Wirral 100 Round 1 - Anglesey Race Review (2024)

Our 2024 season opener took place at the picturesque Anglesey circuit - and with a mains-electricity hookup and a promising weather forecast, it looked like we had all the ingredients for a perfect weekend ahead!

Ready to roll!

Sunday Test Day
We took the opportunity to enter the Sunday test day prior to the Monday race day. This gave us the possibility of four on-track sessions, but due to some delays in getting ourselves ready we decided to miss the first session of the day.

For test session 2 we decided to take the Kawasaki Supersport machine for a shakedown. Everything was working fine but our riding was a little rusty and it was taking us some time to get up to speed.

For test session 3 we then took the Aprilia RS660 Trofeo out for a shakedown. Once again, everything on the machine was fine and we started to get more comfortable out on track. However, out of Rocket corner (aka turn 7) we were struggling to quickly move our left foot underneath the gearshift due to the shape of the toe section of our RST boots. So in test session 4 we swapped the left boot to an old TCX boot which (despite being mismatched!) helped and allowed us to put in a series of consistent laps in the 1:15s - which was promising and we were looking forward to building on during the Monday race day.

It looks weird, but it worked

​With scrutineering and signon completed, we then performed a series of machine checks and prepared the bikes for race day. After a quick check of the data we (well, the kids!) then headed on-track for some rollerskating.

Bikes prepped...

...and data checked...

...we were on track once more!

Monday Race Day
The weather forecast had turned overnight and there was now a "possibility" of some rain showers. As it turned out, very light rain started to fall during our qualifying sessions and continued to fall intermittently throughout the day. As it's early spring there just wasn't enough temperature to properly dry the track - so after qualifying on dry tyres on a track that was getting wetter (where we just didn't commit ourselves enough) we switched to wet tyres for the remainder of the day.

The outcome of qualifying was that we qualified 8th in class (10th on the combined grid) for the Twins class and 6th in class (24th overall) for the Supersport class. After a promising test day we found this to be a bit disappointing, mainly because we had pushed as hard as we felt comfortable - but that level of performance was very far away from where we needed to be! With no easy solution in sight, this created a grumpy rider - so apologies for anyone that had to deal with me during this period!

We had back-to-back races so had to make a tyre choice quite early and then hope it was correct. We decided to put full wets in so that we could build some confidence and headed out for Twins Race 1. The wet setup ended up being the correct choice as more rain sprinkles fell on the warm-up lap. At the race start we fell back a few places and then when we got more comfortable we gained the time and positions back. The race was very spread out and was red-flagged on lap 8 after the race leader fell. We had no idea where we had finished but were surprised and delighted to learn that we had finished in 3rd place overall.

After a quick bike swap we were straight back out onto track for Supersport Race 1. The race was reduced from 10 to 8 laps following a faller on the warm-up lap causing a temporary halt to proceedings. Starting so far back in the pack meant that we were involved in a few battles throughout the race (which makes for an interesting video!), but once again we had no idea where we finished. It turned out that we finished in 15th position overall and in 3rd in our "Pre 2011" class.

The conditions during lunchtime

During the lunch break more rain fell, so we decided to stay on full wet tyres for the afternoon races. Curiously, the track was part-wet/part-dry - but with so much time spent "not upright" at the Anglesey circuit it was the safe choice. The rest of the grid appeared to agree and in Twins Race 2 it was a case of learning how far we could push the limits of wet tyres on a drying track - without overstepping the mark! We tried our best and, despite a slower start, managed to gain a few places before the end of the race. We managed to secure another 3rd place finish by just 0.291 of a second.

We were then straight out for our final race of the day, which was Supersport Race 2. By now the track was mainly dry and the wet tyres were struggling to stay together. We took our time getting up to speed again (something that we might need to work on, but hopefully its just some "winter rustiness" that we're still to shake off) and we set our fastest lap of the race on the final lap. We finished in 15th position overall once again, but in 6th place in the "Pre 2011" sub-class.

​At the end of the opening weekend it felt like we had gone through a rollercoaster of emotions - from hope to despair, then from disappointment through to contentment. It took until we were halfway home to realise that leaving the opening round of the season with a collection of trophies, a handful of points, a pair of working bikes and a decent level of riding in the fully-dry conditions that this race meeting was actually very successful!

A successful weekend!

After the opening event, the championship points tables look as follows - with the 15/12/10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 point structure giving points to the Top 12 riders.

Twins Championship Standings (Top 5)
Scott McCrory   27
David Carson 20
Andy Herd       20
Alun Brooks      18
Louis Dawson   15

Pre-2011 Supersport Championship Standings (Top 5)
Sam Grayson    24
Matthew Perry  20
David Carson 17
Mike Bates       15
Tom Harrison    15

There isn't long to wait for more racing action, as we will be out again very soon at Darley Moor on the weekend of 13th/14th April and then at the Wirral 100 Oulton Park meeting on Saturday 20th April.
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