Overview

This was the 23rd running of the annual Anglesey Grand meeting. We had ideal weather, there was some impressive racing and lap records fell throughout the weekend. Credit to all the riders, however fast or slow they were, was that we had a minimum number of incidents and fallers and mechanical breakdowns, and this kept the show on the road and enabled us to complete all races and on time – just. The worst delay was the 20 minutes we lost on Sunday morning when that part of the circuit’s electric supply which services the radio communications base, the time keeping equipment, and the garages failed. Quiet panic for a while but after some innovative re- cabling in race control and the emergence of generators in the garages, we were thankfully soon back running. A totally-unexpected 194 riders rode at the 2015 meeting, and by pure co-incidence we had exactly the same number of riders again this year. We had a very welcome 20 riders from the Isle of Man and 17 riders from Ireland join us. Once again we turned away a few potential riders seeking late entries (when will they learn?), and we had to tweak the race schedule in one or two areas to maximise the allocation of the available track-time. Injury-wise we had just a few. Sidecar driver Ryan Crowe’s spectacular crash at Rocket 1 certainly had the marshals there talking and sadly resulted in a broken arm for Ryan. A fall at the same corner resulted in an ugly broken thumb for newcomer Alex Smith. Ben Solheim, having ridden so well on Saturday and secured an invitation to ride in the Grand, came off at Peel on Sunday morning and his broken collar-bone put him out of the Grand. Finally Jake Wall’s spectacular exit at the final corner, in front of all those people on the pit-wall, looked innocent enough when he walked away, but the doctors and medics were so concerned about a potential neck injury that he was whisked away in an air ambulance; fortunately the x-rays showed no serious damage, but it just goes to show the importance of being checked out after any fall. To all of the riders who picked up injuries, we wish you a speedy recovery, and we hope to see you raring to go in 2017.

Anglesey Grand

This year the Grand was dominated by one man – Adam Jenkinson, who had won the previous two Grands, who has finished seventh in the 2016 National Superstock 1000 series, and who set out his intentions by qualifying over 2 secs faster than the rest; the rest, 34 of them, were led by Chris Barnes and David Jones, whilst Jamie Harris, not unexpectedly despite this being his first W100 event of the year, was the fastest of the 600’s. Sadly Johnny Blackshaw, third in 2015 and who rides in W100 meetings whenever his National commitments allow, was only an interested spectator this year, still recovering from the concussion he suffered at Cadwell six weeks ago. The 1st Leg saw Adam start well and relentlessly disappear into the distance, winning eventually by 25 secs after the 12 laps; Chris was a comfortable second throughout, and it was Mike Booth, another National Superstock contender, who forced his way ahead in a great battle for third place. Teenager Rob Varey, always quick at Aintree and making his second appearance in the Grand, benefited from Jamie Harris being inadvertently forced off at Rocket 1 in the early stages, and was the fastest of the 600’s in fourth place overall. Two making their Grand debuts also took the eye – Max Wadsworth, currently 5th in the Thundersport 600 series, was 7th overall and the second 600, and Joe Ravenscroft was 8th overall. The 2nd Leg started dramatically with Mike Booth being touched and forced down at the Banking on the warm-up lap; the race start was delayed, the remaining riders were given two extra warm-up laps, and the race length was reduced to 11 laps. Having set the fastest lap in the first race and therefore having secured pole position for the 2nd Leg, Adam Jenkinson took the hole-shot again from Chris Barnes and at the front it was a repeat of the previous race, with Adam winning this time by over 20 seconds with Chris, having his best-ever W100 meeting, second and four secs ahead of David Jones. This time it was back to normal for Jamie Harris, who was the best 600 but only 0.2 secs ahead of Rob Varey, whose 1st Leg result meant that he was the best 600 on aggregate. Next best 600 was another impressive W100 newcomer, Adam McLean, another emerging young talent from Northern Ireland, whilst it was good to see John Robb, the winner of the Grand in 2009, emerge from the shadows and finish 5th overall. Congratulations to Adam, Chris and the other fast boys at the front, but also to the rest of the field, who contributed in no small measure to two exceptionally skilful and entertaining races. The surprise was that Sam Hornsey’s lap record of 1 min 25.101 secs, set when chasing Adam at the 2015 Grand, somehow remains intact!.

