Thundersport GB

Celebrating its 20th year anniversary, the circuit of Pembrey provided Thundersport GB with an early taste of summer this weekend as temperatures soared in South Wales for the second round of the season.

The marshal's faces were a similar colour to their overalls and the sun block was out for the exciting first Welsh round of the championship as circuit manager Phil Davies put on a great show for the paddock and spectators.

With the weather perfect and the circuit providing its usual grip, it was not just a battle for riders and teams but also for the tyre manufacturers as many competitors racing on two and three wheels struggled for grip around the 1.456 mile circuit and raced to find the right set up to give them an advantage.

Former 3x World Champion Tim Reeves and his new passenger Gregory Cluze of France opened the season with a perfect score this weekend as the long awaited Eastern Airways UK F1 Sidecar Championship finally got underway at Pembrey.

Having qualified on pole position, Reeves struggled off the line for the Superpole 18 lap opener on Saturday and the advantage seemed to be in favour of the current World Champions as Ben and Tom Birchall from Mansfield, who had the edge over the Suzuki LCR outfit of Allan Schofield and Steve Thomas.

As the laps ticked by though, Reeves and Cluze made good ground and just when you thought the Birchall's had the race in the bag, with three or four laps remaining, Reeves had passed Schofield and Birchall was now in his sights as the first race came to a close.

With only a few laps remaining, the Birchall's Yamaha LCR was struggling for grip as their tyres faded and Reeves' new Honda LCR both aimed for the same bit of tarmac at the same time resulting in the Birchall's spinning and leaving Reeves and Cluze to cruise home and take the first win of the season. Tom quickly rejoined the circuit but just missed out on the podium as Schofield and Thomas took second and the outfit of Barry James and Carl Morgan finished in third ahead of the 2009 World Champions.

On Sunday the Eurosport cameras were in force and despite Schofield and Thomas getting yet another great start and breaking the lap record, Reeves and Cluze did not disappoint and once in the lead, they stretched out a four second advantage and took win number two with ease ahead of Schofield, with the Birchall's having to settle for third overall ahead of Mark Edwards and Jamie Winn.

The third and final race of the weekend at last saw the Birchall's scrap their way through to second, ahead of the persistent and successfull outfit of Schofield and Thomas and with Reeves and Cluze again holding the lead, spectators and pundits alike were hoping for a repeat of the battle on Saturday.

However, this wasn't to be as Ben and Tom Birchall closed in on Reeves but not quickly enough as they ran out of time and were made to settle for second and watch Reeves/Cluze take their hat-trick victory with Schofield and Thomas completing an excellent weekend in third ahead of L&W Racing's Andy Peach and Charlie Richardson.

It was the first time in 24 years that we have seen more than 26 F1 sidecars on one grid and this is sure to be a season not to forget for the teams, drivers and passengers.

The Aprilia Superteen Challenge was dominated this weekend by two young riders from the JDF Racing team as Chrissy Rouse and rookie Callum Bey stole the headlines in Wales and proved a big point to the rest of their rivals.

We started the proceedings knowing that Tommy Mountain (second in the standings going into the round) was going to be watching from pit lane after he suffered a broken wrist in testing the week before and that Sam Cherry (fifth before Saturday) was going to be absent on a pre-booked holiday.

This gave the chance to other riders to make their first ever podium finishes but one particular rider was feeling particularly greedy as the on form Chrissy Rouse from Newcastle not only took pole but stormed to the first three race victories of the weekend.

The only rider that could stay with Rouse was his team mate, Callum Bey of Huntly in Scotland, and on more than one occasion he challenged for the lead but never quite had the race pace of Chrissy who broke the lap record in race two and extended his championship lead.

The battles for third all weekend were tight and enjoyable to watch, Josh Daley, Jake Dixon, Jamie Thackeray, Harry Hartley, Jack Keen and Joe Ravenscroft all battled long and hard for their first ever podiums but it was Wigan's Josh Daley with his day glow yellow wheels that had the proudest Dad this weekend as Daley took three first class third place finishes to lift himself up to third overall in the standings.

The only other rider to make a podium visit was Jake Dixon as he managed to get the better of Daley in the final race of the day to take second place after Chrissy Rouse fell uncharacteristically on lap two.

The fall from Chrissy meant that Newcomer Callum Bey took his maiden win in the class and his consistency was rewarded too as he ended up taking more points than team mate Rouse and really is looking like a star of the future just eleven points behind top spot in the championship.

York's Jamie Thackeray had his best weekend yet with a series of great top five finishes and moves himself up to sixth overall in the standings and Tom Oliver who also had a personal best weekend, climbs to seventh in the points.

