problems.
Another team having real
dramas were Team Purple (Kevin Davies/Chris Wade/Des Senior) whose steel framed
600 was in and out with fuel problems, in the fourth hour the Motorcycle threw a
chain at the other side of the track and a new chain was purchased and sent out
to Chris Wade to fit and return to the fray. Team Purple was run by Hazel
Drury, the racing GP, who is recovering well from an endurance racing massive
spill last year at Pembrey on a very quick Honda Firestorm. Des Senior is new
to endurance racing after a long and illustrious career in motorcycle road
racing. 
Towards the end of the race,
GBMoto consolidated a safe lead over HMR who had the M2 Construction R6
(Matthew Checkley/Doug Cannon/Neil Richardson) only a couple of laps behind.
With just over an hour to go the GBMoto R1 developed a split exhaust, holding a
seven lap lead just in case! The Motorcycle pitted and new front pads were fitted,
the exhaust was left in tact and half the lead evaporated. Although they had a
spare system in the van did they want to risk loosing the race with a lengthy
pit stop repair?
In the final hour, the Kawasaki
Newcastle (Andy Jones/David Alsop/Phil Knowles – 600) was chasing the Phoenix
Endurance R6 (Shelley Pike/Pete Gibson joined by Hottrax instructor and
supermono specialist Andy Buik) for sixth place behind 120+ Racing (Richard
Cunningham/Sean Moss/Steve Lunnon) who had enjoyed a steady race in the top 6.
The
Kawasaki
eventually battled past Shelley Pike, only to be handed a 10 second time
penalty for a pit lane speed infringement, effectively loosing the gained place.
GB Moto took the chequered cloth
ahead of the similar machine of Harvey Mushman Racing with the 600 Supersport
teams of M2 Construction and Moores Racing behind, 120 + Racing were fifth on
another R1 and
Phoenix
retained sixth ahead of Kawasaki Newcastle. Team Viking made it all worthwhile
by finishing a brave eighth place, Grant Racing were classified ninth and Team
Purple Endurance were running well at the end to complete the field.
The first motorcycle
endurance race in
Scotland
,
a national endurance race started with a saltire and two races starting at the
same time with different race lengths and fantastic Scottish weather - all the
ingredients for a fantastic event.
Despite winning the first
two races, GBMoto cannot relax, Harvey Mushman Racing are close, M2 Construction
have their R6 running well with Moores Racing in very close attendance and
Phoenix look good in the Superstock 600 class. Next round in at Pembrey on
21/22 July at Pembrey.
1 GBMoto * 375
laps
2 Harvey Mushman Racing 369
laps
3 M2 Construction * 366
laps
4 Moores Racing 365
laps
5 120 + Racing 348 laps
6 Phoenix Endurance * 344
laps
7 Kawasaki Newcastle 344 laps
8 Team Viking 332
laps
9 Grant Racing 251
laps
10 Team Purple Endurance 179
laps
* Class Winners
HOTTRAX Junior Endurance
Championship – 2 hours
Starting from pole position
M & P Racing (Mike Ashton/Paul Rogers) were quickly overhauled by Team
SOBER (Mark Linscott/Gary Bransgrove) who had shown much promise at the opening
round at Snetterton, three weeks ago. By the one hour point Team SOBER held a
half lap lead over at the M & P Fireblade - at the same time running 7th and 8th on the road as the Junior race ran at the same time as the
six hour National encounter.
When the chequered flag
dropped after two hours, Team SOBER had developed a one lap cushion over Moto
Developments (Luke Hall/Simon Nash) who finished on the same lap as Go Fast
Racing (Tristan Clarke/Tim Westley/Kane Dalton), and M & P. Not far away
were TSE Racing (Nick Potts/James Urquart) and Dos Albaniles (Nicholas Ford/Dave
Charrett) who made up the top six finishers of the Junior 1000 class. The two
brothers Lee + Mat Rawlings (Rawlings Racing) took their R1s into 7th place in their class ahead of C2C Racing (Martin Black/Dave Brooking) and
Radtec Racing (Guy Langley/Martin Timms) after a spill at the Hairpin.
Junior 600 winners, ETA
Racing (Ian Courts/Daren Brearley) finished fifth on the road a whole seven
laps ahead of their other class rivals; Team Issor (Kevin Miller/Bruce Cobburn)
and Black Flag Racing (Alistair Holmes/George Duncan).
1 Team SOBER * 115 laps
2 Moto Developments 114
laps
3 Go Fast Racing 114 laps
4 M + P Racing 114 laps
5 ETA Racing * 111 laps
6 TSE Racing 111
laps
7 Dos Albaniles 110
laps
8 Rawlings Racing 109
laps
9 C2C Racing 107 laps
10 Team Issor 104
laps
11 Radtec Racing 95 laps
12 Black Flag Racing 90 laps
Fastest lap – Team SOBER 55.923s
(83.636mph)
* Class winners
Alfonso Lygo