David Swallow Memorial Race

The final classic bike outing of the W100 year saw the fifth running of this memorial race dedicated to David, who died from carbon-monoxide poisoning when camping overnight at a race meeting at East Fortune in 2010. W100 and David’s long-time friend and sponsor Ken Platt jointly put up £250 of prize money for the benefit of the single-cylinder brigade, and it was fitting that the singles dominated proceedings. Gary Thwaites, regularly impressive at miscellaneous W100 events over the years on his Matchless, took the victory and it looked as though the family Owen – Hefyn, Bob and Meredydd - would fill the next three places, but Edward Manley spoiled the party and pipped Meredydd for 4th place on the last lap. It was good to see Loris Hunt bring his 250 Suzuki home ahead of a number of 500’s in 6th place, and David’s dad Bill finish 10th on his 350 Ducati.

Paul Bland Motorsport Formula 600

There was a strange conclusion to this championship with the first three suffering all sorts of woes and stuttering over the line in the same order they started – with Jamie Devine, the champion, repeating his victory in 2014, ahead of Chris Eden in only his second year of racing, with Adrian Kershaw third. The heats on Saturday were fairly sensible with Jamie Devine and Jamie Harris claiming wins, but in the second race Jamie D and Chris, the two championship leaders, both had DNF’s, Jamie’s the result of a spectacular whoopsie at the final corner after a contact with Rob Varey. Rob finished second behind Jamie H in this race, and these positions were reversed in the final round on Sunday morning – the championship first three ‘limped’ home in 12th, 9th and 7th places respectively! This remains our strongest and most competitive class and at this meeting we had 59 entries, which of course gave us the opportunity to run two ‘consolation’ races for those outside the top 36 in the heats, and in these two races the top two were Jamie Williams, Nigel Rea and Kieran Brockie. Most of these riders also took part in the Trophy Races (for those not invited to compete in the Grand) on Sunday afternoon – in Trophy Race A the first three to pick up some unexpected trophies were W100 newcomer Mathew Edwards, the evergreen Kenny Shepherd, and Manx newcomer Brendan Fargher, whilst in Race B Jamie Williams took another race win, this time ahead of another evergreen, Stuart Dawson, and Nigel Rea. So, all-in-all our attempts to give some of the ‘also-rans’ something to race for on the final afternoon of the season, worked out well. span>

PowerBikes

The Grand meeting always attracts more Powerbikes than we are used to and a final entry of 25 riders was pretty impressive. Matt Jones had already clinched the championship back in July, so he was not concerned that others had come to play at this final meeting. Adam Jenkinson and Chris Barnes, ‘practising’ for the Grand dominated all three races, but in fairness to Matt he was the best of the rest with a 2nd, a 3rd, and a 4th. Johnny Blackshaw had been unbeaten in the March and June meetings and his six wins then were enough to secure second place in the championship, whilst the consistent Graham Hornby hung on to third place, which he probably would not have done, had David Jones not retired in the race on Saturday afternoon.

650 Twins

This class normally shares track-time with G/E Supersport, but the Twins entry level of 34 meant that they ran by themselves this time. Barry Furber and Chris Ganderton have dominated all season and after the first race on Saturday they were confirmed as champion and runner-up respectively. In fact Barry won the first three races and dropped out of the fourth to concentrate on his debut ride on a GSXR1000 in the Grand; that fourth race was won by Irishman Glenn Walker, returning to W100 action for the first time this year. Others to feature strongly were Jamie Williams (the same rider as referred to above, but this time on a twin) and Barry Lee Evans (again his first W100 outing on a twin this year), whilst Kevin Baker clinched third position in the championship with four top-eight finishes; all credit to Kevin and to Chris, both of whom scored top-ten points in all 16 races this season. Glenn Walker was chuffed to death having broken the Twins lap-record on Saturday, only for Barry Furber to respond on Sunday morning by going even faster. Great stuff.

