Hottrax Motorsport Racing Club Motorcycle Championships
words and photos by Alfonso Lygo

Michelin Power Cup

The Michelin Power Cup was the feature event at Mallory and the feature rider was racing bike journo Rob Hoyles on his pukka Fireblade. He qualified by over 1.2s from top 600 pilot Simon Gardner with Greg Allsop on his classic R1 in a stunning third on the grid sharing the front two rows with William Monie, Jonny 5 Otter and, following a torrid time at Cadwell Scott Shand.

Race One was controlled from the front by wild card Hoyles and he was never headed to complete the fifteen laps with a 6 second winning margin over Greg Allsop who worked his way up from fifth on the opening lap. We lost Snetterton multi winner Shand on the opening lap after a spill at the hairpin which involved being run over by a following rider, strong at Cadwell Jon Otter had a great start to slot in behind the 600s of William Monie and Si Gardner. In the 600s, it was Gardner ran second on the road to lead his class before the leading pack caught backmarkers making life more challenging for the current points leader, resulting in Si dropping back down to fifth at the end but still second in class. Otter finished 3rd in the 1000s and making up the top six was the third in class 600 R6 of Arron Hoar 4 seconds ahead of another R6 with Adrian Allsopp aboard. Jim Laird and Ty Jones were next up on their litre bikes separated by 0.2s after a race long duel with Andy Rouse slotting into 10th spot and 5th in the 600s. Rhalf Lo Tourco was just outside the top ten ahead of Steph Waddelow and back from injury Mark Whiston.

After being spoken to about the stealth of his victory wheelie, visitor Hoyles made it win #2 in the Michelin Power Cup, albeit as a wild card scoring no points or goodies. Jon Otter, however, had the honour of leading the opening lap; with Hoyles out front it was Monie, Gardner, Otter and Greg Allsop having a massive ding dong for second place with all to play for on the road and in the classes. With the race starting it's 13th of the scheduled 15 laps the battle was too intense and William Monie and Si Gardner hit the deck coming out of Gerrards. The race was stopped and the results declared showing Hoyles winning the 1000 class in front of the hard pushing Otter with Allsopp two thousands of a second adrift in third. Ty Jones was a well deserved his 4th in class over Lo Tourco, Shand, fellow Scot Laird and Whiston in 8th.

Arron Hoar was declared 600 winner ahead of the steam rolling Brummie Andy Rouse, Lewis O'Regan on a Co Ordit 600 Honda was third ahead of Ady Allsopp with Steph W and Ryan Peters filling the top six, Jamal Mahmood had his best race to date with 7th just in front of Chris Hunt-Terry.

Race 3 was the final race of the day and the weather was worsening and on the opening lap talented Welshman Ty Jones was off on the approach to the hairpin so the race was red flagged with Otter leading over Greg Allsop. At the restart over 13 laps Otter made the initial move into P1 until lap 4 when Allsop got his nose ahead of Jon as the red + yellow striped went out to warn riders of a damp track, Otter repaid the complement by taking back #1 position. On lap 9 Jim Laird bailed out exiting Gerrards bringing out a flotilla of red flags and the results were taken at the end of lap 9 when Otter was leading much to the disappointment of Allsop who had leapt to the front on the lap after.

MotoGrande 600
Sam Ludgate tried to carry on the momentum from his Cadwell performance where he scored 3 out of 3 by overhauling pole man Adam Parsons at the start. National Supersport runner Gary Beardsley waited until the third lap to stamp his authority on the race and build up a reasonable cushion over Parsons with Richard Gothard in third. Ludgate did his championship aspirations no harm with fourth place over Robbie Moore. Lewis Mason and Mark Affleck enjoyed a race long battle to cross the line in 6th and 7th.
Beardsley took no prisoners in the second encounter and was trailed home by Parsons, Wallis who moved up to third position at the expense of Affleck. Sam Ludgate bagged valuable points from his fourth spot ahead of Moore, Mason, McIntosh, John Lawrence, the evergreen Norris and Dan Jennings in tenth place.
No surprise when Beardsley dominated it all in Race 3 from Parsons for all 15 laps. Ludgate kept bagging the points with a third ahead of Mason, Wallis, Moore and just outside the top six we had Joan McIntosh who was improving as the day went on.

MotoGrande 1000
MotoGrande 1000 races were all about Phil Brooks, who opened his account by winning from pole in Race 1, unchallenged from a perusing Simon Fenwick, Pete Wilson and local rider Chris Mayhew – having a handy cushion over Steven Bridle in fifth. Gary Bransgrove was a safe sixth ahead of Steve Gibson, Graham Bennett and Chris Mason with Andy Carpenter closing off the top ten.
It was déjà vu as Brooks built up distance over Wilson and Fenwick. Mayhew was in 4th ahead of Bridle and Bransgrove. The second wave of riders was headed by Carpenter wrestling with Bennett, Gibson, Lee Rawlings and Chris Mason.
In the final race of day Brooks bossed, Fenwick and Wilson scrapped over second with Mayhew in 4th. Bridle earned fifth with Carpenter sixth.