MOTORCYCLE SPORTS

NG’s second and final meeting of a short 2020 season took place at the fast Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire over the weekend of the 26th and 27th September in sunny weather but with a chilly breeze and the subsequent cold track temperatures caught out a number of riders at the Esses in particular. Wheeling out his 600cc Honda and taking a firm grip on the Phoenix Open races, for which the three races counted towards the ‘King of Combe’ title, and the IMS 600s saw Daniel Cooper setting pole position and sealing the win in all six races he contested. On Sunday morning he was made to work for the win with Preston’s Sean Montgomery on his 1000cc Kawasaki taking the fight to Cooper and leading the early stages before Cooper found a way past. It was a fruitful weekend for Montgomery in the Powerbikes bagging a second and a win before crossing the line first on the road after getting into a race three scrap with BMW mounted Max Symonds, who was crowned Phoenix Open champion over the weekend and Suzuki riding James Cox up from the rear of the grid but was slapped with a 10 seconds penalty for jumping the start dropping Monty to fifth but more importantly grabbing the 2020 Bluebell Lakes Powerbikes championship. The Dunlop ACU 250GP championship races saw pole sitter Charlie Nesbitt fall on the opening lap of Saturday’s race allowing the versatile Phil Atkinson to take the win on his elderly Yamaha TZ350 before doubling up on Sunday morning as Nesbitt charged up to second from the back on his KTM Moto3 bike before the duo duked it out in the afternoon with Nesbitt triumphant. In the Sound of Thunder races senior rider Paul Willis took Saturday’s encounter on the big RC8 KTM before a high speed accident at Folly on Sunday morning involving Mark Compton’s Ducati Panigale ended his weekend so True Heroes Racing’s Ben Falla took the restarted bout with Owen Hunt aboard a 675 Triumph taking the afternoon race. In the burgeoning Formula Prostocks competition Ducati 916 mounted Ant Hart won as he pleased on Saturday but an overnight trip down from Oulton Park for Nick Williamson proved worthwhile as he stormed though the field to win on Sunday morning from the back of the grid then had a great dice with Hart en route to the victory in the afternoon on his Honda VTR1000 SP1. Born from the Formula Prostocks the all action Motul FPR Suzuki Bandit Challenge had four riders in a tangle for the race wins with Peter Bardell managing to bag all three with Harley Prebble, James McHardy and James Newbould scrapping for the podium placings whilst Gary Cutts also took a third on Sunday afternoon. Among the smaller capacity classes Richie Welsh took three wins on his 400 Yamaha, two in the Open 500s and the final Formula 400 victory after long time leader Ben Harrison engaged a false neutral dropping him to second after taking out the first two wins from Welsh whilst in the Mini Twins Antony Lewis and William Holland took the top two placings in the first two combative races with Holland taking the third as Jordan Boyle split the pair. After a weekend of full grids and great racing the NG fraternity now faces an extended winter as the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic restrictions put paid to the planned final 2020 meeting at Pembrey on the 10th and 11th October. Report Stephen Carpenter EDP Photo News.