The massed Bemsee competitors and spectators at Brands would have hoped to be bathed in bright sunshine for the season highlight, mid-summer on the GP circuit. But the sun barely came out all weekend, the overcast skies just spat drips and drops all Sunday. It was certainly slippery on track and the lines were best avoided by all. Despite the "psychological rain" there were some very fast times and some excellent racing. Three members of the 30-50 age group were the class of the Powerbike field all weekend. Barry Chapman led the main race of the day on his well sorted R1 on Sunday afternoon. Andy Weymouth and Peter Baker followed him closely and the main three broke clear to fight for the podium. Weymouth made a pass stick on the brakes into Druids on lap 4 and set about trying to gap them. But Baker was looking super quick out of Surtees, giving it full gas with the bike on its side and nowhere near out of the turn. Coming back down the hill into the arena, Weymouth would hold a 3 or 4 bike length lead which would vanish as Chapman left it late on the brakes, but as long as Weymouth held the apex he could power onto the Brabham straight and hold the advantage into Paddock hill. They finished as they had in the morning, with half a second splitting the three of them, but with Weymouth taking the double and the Vince Bennett Trophy for best overall performance of the meeting. " It was slippy out there, I had a big moment out of Graham Hill Bend but managed to hang on" Andy said after the race.

Weymouths best lap 1.31.7 was decent, but incredibly he was pipped for best of the day by Jess Traylor in Superstock 600 with a 1.31.3. Traynor and Joe Burns, younger brother of Chris, currently team-mate of Michael Schumacher in IDM, had a huge rivalry which saw them getting quicker and quicker all day. They were both really on it, and are two to watch for the future. Burns passed Traynor midway through the Sunday pm race and held on, putiing in 1.31.4 lap in the process. Hudson Kennaugh, despite being entered in the Powerbike class, was also ridng a (Linxcel-Seton Tuning) Superstock R6 after both his Supersport bikes went sick. He was saying very little about the dip in form which has seen him go from leading the BSS race at Donington by 6 secs to being 23rd and two secs off the pace at Mallory last time out, before pulling off. I think they were all scratching their heads and hoping they might find something this weekend, but it wasn't to be.

The Vyrus ridden by Phil Read was utterly dominant in the Thunderbike class- what an awesome looking and sounding bike. Team Jordan were not having the best day, Steve having been punted off earlier on, and a wrecked bike stood in the pit as proof. A really clever idea was letting the KTM RC8s run their own race, released 45 secs or so after the main field had gone, meaning two races were run separately but at the same time . Danny Buchan deserves a mention, he's young and raw but he certainly has some pace on his ZXR400 Kawasaki. Hudson was impressed with him, gave him a couple of words of advice but told him he was looking good.

Which is more than can be said of what he had to say about my riding. When I mentioned I hadn't seen him since Ron Haslams Race School at Donington a month or so ago, he told the entire pit the tale of how the instructors had had a sweepstake on how long I would last until binning it. As it was, my bolt upright, legs in, bike on its side style led to me coming a cropper on lap 2 of session 2 at the Melbourne Loop, apparently costing Hudson a tenner. Perhaps he'd bet on me lasting longer, I don't know, but we are agreed on one thing - theres certainly room for improvement in "Billy Big Bollocks" attempts at the lap record !



Words Pete Morrison

Pix Eric O'Brien



YPM report to follow

Ron Haslam Race School Report to follow