After a 9 hour journey.....yes...9 hours.....we arrived at a wet and wind Anglesey circuit. It's a beautiful area and a well set up circuit so we hoped for a great weekends racing and some sunny weather! Mark and Sarah arrived late and had a good rest before we got set up. Rain through the night but we woke to a much more promising sky on Saturday, scrutineering was done by 9.30am and then out for practice. With the wind blowing in from the sea, the track was drying out well and the boys felt the outfit was running pretty good, back to standard engines after the southern 100 so less horses to play with but with experience and determination they should have a good place on course. They qualified 9th which was less than a second off the next 4 outfits leading into the top 5. Back into a great position along side some of the cream of British sidecar racers, where they belong!
Race 1...
A beautifully sunny day, 24 outfits on the grid, Wayne and Mark had a great start to the 20 lap race on the coastal circuit. There were some great battles going on around the course...the top 5 or 6 with the Founds leading the field, closely followed by last years TT winner Conrad Harrison and then the ever popular Bells. The boys held a strong position within the top 10 among Lowthers, Lindley and Ramsdens. A few shake ups mid way saw Ramsden DNF along with Lille in lap 17. Wayne was holding a good race position and they both had a fantastic race, finishing in 7th place with a race time of 1.15.470, a fraction of a second behind Holden and Lindley.
Sunday...Race 2
What a change in the weather!!! It was dark, cold wind and raining! They'd changed the tyres and went out for practice to accustom themselves with the conditions. Towards lunchtime it had stopped raining and was drying up so some outfits had gone back to slicks, but Wayne had decided to wait, there was dark clouds over the sea which was heading our way! Good call, the heavens opened just before the race. Torrential rain....standing water all around the circuit. We thought it would be cut short, but no, 20 laps in these conditions...it was going to be interesting.
Staring in 9th, as the did yesterday in qualifying, they stayed top end of the pack off the start finish straight into the first corner where we saw Crawford have a moment and his passenger fell out leaving him sat mid track and unfortunately being hit by another outfit. Amazingly he got up and climbed back on ready to continue, however, they have to retire to be medically check as some injuries lay hidden so you must retire to seek medical attention. Hope all was well. Wayne and Mark having a steady but solid race, although vision was so limited, Wayne couldn't see more than an outfits length in front. Dukes and Morgan retired early as lack of wet tyres means no grip, Bryan and Winn retire in lap 8 and Shand in lap 14. The rain was relentless, the times were down and the outfits struggling with standing water. Lap 16 saw a huge crash between Lowthers and Quayes. The red flag was shown and we beleive the both John and Jake received some medical attention but are ok, outfit heavily damaged. Mend soon boys....see you soon. Quayes escape injury. Finish called, Founds 1st, bell second and Holden 3rd. Weldone.....Wayne and Mark fiinshed well in 8th place which was only another fraction off the top 5 times. It was a close race with such close finishing times that there wasn't much between the top 10. Brilliant and exciting to watch...Weldone to all of the competitors.
Thank you to the Wirral 100 motor club for a great weekends racing. Weldone to the organisers of the Saturday night quiz, raising over £150 for benevolent fund.
Many thanks to Derek C Donsworth for cracking photos....as usual.
Prepaing now for Cadwell Park in September....but an August break to do some much needed home time!!
Huge thanks Stuey for the rubber! Much appreciated. Thanks to everyone for all you support....we can't do it without you!