Lincoln’s Dave Jackson was only missing the Pembrey lap record to make it a perfect weekend in the bikesportnews.com Thundersport GB GP1 class in South Wales. Jackson, who finally ripped away his rookie vest after qualifying, was second on the grid for the weekend’s races but was unstoppable in all three races.

Championship leader Phil Crowe had bagged pole on Saturday but had no answer for Jackson’s race craft and was forced to settle for two third place finishes and a fourth to leave the circuit level on points with Jackson.

Defending Champion Pete Baker was almost back to his best form with three runners-up slots and will surely be looking forward to the next round on his home turf at Snetterton.

Ross Connolly made it to three solid finishes and Angelo De Rosa added a podium to his tally this season before an incident involving himself and Phil Crowe, left De Rosa in the kitty litter and the Wrexham rider was far from happy.

That aside though, the weekend belonged to Dave Jackson. The former European Supermoto rider looked at one with his Honda this weekend and although his slight lack of power may cost him at the next round in Norfolk, he will certainly be a title contender for the remainder of the season.

In the Supertwins, Lee Reveley again won all three races to extend his lead in the championship and with his overall finishes being inside the top ten of the GP1 class itself, his title rivals Duncan Gibson, Scot Adam and Les Liney will need to work quickly if they want to prevent Reveley from becoming the first rider in Thundersport GB to retain a former title.

Reveley often found himself in a race long battle with Tony Rainford and wasn’t far from the pace of local riders Shaun Hennesey and Paul Shook.

Alex Heaton still leads the Michelin GP2 Championship after two wins and a second place finish extended his advantage over Alex Hutchinson. Heaton retired in race three due to a mechanical failure but was still in clinical form at Pembrey and looks a handful this season.

After snapping a con rod in his engine and having a standard replacement fitted, Alex Hutchinson did well to recover his bad luck with a few podium finishes and must now get himself ready for the next round without any hiccups if he is to make a serious championship threat this year.

Connor Tagg moved up to third overall on his Aprilia 450 with a win, a second and a third, but spark plug problems in race three, prevented Tagg from climbing up to second. Nevertheless, the Reading rider seems to have got the hang of his Aprilia now and a quick Connor on a sorted bike could be a matchmade in heaven.

Will Hodgson took the race three win in the end and added a big chunk of points to his championship tally to lift him up to fourth overall and Ben Gautrey’s two podiums crept him ahead of Andy Lawson in the standings to fifth overall.

Heaton has to remain favourite at this early stage, his confidence is sky high and the KRR team have a good record to keep at Snetterton with the team still holding the lap record there in the GP2 class from 2008.

In the Minitwin Cup though, Lawson made no mistake and romped home to four straight wins in the class, the Scotsman ripped the current lap record into shreds at Pembrey but was modest with his success admitting that he’s making the most of the wins early on in the season.

His closest rivals Ian Popplewell and Clive White were too wrapped up in their own battles to even think about challenging Lawson, the off-circuit friends were bashing into each other at will and although they dropped a few points to the series leader, at the very worst they had a lot of fun.

Jamie Wilkins extended his lead in the LMB Streetfighter ‘A’ class at Pembrey with four faultless victories to his name. Carl Marsden came close to beating in race one and two but on Sunday, nobody could match Wilko as he cries out for some opposition in the series.

Royal Air Force Reserves rider Lee Hardy and Peterborough’s Michael Riddle shared their personal best results as did Mark Andrew but Wilko will need taming soon if anyone fancies a shot at the title.

This time last season, Wilkins was in a strong position in the championship but had Andy Denyer to deal with at the time, this season though it may be a different matter and unless some seriously tough and quick opposition enter the Streetfighter 'A' series soon, the man from Trowbridge will have wrapped this title up in no time at all.

Similarly in the Streetfighter ‘B’ class, Barry Utting’s four wins took his tally to eight out of eight in South Wales, nobody even came close to the Penrith rider who even finished second overall in race three on Sunday.

Utting has been here before though and is in no hurry to face a similar situation as he did last year when Craig Morley came onto the scene from round three onwards to take the title away from him.

Darren Smith, the 2009 Moto 450 Champion and Richard Harrison all made good accounts for themselves on the podium and Martin Ayres was also riding well despite a crash in qualifying but there is still a lack of serious threats coming from Utting’s competition.

In the ‘C’ class, Sean Goldsmith piled on the points to make his lead in the points look more comfortable but Anthony Hughes, Garry Coombes and Mick Everitt all made their form known with podium finishes and will I’m sure attack Goldsmith in the next round.