100-500cc Allcomers

What you see is what you get! With dwindling grids for the 125ccGP, 250ccGP and Formula 400 classes, and with a number of owners of Moto-3 250’s and 450 Twins and CB500’s wanting to race with us and a few keen Classics wanting some extra races, we throw them all in the pot and see what happens. 30 riders joined the fun this time and after the dust had settled on Sunday evening, the first three in the championship were the same as they had been at the start on Saturday morning, with John Price as champion, followed by Adrian Kershaw and Eoin Collins, all aboard F400 Kawasaki’s. 14 years-old Josh Hodge, so impressive on his debut here in July aboard a Moto-3 KTM took the wins in Saturday’s races, in the first race just ahead of Keith Jackson and Adrian Kershaw, and in the second race the leaders Keith and Adrian tripped each other up at the Corkscrew and allowed Josh to claim his second win, this time ahead of Dan Sayle, more famous as a top-class passenger but also the winner of the recent Lightweight Manx Grand Prix on his Moto-3 Honda. Josh was a non-starter on Sunday preferring to concentrate on his efforts in the upcoming British Motostar Championship round at Brands, and it was then very much back-to-normal with John Price claiming two comfortable wins, firstly from Keith Jackson and then from Adrian Kershaw, with these two just ahead of the cheerful Irish teenager Eoin Collins, second in this W100 series and incidentally a convincing winner of the 2016 F400 Irish Short Circuits Championship. .

Sidecars

We have had 28 sidecar teams race with us this season, but each meeting’s entry list has been strangely varied. In the early season meetings our entries were boosted by ‘national’ crews testing ahead of the TT or British championship campaigns, but July was a low-point when we had to cancel the class for a lack of entries. For this meeting there was a limited but welcome recovery with an entry of 11 crews. Craig & Kirsty Hauxwell and Kevin Thornton & Dave Dean had two wins apiece, their tasks made easier after Ryan & Callum Crowe’s big accident in race 1. Mike Jackson, with new passenger Scott Hardie on board for this meeting, was the championship leader and with a best result of 2 nd in race 2, he did enough to secure the championship win.

Golden Era Superbike & Golden Era Supersport

When we adopted these two classes a few years back, we had not thought that a rider might compete in both championships, yet alone win them both, but Jon Wright did – very well done! In G/E Superbikes, just like last year, the championship was between Jon and John Jones, but two DNF’s in March had generally put paid to the latter’s hopes of holding on to the title, such that Jon W was able to take two 4th’s on Saturday to secure the championship, and then to concentrate on his G/E Supersport rides on Sunday. It was Sean Neary, however, riding Neil Percival’s Suzuki who dominated proceedings. Sean has enjoyed an excellent season in the national Ducati TriOptions Cup, finishing second and capping his season with three wins in the final three races – one at Assen and two at Brands Hatch. So this man-in-form was over 3 secs faster than any other G/E bike in practice and in a combined practice session was only headed by six of the fastest Powerbikes (Jenkinson et al). Sean did what he did in July, completely dominating all four races, breaking the class lap record in the process, a performance that took him to second in the championship. In the close season we have to think about this class as it is not getting the rider support we hoped for. There are thoughts now about extending it to include ‘Pre-Electronics Powerbikes (with quick-shifters)’, which we hope will be of interest not only to owners of older bikes in the current Powerbikes class, but also to potential new riders. If anyone has any other bright ideas please let us know. In the well-supported G/Era Supersport class this year, Jon Wright has generally had the upper hand over Martyn Bloomfield, but Martyn was only 11 points behind at the start of play on Saturday. However the mathematics were complicated by two W100 champions of the past making their first appearances with us this year – Sam Boyers, who had a heat win and three race wins, and Tim Bradley, who had two 2nd’s and a 3rd. Going in to the final race of the season, though, Jon’s lead had been extended to 12 points, and sure enough his 6th place against Martyn’s 2nd was enough to keep him ahead by 7 points. A great finish to a great season, which also saw Andy Lee do enough to pip Ray Stevenson for 3rd place in the championship. One of the features of the year was the consistency of the riders and the reliability of their machines - not only did Jon and Martyn score points in all 16 races, but so too did Barry O’Neill and Damian Davis in 5th and 6th place respectively.

