2008 Race Reports

Rounds 1 & 2, Snetterton Circuit, 12^th and 13^th April

The 2008 Supermono championship at last got underway with many riders taking advantage of the test day offered by host club BMCRC on the Friday. A dry but bitterly cold morning gave way to showers in the afternoon meaning that meaningful testing was not really possible. It really did seem as if the weather is determined to sabotage many facets of the British motorcycle racing scene this year.

The format for the championship has changed this year with the old air/water-cooled class split giving way to a “cup” competition for riders with less than a national licence and the "championship" for national licence holders and above.

Fortunately, the weather on Saturday was dry, sunny and a little warmer, perhaps because of the significant wind. A 20-minute qualifying session took place mid-morning and saw many of the usual suspects in typical form. The class will miss reigning champion Glen English but pole position went to one of last year’s main contenders, Nick Chadwick on the East/West racing KTM 610. Next to him was reigning European champion, Mark Lawes on the Pami BMW (Team James), with Mike Edwards and Jeff Claridge (Tigcraft 450) making up the front row. 

The second row was Henk From, Richard Rowley, Jonathan Good and Alex Hutchinson making a brave appearance whilst still nursing a very sore right shoulder following a dislocation from a practice spill at Mallory a few weeks earlier. The leading cup runner was Richard Fogg in 9^th with Dave Harnett on his new 450cc Honda (same marque, but water-cooled instead of air).  Still further back, on row 5 were British and European Supermono organisers, Scott Richardson and Rob Hunt respectively, having each suffered mechanical woes in qualifying.

Race 1 got underway immediately after lunch, and an excellent start saw Mark Lawes take the hole shot. Following him closely into Riches were Mike Edwards, Jeff Claridge, Alex Hutchinson and Henk From. Unfortunately for him, Nick Chadwick had made a schoolboy error and stalled prior to the warm-up lap meaning he had to start from pit-lane, losing all his pole position advantage.

Over the next few laps, Lawes and Edwards slowly pulled away from the following group of From, Claridge, Hutchinson and Goldstein. Unfortunately, the leading duo’s relentless pace meant they soon came across back-markers just as they approached Russel’s chicane. Ever the gentleman, Lawes slowed to avoid a tangle thus offering Edwards an invitation he could not refuse. Veteran racer Edwards slipped underneath to take the lead. This manoeuvre clearly galvanised the European champion into action and he immediately responded by dropping his lap-times into the 1 minute 15 second bracket to begin a relentless and successful charge to the line. He soon passed Edwards and stretched out a 6 second lead to the chequered flag.

Behind this pair, Dutchman Henk From (Team James Pami BMW) had pulled away from the chasing group to take a safe third place. Chadwick rounded off a stellar ride by coming all the way through the field to finish fourth! Hutchinson’s ride through the pain barrier earned him 5^th place on the Netafan Tigcraft 450 with Claridge close behind in 6^th.  Behind them saw Perry Goldstein, Harnett, Richardson, Rowley, Clive Chitty and Richard Fogg all finish in close proximety of each other.

Fogg was the first of the Cup finishers, in 12th place, with fellow Cup riders Matt Wildee (in his first ever race on the resurrected Tigcraft MZ) and Mark Hughes, riding Australian Michael Payne’s old GRC 450 minimono.

Race 2 took place on the Sunday, however, with a broad line of (cement dusted) oil around almost the entire lap.  This time Nick Chadwick made a much better start from pole to take the lead into the first corner. He was closely followed by Edwards, Lawes and Claridge. Sadly, Edwards bike “Gordon” was to suffer a terminal engine failure heading into sear’s corner, causing Lawes to complain of being hit by debris and Claridge to have to follow Edwards off the track to avoid falling! By the time he re-joined the circuit, he was at the back of an 18-wheeler tussle for the lead, as nine machines circulated nose to tail! 

This group continued their battle over the next few laps with Chadwick resolutely holding the lead. Slowly, a 4-man group started to stretch from the others with the leader followed by Lawes, From and Claridge respectively. This quartet held station with only a bike length or two between each rider for almost the whole race distance. However, not satisfied with another third place, Henk From made a well executed move into Riches to pass team-mate Lawes on the final lap. He was able to hold this advantage to the line to follow Chadwick over for a fine 2^nd place. Lawes took 3^rd and Claridge 4^th.

