Wirral 100 Round 3 - Anglesey Race Review (2024)

Our first meeting of "official summer" greeted us with rain on arrival to the circuit, but fortunately a superb weekend of sunshine lay ahead! With Dave Snr taking a vacation this week, it was more like a family holiday than a race meeting - which had both Pros and Cons...

Anglesey Circuit - a great place for a family getaway! :-)

​On Saturday morning we had the Twins qualifying session first. We casually got into the swing of things and set a best lap time of 1:16.1 which qualified us 5th position in class (9th on the combined grid). Shortly afterwards we headed out into the Supersport 600 qualifying session and set a more appropriate lap time of 1:14.717 which qualified us 2nd in class (10th on the combined grid).

Our first race was Twins Race 1. From the start we settled into a race battle consisting of 4 riders for the entire race. We set a lap time of 1:14.597 (which was slower than we wanted - a 1:14.0 was our aim) and finished 5th in class, 7th overall on track.

With the sun beating down on the track, we experienced track temperatures in excess of 40C! This made the circuit surface quite slippery (or more probably the tyre/track combination less than ideal) and on the opening lap we had rear-end slides at Church (Turn 3) and on the final corner. This woke us up and made us be a little more cautious getting on the gas - but on lap 5 the race was red-flagged after a faller at the Corkscrew section.

After a short wait on the start line the race was restarted. This race was stopped on lap 2 following an unfortunate crash for (Aintree Steel Frame 600 championship leader) Wayne Pudge on his Butler Racing machine. Wayne suffered a dislocated hip and injured his thumb during the crash - we would like to wish Wayne all the best with his recovery!

The club decided to call an early lunch and then restarted the race over 5 laps. By this point we just wanted to get through the race unscathed. We managed to set a best lap time of 1:15.321 and finished 4th in class, 10th overall.

A couple of hours later we headed out for Twins Race 2. We had a good start and successfully dodged the stricken pole-position machine on the run to the first corner. From there we held our position all the way until the end of the race, finishing 5th in class (7th overall) and setting a best lap time of 1:14.616.

Unfortunately there is no onboard video for Supersport 600 Race 2. Due to all of the excitement with the earlier races the battery had run out! That's a shame, as in this race we finished 1st in the Pre-2011 class and in 5th position overall - with a best lap time of 1:13.917, which is much closer to where we want to be! After a good start in the race we went faster and faster through the race, eventually setting our fastest lap on the final lap. In comparison, some of our competitors got slower towards the end of the race which meant we were able to pick off some extra positions during the final few laps.

It was a good way to end the day and it meant that for the first time ever, we have won races with 3 different clubs in the same season! It was also 15 years since we had last won a Wirral 100 race.

​Onto Sunday and we decided to skip the morning warm-up session. During this weekend we, for whatever reason, were suffering from an overcautious approach to the races. We decided that doing some "not at 100% commitment" laps wouldn't help things so saved ourselves for the races instead. 

Into Twins Race 3 and we got a bit swamped during the opening lap. But we got our head down and set a best lap of 1:14.519 (which was the fastest Twin lap we would put in all weekend) during our way back through the field. At the chequered flag we finished 6th in class (10th overall in the combined field).

During Supersport 600 Race 3 we managed to do quire a rare thing nowadays - we set a new Personal Best lap time of 1:13.338. As was becoming a tradition this weekend, we let a load of people pass us during the opening laps and then chased them down before the flag. In this race that worked quite well, as we finished 2nd in class (7th overall).

In Twins Race 4 we rode as hard as we felt comfortable with, which was good enough to take another 5th place class finish (7th overall) with a best lap of 1:15.259.

​Our final race of the weekend was Supersport 600 Race 4. For an unknown reason, we were just more comfortable on the Kawasaki ZX6R than the Aprilia this weekend. In this race we were able to get into the 1:13s again (with a 1:13.760) and took another 2nd position in class (7th overall) which bagged us a few more championship points.

Speaking of championship points... After this event, the Wirral 100 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.

Pre-2011 Supersport Championship Standings (Top 5)
Tom Harrison       86
David Carson     81
Matthew Perry      59
Caleb Williams      57
Rhys Forrest         42

Twins Championship Standings (Top 5)
Louis Dawson       95
Scott McCrory       93
David Carson     65
Andy Herd            44
Robert Williams     43

The conclusion of this meeting marks the mid-point of our 2024 season. The season has gone particularly well for us so far. At present, this is how we stand within the various championships.

Aintree 750cc Twins                    -->     Championship Leaders
Aintree 700cc Supertwins            -->     Championship Leaders
Darley Moor Darley Cup              -->     Championship Leaders
Darley Moor 700cc Twins             -->     Championship Leaders
Darley Moor Open 600cc             -->     2nd in championship
Wirral 100 Pre-2011 Supersport    -->     2nd in championship
Wirral 100 Twins                         -->     3rd in championship
Aintree Supersport 600                -->     4th in championship

We have a couple of weeks off now, before our next meeting at Aintree on Saturday 13th July.