NEAR PERFECT CONDITIONS FOR WIRRAL HUNDRED AT ANGLESEY – A GARDEN OF EDEN

The Wirral Hundred club’s race meeting on 3rd & 4th August on the Anglesey 1.55 mile coastal circuit was its fourth championship meeting of the year, with one now remaining. The meeting also included rounds of the ACU British Formula 2 Sidecar championship.

This was a weekend when the Anglesey weather was almost at its perfect best, but some heavy rain slowed things down on Sunday morning and eventually resulted in an early lunch. Thereafter the warm, sunny conditions – and a dry track – returned.

There is a separate detailed report on the British F2 Sidecar races on the FSRA website; it is enough to say here that both 16-lap races were dominated by the championship favourites Pete Founds (Wirral born and bred) & Jevan Walmsley.

There were four races in the main W100 championship classes across the weekend, 8 lap races on Saturday and longer-than-usual 10 lappers on Sunday. Andy Jackson was the only rider to clinch any championships with one round still to go, and he did it in both the 100-500cc Allcomers class and the Anglesey Junior Open.

In the Paul Bland Motorsport Formula 600 class championship leader Chris Eden and regular Thundersport winner Max Wadsworth were the pick, with Eden spoiling a possible clean-sweep of wins by falling at the Banking and handing that race-win to Wadsworth. All credit then to Eden for winning the next race from a rear-of-grid start. Regular contender and former champion Adrian Kershaw had one 2nd and two 3rd’s, but, like Eden, spoiled his record by slipping off, this time in Sunday’s damp conditions at Rocket Out. Carl Jones and Eoin Collins each had four top-six finishes and are now the only riders who have a remote chance of catching Eden at the final round.

Scott Shand, the leader of the Carl Roberts Racing / Emjess Racing Powerbikes class, looked set to repeat his unbeaten performance of the previous round, but surprisingly slipped off at the Corkscrew in the final race, enabling Joey Taylor to take his first win. Shand’s only remaining rival for the championship is the evergreen Graham Hornby, whose two 2nd’s, a 3rd, and a 4th, will leave him just 11 points behind going into the final round. Chris Lacy made an impressive return to racing with two 2nd’s and two 3rd’s. In the Pre-2009/Pre-Electronics Powerbikes category the season-long battle between Adrian Kershaw (ZXR 750) and Jon Wright (R1) continued with Kershaw’s three wins and one 3rd taking him to within one point of Wright. It should be an ‘interesting’ final round.

Jon Wright had no such pressure in the dry Pre-Injection races with three comfortable wins, but a nervy 8th in his only wet race, has just about left the door open for James Leatham, with three 2nd places this time, to catch him. Martin Clare and Joshua Potts were the best of the rest. Forgotten Era shared the track-time with their larger P-I brothers and Phil Millard, only competing on Saturday, impressively qualified in 5th place in the combined qualifying session and won both F/E races comfortably. Sunday saw championship leader Ian Riley take the two wins, and he takes a 27 point lead into the final round. Stephen Kennedy and Clifford Washbrook each had four top-five placings, whilst we give a special mention to 17-years old Oliver Morgan-Edwards who had a fine 2nd place in race 1, but who was then sidelined for the remainder of the meeting with mechanical woes.

In the AS Racing Suspension Services Golden Era Supersport races the top two in the championship Simon Robins and James Leatham again went head-to-head with Leatham taking the two wins on Saturday from Robins; from bad to worse, however, for Robins on Sunday, as technical issues saw him miss one race and finish 9th in the other race on a borrowed bike. Leatham now takes a 16-point lead into the final round. As usual the 650 Twins raced alongside G/E Supersport and 2018 champion Mike Bampton, with two 1st’s and two 2nd’s made inroads into the championship lead of Tim Sayers, who had one win, one 2nd and two 4th’s. They go into the final round 29 points apart with 60 points on offer. Max Dixon did not compete on Sunday but his record of a win and a 2nd on Saturday was impressive.

Sadly, for this meeting there was a depleted grid for the 100-500cc Allcomers races and Andy Jackson had four comfortable and stylish wins, and claimed his first W100 championships.

Before this meeting, the 2019 W100 Open Sidecar races had tended to be dominated by crews ‘testing’ for national events and it is likely now that the Club championship will be decided over the last two meetings. The first three drivers last year, two with new passengers this year, look likely to be those in contention. At this meeting Stephen Markland & Owen Rigby had three wins and a 2nd, Paul Wade & Neil Gregory two 2nd’s and a 3rd, whilst 2018 champion John Shipley Snr & Lee Woodward’s best was a 4th.

At the end of both days, the Anglesey Senior and Junior Open races took place. As expected Scott Shand won the first Senior, from Max Wadsworth and Chris Eden, but his fall earlier in the day side-lined him for the second race, and it was Chris Eden, at the end of a very successful weekend, who took the spoils from Wadsworth and Taylor. Eden also took the lead in this championship, now leading Shand by 14 points. In the Junior races Andy Jackson’s two 2nd places on his 250 GP Honda secured him the title; in race 1 he was beaten by Mike Bampton (650 Twin) and by novice 600 rider and W100 debutant Marcus Simpson in race 2. Another 600 novice Liam Thornton in only his second race meeting was a creditable 3rd.

The Club’s season ends with the iconic Anglesey Grand meeting on the International circuit over the weekend of 12th & 13th October, with the 26th running of the Grand, a full complement of W100 championship races, and the final round of the 2019 FSRA Pre-Injection Sidecar championship.

Other Wirral witterings

Crash of the weekend – Undoubtedly the star of the show was Les Mason, whose ZX10-R let go big-style flat out at School. Les got away with a badly fractured wrist and heavy bruising. Sadly the bike was not so lucky! We all of course wish Les a speedy recovery.

Other reportable casualties – there were none! So all credit to all of the riders for this.

10-lap races - with only a short period for practice on Sunday morning, this enabled us to schedule in 10-lap races for all of the W100 races on Sunday, instead of the normal 8-lappers, and with no red-flag stoppages, we even finished ahead of time. Despite some riders being ‘knackered’ (their word, not ours) and others concerned about the increased amount of lapping that was going on, it is good to report that the feed-back generally was positive. It is perhaps a pity that Anglesey has 90 minutes-less permitted track-time per day than most other circuits, so it may not always be possible, but we will try.

New influx of marshals – It is good to see that this season we have been helped by a number of new, keen and younger marshals. Thank you all, and let’s see that trend continue.

Thanks from the FSRA - Quoting from the FSRA’s website report on the ACU British F2 Sidecar Championship races: “The FSRA wish to thank all at the Wirral 100 club for hosting a well-run and enjoyable event”. Take a bow, everyone.