Richard Fogg finished in 9^th place overall to lead home the cup competitors, followed by Wildee and Hughes again, in 11^th and 12^th places respectively.

This was the first time for a while that BMCRC has hosted the supermono championship and it was felt by all involved to be a great success. Sadly, the next round was to have been with BMCRC on the GP circuit at Brands Hatch on May 10^th and 11^th. However, this round has been lost to the re-scheduled BSB meeting forced by their cancellation due to snow. At this point the next two rounds will be held at Pembrey in June (13^th and 14^th) with our long-standing hosts, New Era.

PIT BITS

Shoulders seem to be the trendy thing to injure. Not only Alex Hutchinson but also Andrew McCombe (the current air-cooled champion) have suffered shoulder injuries in pre-season testing. Andrew had his fractured collar bone plated 3 weeks ago forcing him to sit out this weekend. His bike was to be raced by Superstock regular Colin Young. Unfortunately a gearbox failure meant Colin had to retire from Race 1 and was unable to start race 2.

Race photos:- PLJPHOTO.COM

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Round 3, Snetterton Circuit, 14^th June

Round 3 of the 2008 Buff/ACU British Supermono championship took place as a support race at the British Superbike round at Snetterton on the 14^th June. It also included round 4 of the European Supermono championship. Consequently there were 25 riders from across Europe who gathered for the combined race.

Qualifying took part in 2 sessions, one on Friday evening and the second on Saturday morning, with the race scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

For the first qualifying session, the weather was less than ideal with a lot of cloud cover and some spots of rain. Not surprisingly, this affected the confidence of some riders, but not UK  rider, and current championship leader, Nick Chadwick who was fastest on his East/West racing KTM followed by his country man, and reigning European champion, Mark Lawes (Team James Pami BMW) and Dutchman Lex van Dijk (Gilex Over Yamaha). These three riders were in a class of their own and the only 3 riders in the 1 minute 15 second time bracket. The next fastest time after this was a 1.17.

For the second qualifying session, the weather was much better – dry and sunny – and was reflected in significantly faster lap times from all riders, but the front three continued their exceptional performance. Taking pole position was the flying Dutchman, van Dijk , with an unbelievable time of 1:13.946. He was followed by Mark Lawes and Nick Chadwick who both posted 1.14 lap times. The final front row position was taken by Henk From. Row two for the race was Michael Payne, Jeff Claridge (both Team Psyclo-Nova Tigcraft Hondas), Evert van de Beek (Ducati) and Stefan Meiners (Happek Yamaha).

Unfortunately, just before the start of the race the weather made a significant turn for the worse with a brief but very heavy rain shower. The race was therefore declared officially “wet” . Not surprisingly, the whole grid chose to run with wet tyres. As the riders pulled away for their warm-up laps, the rain had stopped but the track was very wet. Sadly, pole man Lex van Dijk did not even make the start as his bike broke down on the warm up lap.

As the light went out to start the race, the grid pulled away in a cloud of spray. Nick Chadwick made the best of the conditions to lead through the first corner followed by Jonathan Good (Tigcraft Yamaha) from the fourth row of the grid! Mark Lawes and Alex Hutchinson (Tigcraft KTM) from the third row of the grid, followed behind. This leading group were chased by Dutchmen Rob Hakvoort (Bakker Yamaha) and Henk From (Team James Pami BMW), German rider Stefan Meiners, and Brits Goldstein and Claridge.

By the end of the second lap, Lawes had run into problems with his bike and started dropping through the pack, Hutchinson had moved through to second and the leading trio of Chadwick, Hutchinson and Good were starting to break away.

Strangely all  the UEM Supermono Cup favorites ran into problems: Lawe’s machine problems led him to pull in on the fourth lap, as did his team-mate, From, later in the race. Meiners crashed on the penultimate lap as did Perry Goldstein and many others before them!! The recovery vans were kept fairly busy at the finish of the race collecting the various fallers.

After 14 laps it was a well deserved victory for Nick Chadwick followed by Alex Hutchinson and Jonathan Good.  The first UEM Supermono Cup rider was Rob Hakvoort who finished fourth, followed by Czech Mali rider Martin Kamenicky in fifth, with Jeff Claridge in sixth. The win consolidates Chadwick’s championship position but the second place from Hutchinson is particularly impressive given that his Tigcraft KTM was only finished on the Thursday afternoon before the race and so had not been ridden before the first qualifying session!  Third place for Jonathan Good represents his best ever supermono finish.

