Mallory Park Mayhem

For round 8 of the ThundersportGB GP2 Championship we headed back to Mallory Park where we kicked off the season way back in March. The lead up to the meeting had been extremely hectic trying to get the bikes prepared in time and I must say a big thank you to Roger Middleton of RMKD for pulling out all the stops to provide us with a top notch engine for the meeting. Thanks also must go to Birdy, as he had been run ragged all week and it was reported on local news that he was actually seen to break sweat at 11:15 on Thursday morning of the 7th October in the year of our lord 2010.
If you have been keeping up to speed with our progress throughout the season you will by now know that our main championship rival is a miserable looking 19 year old by the name of Alex Heaton, who rides a Ducati for the Knight Road Racing Team. One evening whilst surfing the internet I happened to stumble across his new website only to find he had nicknamed himself ‘The Hitman’! Not wanting to waste an opportunity I quickly drafted some posters up for the weekend ahead, billed as ‘The Fight of the Year’, but I needed a name for the posters too. Now I am showing my age but the nickname ‘Hitman’ reminded me of the great boxer, Thomas ‘The Hitman’ Hearns and one of his great rivals was Sugar Ray Leonard. Job done, Alex ‘Hitman’ Heaton v Alex ‘Sugar Ray’ Hutchinson. The posters were pinned up all around the paddock and they went down really well and I thought the wind up was complete. But there was more, Steve Day our lovely commentator decided we should have a handbag fight on camera ready for the TV show. This was quite funny to do and I hope it comes out well on TV, especially the part when we turned on Steve and started hitting him instead. The posters have backfired slightly though as it now appears that I seem to have adopted the nickname of ‘Sugar Ray’, oh well, the wind up was worth it, just to see Heaton’s face!
Saturday morning came and we went out on track for our qualifying session, it was slightly overcast but it was dry and not too cold. I got my head down from the off and by my 4th lap had posted a 55.8s lap to put me in provisional pole position. Unfortunately I was then black flagged due to some smoke coming from the bike, so I pulled straight off the track at the hairpin. I therefore had to stand and watch the remaining 15 minutes of qualifying and it was only towards the end when Connor Tagg and Alex Heaton posted quicker times demoting me to 3rd on the grid. Still it was a front row start and as we only completed 4 laps we couldn’t complain too much. Standing at the hairpin it did give me chance to have a chat with Stu the scrutineer who had unfortunately suffered a heart attack shortly after the Anglesey meeting; hopefully he will be back to full fitness soon. Although I am not sure he was ever that fit! Once we got the bike back to the awning we quickly traced the cause to a hairline crack in the clutch cover casing, which was allowing a minute film of oil to leak out onto the exhaust, thus creating the smoke and making it to appear a lot worse than it was. The cover was quickly changed and we readied ourselves for the first race.
The first race of the weekend got away well and into Gerrads for the first lap I was in 2nd place behind Heaton on his booming orange Ducati. We battled it out over 14 laps passing each other at least twice a lap, Heaton was a little better on the brakes into Edwina’s chicane and the hairpin whereas I had the speed around Gerrards and out of the Devil’s Elbow. This made the race a cat and mouse affair with neither of us able to make the break. Throughout the race Connor Tagg was nipping at our heals ready to take advantage of any mistakes we made. Finally heading into the hairpin on the final lap we approached two riders to lap, Heaton shot down the inside of them both and I shot down the outside. We were neck and neck as we turned in to the hairpin but Heaton had the inside line. This gave him the lead which he managed to hold to take the win leaving me in 2nd place. This was a great race to be involved in and sums up what racing is all about.
The second race on Saturday turned out a little different, Heaton once again got the holeshot and I looked in behind him in 2nd place. After a lap I could see his rear brake caliper was hanging off. At this point I was very worried as I knew this could easily cause him to crash. Not wanting to get tangled up if he did come off I dropped back by about 6 bike lengths a rode around pointing at his bike trying to get the marshals attention. They had just readied the black flag for him when his rear wheel locked at Edwina’s chicane and down he went. On the one hand it was very unfortunate but on the other it was very lucky that it happened on one of the slowest corners on the circuit. I had a quick check behind me and Tagg and Gautrey were right on my rear wheel. Tagg managed to get past but I knew 2nd place was a good 20 points now that Heaton was out of the race and settled for that.
Sunday morning dawned and a new Dunlop rear tyre was fitted by the top guys at Holbeach Tyres. We took the decision to sit out the warm up session to preserve the tyre as it had to last the days two races. Although we had made changes to the suspension during the weekend the long 100mph+ corner of Gerrards was taking its toll on the rear tyre and we thought the least amount of laps we do on it the better. The weather had improved over Saturday, and with the sun shining it was down to T-shirts for the day.
For both of today’s races I was also carrying the onboard camera for the TV footage and hopefully we have given them some good shots to use on the Thundersport programme.
We lined up on the grid for the first race of the day and as the lights went out we all charged away. This was to be an epic race. I slotted into 5th place entering the first corner and over the next few laps managed to fight my way to the front of the pack but all the time there were 5 of us covered by less than a second. James Folkard came by me at Edwina’s chicane on lap 7 but as we headed up to the hairpin we clashed fairings. James ran a little wide and I re-took the lead. This I held for the next 2 laps until the red flags came out due to a crash involving Phil Cox at Gerrards corner. The result was therefore taken from the previous lap and we had our win, but boy was that hard work! The racing should look great on TV!
The last race of the weekend didn’t get away too well when after less than a lap the race was red flagged due to 3 riders falling at the Esses with one being our good friend Ian Popplewell who I am pleased to report is not as bad as first thought and will soon be on the road to recovery. On the restart I jumped off the line with only Heaton and Gautrey ahead. After a couple of laps I managed to hit the front but could not hold on to this for long as Folkard managed to get passed and pull a small gap. Concentrating on keeping hold of second place I managed to hold this position until the chequered flag. It was only after the race that I realised Heaton had crashed out again, this time at the hairpin giving us another handful of points.
We now have a 78 point lead in the championship over Alex Heaton with only Donington Park remaining. That means there are still 100 points up for grabs so the job is not done yet. Keep your fingers crossed for the 23rd & 24th October when we will be trying to bring the championship home.
Remember to keep a watch out on MotorsTV next week for the Thundersport programme which will show both of our Sunday races from Mallory Park including the onboard footage and the handbag fight!
Thanks to Chris Boland for all his help over the weekend and to his Mrs for keeping us fed!
Also thanks to Glyn Richardson for the photos!