Duncan McMillan, who was second in the 'C' class entering Pembrey, crashed out and injured his arm and will have to wait and see if his bones heal quickly ready for Snett.

Manchester’s Marc Hughes was the man of the moment in the Termignoni Superstock 600 class at Pembrey after taking three wins to leave Wales with a well deserved championship lead.

Bracknell’s Seb Bulpin had stuck it on pole on Saturday and during race one and both he and Ricardo Ballerini looked like the pace setters until yellow flag infringements saw the pair bumped back down to third and fourth respectively.

This left Hughes to take the win from rookie rider Ben Field and pre-season top three contender Ryan Cox finished in fifth.

In race two, Ballerini fell on lap one and Hughes took advantage of his Superpole win to break away from the pack but this time, Bulpin had other company in second, as Rochester’s Erol Ahmet continued from where he left off in 2009 to race for second.

As it was though, Hughes won  by a huge ten seconds ahead of Bulpin in second and Erol Ahmet taking his first podium of the season in third ahead of Ben Field and ex Superteen Nick Anderson.

In the final race of the weekend, with no Ballerini on circuit, Hughes set off in search for race win number three with Seb Bulpin this time staying with him at the front. Bulpin attacked at every opportunity and fought hard for the win but it evaded him as Hughes took it in the end with some scarily quick riding.

Rookie rider Ben Field, competing in his second ever race meeting managed a third ahead of Erol Ahmet and Nick Anderson again did well to finish fifth ahead of fellow ex-Superteen Greg James.

The Buff Supermono Championship made its debut this weekend and Norfolk's Mark Lawes will enter his home circuit next month as championship leader after winning all three races in style on his beautiful BMW 720, the first win for the German manufacturer in Thundersport GB's history.

His comeptition came in the form of Tagg, Hodgson and Gautrey but Lawes was not phased by the youngsters and even said that they'll all have their work cut out to beat him at the circuit he knows and loves, Snetterton.

Jonathan Good, Ivan Porter and Dave Harnett came closest to staying with the Aprilia's this weekend on their Supermono singles but will now also look to the Norfolk circuit to improve on their results.

In the F-450.com Moto 450 Championship, Connor Tagg made up the deficit he lost at Mallory with two fine wins and a second overall to lift him from fifth in the championship to second overall behind Will Hodgson.

Hodgson took a win of his own to extend his lead to 27 points but will be only too aware of how quick Tagg is on these wonderfully balanced Aprilia 450’s.

Danny Murphy struggled after a mechanical retirement on Saturday but Ben Gautrey took three solid podium finishes to keep him well in the hunt for the championship as they head to Snetterton next month.

The Nitro GP3 Championship welcomed back Sam Hornsey to the grid at Pembrey as the Replicast rider looked to improve on his excellent rides at the Welsh circuit obtained in the 2009 season.

His competition came in the form of current championship leader Matt Davies, his Fireplace Warehouse team mate Tom Carne, the ever quick Curtis Wright and duo of Arnie Shelton and Ewan Gray.

For Hornsey though, it was all too easy in race one as he cruised home to take the win ahead of a delighted Arnie Shelton, further behind, series leader Matt Davies fell and after a big crash for Curtis Wright too, his bike suffered a broken swing arm, sadly ending his weekend prematurely.

Tom Carne it was that took third and Ewan Gray impressed all to take fourth ahead of an improved Dave Hampton.

On Sunday, Hornsey’s aim was for a repeat performance but thanks to a sterling ride from Ewan Gray, his request was well and truly rejected. Gray stuck around Hornsey for the entirety and perhaps only lacked the experience of Sam at the front as across the line, Hornsey won it by 0.8 seconds ahead of Gray.

In third, Carne finished ahead of his Aussie team mate Matt Davies and Arnie Shelton came home in fifth this time ahead of Luke Hedger who only just got the better of Hampton in seventh.

The final race saw no mistake from Hornsey though, the Bucknell rider not only won but took the circuit lap record with a stunning 1.01.981 to finish six seconds ahead of the chasing pack.

Ewan Gray, after his brilliant second place finish in race two, looked just as good in race three to take second again but unfortunately fell on lap ten to leave the Fireplace Warehouse team to take second and third with Davies finishing ahead of Carne.

Davies leads the championship still but only has a five point advantage over his fellow FPW rider Tom Carne and with a promising weekend on the tarmac for Arnie Shelton, he now moves up to third in the standings ahead of Hornsey and Ewan Gray of Angus, Scotland.