Rounds 4 and 5 take place at the  Brands Hatch Indie circuit on the 5^th and 6^th of July.

PIT BITS

Fastest bike through the speed trap was Van Dijk at 142.2 mph, impressive for a single cylinder four stroke!

Nick Chadwick riding the East West Racing KTM dominated the latest rounds of the ACU/ Buff British Supermono Championship.  Pole position, two race wins and fastest laps in both wet and dry conditions demonstrated to his rivals that he is the man to beat in 2008.  

In dry Saturday conditions, Dave Harnet led the 18- lap race into the first corner on the Tigcraft Honda 450, hotly pursued by Michael Payne aboard another Tigcraft Honda 450.  Scott Richardson (RSL Sleeper MHD Suzuki) was keen to capitalise on his season-best qualifying in third and followed the leaders through paddock on the first lap. 

Pole-position man Chadwick, after an uncharacteristically slow start, steadily fought his way to the front, established a lead and from that point onwards was never really threatened.  This left Payne and Harnet to produce the battle of the day as they lapped within two tenths of one another the whole race long.  At the chequered flag Payne had ridden superbly to finish second.  Richardson had a trouble-free ride to fourth while Supermono Cup leader Richard Fogg (Tigcraft Yamaha) took maximum points once again.  Mark Hughes (GRC Pami), in his first season of Supermono racing, finished an excellent seventh, while series debutants Matthew and Kurt Wigley on the Moriwaki 250 (restricted to 28bhp!) finished an incredible eighth and ninth respectively, beating considerably more experienced challengers.

The Sunday race conditions could not have been more different from the previous days racing.  Although driving rain had turned the event upside-down, It hadn’t dampened the Championship leader’s dominance.  Once Chadwick had a few racing laps under his belt to acclimatise to the conditions, he took control of the race, gaining a healthy lead at the front and was never seriously challenged throughout the 18-lap race.  After a disastrous qualifying and a non-starter on the previous round, Alex Hutchinson (Tigcraft KTM), sliced through the slower riders from the back of the grid to chase after the leaders.  He was unable to catch Chadwick, but rode strongly for second place.  The Payne/Harnet battle of the previous day was reversed when  Harnet used his knowledge of Brands Hatch to his advantage, and the talented Australian Payne had to concede third place to the popular Luton rider Harnet.

Perry Goldstein’s fifth position made it three KTM engined machines in the top five.  Richardson, after a slow start to the race managed to find some grip and take sixth place, passing Cup-leader Hughes, Fogg, and Andy Turner (Tigcraft Yamaha). The Wigley brothers struggled in the slippery conditions on their Moriwaki machines, but still gained valuable experience in a British Championship event, eventually finishing 13^th and 15^th. 

Pit bits

The combined weight of the Wigley brothers, their bikes, the truck and their packed lunches was still less than Scottie’s spare engine!

Supermono spirit is alive and well. Simon Bird after a tip off on the Saturday, had lots of help to rebuild his bike for the Sunday. Alas, an engine problem prevented him from making it out, but he was very grateful for the effort.

Another competitor receiving help was Matt Wildee.  A water pump had let go on the Ray Dentith MZ.  No sooner had he exhaled a single sigh than Andy Driver had offered to fetch him his spare pump from his home in Romford, Jonny Good and his engineer Colin had their motor in bits to remove the pump of his spare engine, and Martin from Slipstream Tuning was offering to go back to his workshop and pick one up!

Mick Smith bought his NWS to Brands to do some work on it. Unfortunately he was far too busy entertaining people with Guinness to get anything done!

Amazingly Nick Chadwick nearly didn’t race at all. He had a serious bout of man-flu, and we all know how serious that can be. He tried to produce a sick-note from his mum, but East West can spot a forgery a mile away….

Alex Hutch only managed half a lap on Saturday, due to an ignition problem.  Dave Pearce, Tigcraft supremo, traveled the south coast in search of replacement, making it back in plenty of time for Alex to ride brilliantly from the back to second place.

Jonny Good’s weekend was a little up and down. On the Saturday he suffered an oil seal problem, (rectified by Martin at Slipstream), he hole- shot the Sunday race, only for the motor to get sick with water in the electrics and resulting in a DNF.

Click on images to enlarge

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Round 2

Championship podium

(L-R)

From, Chadwick & Lawes

Cup podium

(L-R)

Wildee, Fox & Hughes