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YPM Lydden Hill 01-11-09

Yamaha Past Masters - Lydden Hill, Bemsee 311009/011109
An exciting season decider was marred by bad weather and a tragic accident at one of Lydden's notorious "zero run-off" corners. We have two exclusive reports from two of the series stalwarts

Pat Herron takes the title!!!


It was a rollercoaster weekend at Lydden, with close racing in difficult conditions, a shortened programme on Sunday thanks to mother natures best efforts to wash the circuit away, and tragedy on Saturday. Yes, the final round of the season was marked by the sad death of Roy Parbury, who was caught up in one of those horrible multi-bike first lap incidents where there's nearly zero in the way of margin of error. RIP Roy, YPM ;35, and deepest condolences to sons John and Mark, and the rest of the Parbury family.

Mike Smith (YPVS350) came into the weekend looking like a certain champion, with a comfortable 31 point lead over Pat Herron (also YPVS350), but the tricky semi-dry turning decidedly more damp conditions proved to be a major test for the whole field in the Paul Hogan trophy race. Herron picked up the win with consistent riding over the eight laps, while early leader Pete Fishwick (TZR250) couldn't hold his blistering early race speed once the rain started to fall. Calvin Hogan (TZR250) completed the podium positions in the race actually held as a memorial to his father Paul, and showed some fine style on a bike borrowed from Team Norbar's Gary Button specially for the event. Smith was the best of the rest in forth, beating ex-BSB man Dave Hallet (TZR250, also borrowed, from Team Stinkwheels) to the line by less than a couple of tenths.

It was nearly dark by the time the re-run of the first race was called onto the track, and an eerie mist had fallen over the dip prior to Pilgrims too - very odd and very tricky. Grip was hard to find in a frantic first lap, and Smith paid the price of pushing too hard too soon with a big high-side at the North Bend hairpin. He was unable to make the re-start handing a golden opportunity to Herron to eat into what was now a 19 point deficit, but he had to work for it. Hallet showed his class at the end of the five lap sprint, with Keith Roissetter (TZR250) bringing it home a fraction of a second ahead of Herron. Fishwick was the best of the rest this time, with Carl Newbigging (TZR250) bringing it home just ahead of his older brother Chris (also TZR250). Herron was now only 3 points behind Smith.

Points from both these races also counted towards the internal YPMRC championships, and everything was still to play for. There were three riders in the running for the Rookie Championship, but even two wins for Paul 'Tenpin' Bowling (TZR250) and two seconds for Mark Headling (TZR250) weren't enough to push Tom Dyke (TZR250) off the top spot - Headling took second and Bowling third. In the Steelie Championship Adrian Grove (YPVS350) held off Paul Norris (TDR250) for third, but Herron took the win with his big haul of points from the day, with Smith ending up in second. In the TZR Tour it ended with Keith Roissetter in third, Jamie Cooper (TZR250) taking second after some fine rides, and Dan Wright (TZR250) taking the title - despite a nasty crash in the morning practice for the Thunderbikes preventing him competing in either YPM race.

Trophies for these classes were presented in fine style by club svengali Pete Fishwick as a prelude to a night of live music, drinking and dancing, as well as a number of special awards as voted by the YPMRC membership and class co-ordinators. This included Tom Dyke as Crasher Of The Year - no mean feat while ending up best rookie too; Mike Smith for Riders Rider Of The Year; Craig Jennings (TZR250) for Most Improved Rider; Spencer Reeves (YPVS350 & TZR250) for Bike Of The Year as sponsored by Stinkwheels - or should that be Bikes, very flash having two!!!; and Neil Hesman (YPVS350) for the YPM Determination Award. Special awards were also made to Chris Wallace (TZR250) and Nick Griggs (TZR250) for their contribution to the class over an extended period, and also to Kev Higgerty (TZR250) for the masses of work completed over the past twelve months on the YPM website.

Unfortunately the conditions the following day were horrendous, with a howling gale and torrential rain actually flooding the circuit just prior to Pilgrims, but a reduced programme finally got underway around 14:00.- and when the last YPM race of the season finally started, what a race it was!! Herron got the hole-shot before Hallet came through on the second lap to take the lead. Smith was up to third by this stage having started from the back of the grid, and cut through to second on lap four, even pulling a small gap on Herron and looking very determined. Herron then dug deep and had closed back up as the front three took the flag for the last lap, at which point the sizeable crowd in the grandstands were going ballistic. Herron made his move at Pilgrims out of sight of the crowd, but was in second close on Hallet's tail through Chessons with Smith still in the mix. It was a real six-wheeler through Devils Elbow, and a defensive line from Herron into Druids for the final time seemed to also give him the edge on the exit, allowing a cool pass underneath Hallet into Paddock to take the win - in the race and the championship!! Smith, clearly struggling from the effects of his Saturday crash towards the end of the race, wasn't able to mount a final lap push and ended up in third to miss out on the championship by just 6 points. Dexter Eyre (TZR250) brought it home in fourth, with Chris winning the battle of the Newbigging's this time out.

So, Herron takes the YPM title for the first time, having previously won the Bemsee LC Championship in 2001 on a LC350, with Smith just piped at the end of the season after a stack of race wins but a couple of errors too. Ramit Racing's Wright took third from Cooper, while Team Norbar's Fishwick secured fifth ahead of Team Parbury - Roy followed closely by son John (both TZR250). Roissetter was next in 8th, while Paul Welch (TZR250) did enough in the few rounds he entered either side of his outing at the Manx GP to take 9th. Chris Newbigging rounded out the top ten in what was a great season. Roll on 2010.............

YPMRC would like to thank their generous Sponsors for support in 2009: NorfolkLine, Rush Europe, NGK, ARD Racing, Demon Tweeks, Norbar and Gibson Exhausts.

Anyone interested in racing in the YPM series in the future take a look at www.ypmrc.co.uk for further details

Andy "Moose" Muse - Team Norbar ;45 | Pete "Fish" Fishwick - Team Norbar ;7 | www.norbar-racing.co.uk

Report by Pete Fishwick
Pix by Racing Line Photography



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