Race Report: Buff Supermono Championship/Nitro Moto450 - Cadwell, 30th/31st May

ROUNDS 5/6

Qualifying

Intermittent rain showers greeted the riders for the 5th and 6th rounds of the 2010 Buff Supermono/ Nitro Moto 450 Championships at Cadwell Park. The Nitro 450 twins of Danny Murphy and Ben Gautrey lead the field from Ivan Porter on his own built Rotax powered Supermono. Behind him a trio of twins lead by Phil Page, Will Hodgson and Liam Shellcock showed maturity to master the tricky damp conditions. Buff Supermono championship leader Mark Lawes (Pami BMW), had a disastrous qualifying and was languishing in 11th place.

Superpole race

The weather had improved dramatically later on in the day, and with a virtually dry track the Supepole 9 lap race got underway. Danny Murphy from second on the grid, made a jump start, resulting in a twenty second time penalty, but on the road he led the remaining twenty competitors into Charlie’s for the first time. Across the line on lap one and it was Ivan Porter who led with Danny Murphy and Ben Gautrey following in his slipstream. Lawes had sliced his way through the field and was up to fifth place. On the start of the second lap Jon Good (Yamaha) in the Supermono class tipped off at barn corner and the race was red flagged. At the restart Porter made the cleaner getaway and led the field, hotly pursued by Gautrey and Murphy. Lawes once again had to work hard from 11th, but his experience showed and he made rapid progress through the field to close to within one second of Porter as they received the chequered flag. Gautrey finished behind Murphy on the road, but on corrected time he was the first Moto 450 machine.

Race 1

The first four riders on the grid where now decided by the superpole result, so it was Porter, Lawes, Gautrey and Murphy who diced for the lead going into the first corner. Alas once again the race was soon to be red flagged as Robbie Robson on the KTM 450 took a tumble. At the restart Porter made goods use of pole and led the first lap, with the young chargers of Murphy and Gautrey on the Moto450 bikes snapping at his heals. Lawes was holding back and waiting for an opportunity to attack when his rear shock linkage snapped and he was forced to retire. Porter now was fighting a lonely battle for Supermono honours. The former superteen stars of Gautrey and Murphy tried every move on every corner to force the smooth and talented Porter into a mistake, but Porter knows Cadwell as good as any man and he fought for every inch of Lincolnshire’s most glorious of roads, finally punching the air in triumph as he crossed the line 0.8 seconds ahead of the disappointed Murphy. Gautrey was hot on his heels, 1.6 seconds behind the leader. Connor Tagg made it three Moto450’s in the top four with Dave Harnett (KTM) and the rejuvenated Good taking the final Supermono podium positions.

Race 2

Mark Lawes was not a happy man. By his own high standards, qualifying eleventh, a second place and a non-finish was not a good weekend. Race two would change all that. Yes them pesky kids on their beautiful Aprilla 450 twins got away first, yes he may of let them lead for a lap or two and have a bit of fun. But now it was time to remind everyone who was the boss. Head down, put in a couple of scorching laps, create a four second gap, and hold it till the end of the ten lap race. Thank you, job done. Behind this master class performance Connor Tagg rode the wheels off the 450 to hold off a very impressive Danny Murphy by 0.2 of a second. Ivan Porter couldn’t continue with his earlier pace and had the attention of one master Gautrey all race, then a big gap to Good and Aria ‘wheelie’ Lane on the Tigcraft Supermono.

Next race Oulton Park 25/26th June.

Thanks to Rob Whitworth for contributing this article to the site