Wet, Wild and Windy at Anglesey

For round 7 of the ThundersportGB GP2 championship we headed off to Anglesey in north Wales. This basically meant that we drove west until we reached the Irish Sea and then when the wheels started to sink in the sand we had arrived at the circuit. The circuit was totally revamped around 4 years ago and I had heard very good reports about the layout of the track so was therefore looking forward to the weekend ahead.
Due to having a few issues with our 440cc engine at the previous meeting at Brands Hatch we had to revert back to our tried and trusted 400cc motor for this weekend. Not the ideal situation as we need all the speed we can muster to ensure a good end to the season but the smaller engine is still a quick bike and Roger Middleton who builds ours is well know for his top class 400 engines.
As I had never raced at Anglesey before, we took the decision to take part in the practice day on the Friday which turned out to be a sunny if rather windy day. My first session out on circuit and after only 20 minutes we were lapping within 0.5 seconds of the lap record, this was starting to look good for the weekend. For this session we also tried a new shorter carbon fibre exhaust can supplied to us by Delkevic, the sound this made was awesome and everyone who heard it commented on the bike sounding like a mini Formula 1 car. A few issues did come to light though from the first outing which mainly centred on a lack of ground clearance. The track surface is quite abrasive and therefore very grippy, this means we were able to carry a large degree of lean angle but it meant the side of the bike was touching down in certain corners. We raised the rear ride height and dropped the forks back through the yokes to lift the full bike by a full 10mm, which is quite a large amount, this gave us enough clearance and in the second session we managed to equal the lap record for the class. This is what doing a test day is all about and we were confident we had a good set up for the weekend’s races.
Saturday morning and we went into qualifying in a confident mood after having set some very good times in the practice day on Friday. The track was dry and I circulated for a few laps but was getting held up a little in places, then I posted a lap time of 1 min 12.5 sec, this was inside the lap record and placed me 3rd on the grid behind Conner Tagg and Alex Heaton. The only upsetting part about this is that if you add both their respective ages together it equals my age!
By the time the first race came around the heavens had opened and given the track a good soaking, this meant the wheels were changed to wet tyres and we were ready to go. The lights went out and as usual I struggled to get the 400 off the line too well. This meant I slotted into around 7th place into the first corner. Over the course of the first lap I managed to claw my way up in to 2nd place and set about catching Clive White who was in the lead and had pulled a slight gap on me. Clive had managed a 1min 21sec first lap compared to my 1min 26sec which had given him a good advantage. By the time we were half way around the 2nd lap I had managed to close this gap down and was right on his back wheel. Not wanting to stay behind Clive too long I shot up the inside on the brakes heading into Rocket corner. The problem was I had gone in a little too hot and as Clive turned in we collided resulting in us both hitting the tarmac. I put my had up to this one and admit I went in to the corner slightly too quick, this was a shame as it looked as if we could have had a good win and I should have held on a little longer to make the pass. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. Clive was ever the sportsman and immediately shook my hand understanding it was a ‘racing incident’. On a positive note our championship rival Alex Heaton only managed a 7th place and with it 9 points, so the damage was not as bad as it could have been.
After the disappointment of the first race I knew I could not afford another non-finish. Thanks to Leigh and Chris for getting the bike repaired in time for the next race. The race started and as we entered the banked banked hairpin, Gautrey lost the front of his machine on the inside of me and crashed out. I thought that he was going to hit my bike and so prepared for the worse. Much to my surprise his bike missed mine by what must have been only millimetres. After a good race I took the chequered flag in 5th place with Heaton behind us in 6th place. Not great but it was a damn site better than the first race.
We all awoke on Sunday morning slightly disheartened to here the pitter patter of rain on the van roof. The weather had not subsided at all during the night and we realised that it was likely to continue for the rest of the day. Not wanting to add in any additional risk we decided to miss morning warm up as we felt there was very little to be gained from going out. So it was straight into to race 3 of the weekend. I have to admit after crashing the previous day I was still riding in safe mode not wanting to make anymore silly mistakes. I managed to come home in 4th place but more importantly finished ahead of Heaton once again.
We nearly missed our last race of the weekend as we heard the call over the PA system that the previous race was half race distance, the next call we heard was the GP2 class were taking to the grid. At this point we were all still stood in the awning trying to keep dry. The Holdroyd tyre warmers came off in record time, the bike started and I just made it to the grid in time for the start of the warm up lap. That was close. As it was the last race of the weekend and we hadn’t stood on the podium yet I was hopeful of a good result. Another bad start actually worked in my favour when a few of the other riders got tangled up at the first corner allowing me to slot into 2nd position. This I held for a couple of laps until Matt Davies a wild card rider for this weekend came past. Matt was obviously riding with a lot of confidence as he had just finished in 5th position in the British 125cc Championship race at Croft the previous weekend. Unfortunately for Matt he couldn’t hold on to 2nd for long as he highsided and crashed coming on to the start and finish straight. After dicing with Ben Gautrey for a few laps I decided that taking the points was better than another crash in very difficult conditions so settled for 3rd place, 1 place ahead of Heaton once more. Well done to Connor Tagg who won the race with a sterling display of wet weather riding.
We now stand 31 points clear of Alex Heaton in GP2 Championship which after the mistake in the 1st race could have been a lot worse. We now have only Mallory Park and Donington Park left to go, that means 8 races and 200 points still up for grabs so there is a lot of work to do. We are busy trying to get our 440cc engine rebuilt in time for the next round, keep your fingers crossed we get it done.
Thanks to Glyn Richardson for the photos.