Round-Up: Irwin and Hillier shine at NW200
Irwin and Hillier shine at NW200
The FUCHS Silkolene-backed Kawasaki team enjoyed a sensational day of racing at Saturday’s International North West 200 road races.
Glenn Irwin and James Hillier gave the team a 1-2 in the Superbike race for Kawasaki’s first victory in the class since 1977.
Irwin executed a perfect last lap move on team-mate Hillier to make it four Superbike victories in a row at the North West 200.
That was after Irwin had qualified in pole by beating the lap record.
The team’s joy was then further increased when Hillier took his maiden NW200 success after leading the Superstock race from start to finish.
With first, second, third and fourth from his four races, Hillier was duly crowned Man of the Meeting to conclude a memorable week for both the 34-year-old and the whole team.
Disappointment for Morgan in Thruxton
There was yet more bad luck for Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan, this time at one of his favourites tracks, Thruxton.
Morgan was lying in fourth in qualifying – that was until he was adjudged to have exceeded track limits twice.
That meant he had to start race one from 18th, and he eventually came home one place better off in P17.
Morgan managed to post a P13 in race two before a collision with Rob Collard on the opening lap of race three brought his meeting to a premature end.
Morgan will be hoping for a change in fortunes in Croft next month.
Elsewhere, FUCHS-backed Dan Rowbottom of Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport finished his third weekend in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship with three solid drives but with disappointment in the final race when a technical problem stopped him trackside.
Rowbottom finished 19thand 24thbefore being forced out of the last.
Historic triple for Bogie on Scottish Rally
CA1 Sport driver David Bogie, paired again with Irish co-driver John Thorburn, made his mark on the history books of the RSAC Scottish Rally by claiming his third event victory in a row last Saturday (18th May), thus taking his tally to six on the Moffat based event.
Bogie, co-driven by Irishman John Rowan, steered his Skoda Fabia R5 to a stunning victory, winning four out of the event’s six stages, to equal the record held by legendary British driver Roger Clark. The Borders town of Duns was able to claim the remaining two places on the podium, with Euan Thorburn and Garry Pearson rounding out the top three.
The 74th running of the Dumfries & Galloway Council sponsored event attracted a top-class entry of over 80 cars to the region for round three of the hotly contested KNC Groundworks Scottish Rally Championship. The rally saw crews tackle over 40 miles of competitive action in classic forests such as Ae, Twiglees and Castle O’er and was based in Moffat for the first time.
“It’s a great achievement to have equalled Roger Clark’s number of wins but every victory is important to me and it’s even better to do that here on my home event,” he said after the ceremonial finish in the Moffat town centre. “It was a real mixed bag of stages today. Some were wet, some dry and there were a lot of surface changes in there, so it was a difficult one.”
FUCHS LUBRICANTS British Historic Rally Championship
Trackrod Motor Club, the organisers of the FUCHS Historic Rally Championship final round, has announced preliminary details of the event to assist competitors and spectators with their forward planning for the event which takes place on Friday and Saturday 27th/ 28thSeptember.
The Historic event will feature 56 miles of single-use stages in the forests of North Yorkshire, comprising one stage of 11 miles, to be held in the darkness of Friday evening, before the 45 miles of the Saturday event, where the historic contenders will run at the head of the BTRDA field of competitors, thus ensuring that they get the best of the stage conditions.
Nicky Grist Stages – 13th July Builth Wells
Round five of the FUCHS LUBRICANTS 1400 championship is the Nicky Grist Stages which has a new Rally HQ and Service Area in the centre of Builth Wells. HQ for the BTRDA-led event moves to the Strand Building, Strand Street, while the service area moves from the Welsh Showground to the Groe Car Park and adjacent rugby pitch. The event will feature the classic stages of Crychan, Halfway and Monument while the popular new addition last year of Llyn Login has been revamped to include more gravel roads.
More information at www.nickygriststages.co.uk
Others green with envy after Lyng medal haul
It was another strong weekend for Kawaski Team Green at the MX Nationals UK at Lyng, with a podium finish for Kacey Hird and another 85 small wheel race win for Harrison Greenough.
JSR Racing
JSR Racing had an up and down weekend in round four of the AMCA Championship.
James Dodd has maintained the number two position after the trip to Bushton, while Andy Smart and Ashley Thomas are both sitting comfortably within the top 10.
James managed two fourth place finishes and a P7, while Ashley scored three eighth place finishes, despite being involved in a first turn pile up in race one.
Andy, meanwhile, came home P9 in the first outing but broke the throttle on his bike in the second race and damaged his knee in race three.
Triple-header at Donington
It’s round three of the British Superbike Championship this weekend at Donington – and the Bank Holiday means it’s the first triple-header of the season.
Can Glenn Irwin build on his NW200 form? Will Aussie Josh Brookes rein supreme again after double victory at Oulton? It’s all to play for for our FUCHS Silkolene-backed riders.