Pre-Injection

The rules could not be simpler - if the bike has two wheels, is over 500cc and has a carburettor, it is eligible. It is also an opportunity for riders of G/E Superbike and G/E Supersport machines and older 650 Twins to have two more races per day. This year the series has been dominated by Chris Ganderton on his old R1; he had a 2nd place in March and a 2nd and a 3rd place at Oulton in April, but since then has remained unbeaten with twelve consecutive wins, including the four at this meeting. Martyn Bloomfield and Andy Lee replicated their leaderboard results in the G/E Supersport class, finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively, whilst Sam Boyers and Barry Lee Evans appeared for the first time this season and between them took the four 2nd places behind Chris

Keh Inwood Forgotten Era & Classic Bikes

The Forgotten Era class saw John Price go into this meeting with a 17 points advantage over Eoin Collins and when they both very uncharacteristically failed to finish race 1, we wondered what was to be in store. Will Bryant took his first W100 victory in that race, but in races 2 and 3 it was back-to-normal with John 1st and Eoin 2nd, their championship places secured. It was time for them both to relax in race 4, a race won by the returning Christian Peck with a new class lap record. Two riders performing well on their first and only championship outings of the year were Tim Kermode with a 2nd and a 3rd (he only raced on Saturday) and Paul Tye who claimed two 3rd’s and two 4th’s; despite these appearances, regulars Chris Lewis, James Labdon and Cieron Thompson were able to maintain their positions in 3rd, 4th and 5th. Our Classic Bike entries at Anglesey this year have been hugely disappointing, but the support for the David Swallow Race meant that for this meeting we could run separate races for them, albeit sharing track-time and using split-starts with the Forgotten Era machines. Hefyn Owen won race 1, but Gary Thwaites, after a DNF, then took over and won the remaining three races, (including the David Swallow Race - see earlier).

The Anglesey Open Races

The Lightweight Open has been dominated this year by the unbeaten Barry Furber on his SV650; Barry made it six wins in succession in Saturday’s race, followed home by Josh Hodge and Kevin Baker, Sunday, though, saw a surprise, when Barry followed Glenn Walker home, albeit the gap was only 0.08 secs at the end. Sam Cross, the 2015 champion, came home third, and Kevin Baker’s 4th place secured him the runner-up spot in the championship. Because we were over-subscribed for the Senior Open class, rather than disappoint anyone we ran two non-championship Senior B Open races with the Lightweight races, and the wins were shared by Jamie Williams and Nigel Rea, with the disabled rider Michael Reynolds , fresh from recently claiming an impressive 600cc World Disabled Cup Race victory at Mugello, getting a 5th and a 2nd from his rear-of-grid starts. To round off both days, we had the Senior Open races. With seven races in the season to count (two this weekend) and with second-placed Johnny Blackshaw a non-starter, Simon Napier effectively lead Jamie Devine and Graham Hornby by 13 points (ie less than the points for a race win) with Matt Jones a further 4 points adrift. Adam Jenkinson and Jamie Harris took the big points in race 1, but Matt and Jamie D followed them home, whilst Simon Napier, after a disastrous qualifying and a rear-of-grid start could do nothing in race 1; he had to borrow a bike for the second race, but with the first two in race 1 sitting this one out, it was left to his rivals Matt Jones and Jamie Devine to take the first two places. They had the same number of points at the end, but Matt’s more wins gave him the championship; some consolation for Simon was that his 7th place in this race was enough to guarantee him 3rd place in the championship.

Fastest lap of the weekend – Adam Jenkinson - 1min 25.775 secs – 88.13 mph Fastest 5-lap race average – Adam Jenkinson – 86.63 mph Newcomers’ Award – Jamie Williams from the Isle of Man (four wins) Getting-us-out-of-the-mire Award – to Ernie Coates Motorcycles from Belfast, who stepped forward at the last minute to provide us with a paddock tyre supply and fitting service. Thanks, Ernie. Sponsors’ Award – to Paul Bland Motorsport for providing prize money all season for the F600 class at Anglesey Booby Prizes – to those riders who ride carelessly, and get involved in stupid incidents on warm-up laps. What on earth are you doing? Why?!?! Marshals’ Awards – to every single one of them, as without them there simply would be no racing; we also need them to each recruit one new marshal to help in 2017. Please! Quote of the weekend - from a new rider signing on in the Race Office: “What’s wrong with you lot – you’re all smiling” (He explained that he was not used to this at his usual club). Well done Margaret, Lyn, Jackie and Sue. Just keep smiling!