Luke outshines everyone, in the late summer sun.
Luke outshines everyone, in the late summer sun.
One of the hottest properties in the BSB 600 paddock, Luke Jones is a regular at the NG Thruxton end of year meetings, and loves the Hampshire circuit.
The 25 year-old from Hereford has been in stunning form this year, and as is his want he wheeled out his Acumen/T3 Triumph for this meeting.
Luke, the former British Mini Moto....British 125GP and National Triumph Triple champion was out in the Open, 600 and Sound of Thunder and was not headed all day, leading every one of his 33 laps on track. He also set pole for the Open in timed qualifying, and to complete the full set, set new class lap records in all three classes, including the fastest ever lap at an NG meeting with a sunning 1min 17.86 (109.11mph).
Josh Day on his new Ruby Racing Triumph was using Like as a target all day to get his lap times down on the new 675 and finished runner up to Luke in the 600 open, ahead of a manic scrap between Dale Thomas, Scott Pitchers and Bradley Jones.
On paper the Open would not be an easy task for Luke, pitting his 675 up against the full on 1000's, but win it he did, ahead for Kyle Wilks on his Tsingtao ZX10R with behind him Josh Day and Phil Bevan who fought right to the line.
You could have forgiven Luke for not coming out onto the grid for the final race of the day, as the Sound of Thunder final was delayed for 30 minutes.... due to the sun being in the riders eyes !!!!. Oh yes, this is England in October and the setting sun was too bright and right into the riders eye-line for the run up Woodham Hill. After the sun has disappeared behind the grandstand the race was called to the grid, with Jones on pole. Duly another race win came with a 5 second gap over Josh Day, Scott Pitchers and Phil Bevan, making it a total Triumph lock out. Behind the 675's was the battle for the championship between Darren Rumley and James Harrison. Despite Rumley getting the better of Harrison the points for 7th were enough for Harrison the take the title. The race was well worth the wait for the crowd that stayed on patiently for the sun to literally go down on the last race of 2014.
DCI Team takes all the trophies....
In the ever increasingly popular pre Injection class the DCI Refrigeration team were looking for wins in both 700cc and 1300cc classes. This in itself would be a feat but it would also be the first time that a Father and Son had won championships in the same year in the solo classes (...Tom and Thomas Quaye have done in as a sidecar crew).
Father Mike Hobbs was mathematically secure on his R1 in the big class after the accident that took nearest rival Adam Jeffery out of the frame. Hobbs senior would have loved to ended the year with a win, but that was denied his by the fast finishing Thomas Payne on his AFB R1 by just 0.09 of a second. However in the 700cc division it was a very nervous looking Chris Hobbs that had to get the better of Phil Webber. Webber did all he could too keep his chances alive and won the race, but staying ahead of a squabbling group of five riders was just enough for Chris to take the points he needed to take the title. The teams celebrations were a little muted as the race saw the third DCI team member Simon Smith crash heavily from his R1....we wish his a speedy recovery.
Mark, gets a belated birthday bash.
Mark Clayton made his mark in the 125GP class by winning this final round of the year to make it eight wins from 14 starts in 2014. Just three days after celebrating his 15th birthday young Mark racked up this win to take his Refined Recruitment 125 Honda to take the championship. He was looking like a podium would be possible in the 500 open too, but his Honda gave up the ghost, but his early year performances against the bigger bikes still mean that he takes second in the 500 open championship behind another teenage star Sam Wilford. Daniel Jackson took the 500cc-race win though 12 months after retiring from racing. He headed home John Lewis and Dave Hampton.
The rest of the action in brief.
After three times on the lower steps of the podium Mike Wilson finally made it to the top with a fine win over Shane Faber in the F125 class. Zak Corderoy and Williams Caines vied for top GP45, but after getting piped for position in qualifying Corderoy too the final in style on his RRV Aprilia. Steve Palmer took his ZXR400 to the Formula 400 win with Chris Swyer a fine second after holding off Ben Harrison.
Acknowledged Thruxton lover Mark Compton took Streetstocks 1300 glory from Simon O'Donnell and Cliff Tabiner, whilst Royal Navy Motor sport teamster Colin Wilson headed home Rob Bowen in the 700cc division.
Grant Robertson took his SV650 to a win over Tom Blackwell in the Mini Twins by just half a second. Dan Cooper had a race winning outing on an ER6 in the Supertwins over Alistair Fagan on his 650 Gladius and Rhys Hardisty on and other ER6. Top SV was Stephen Sweetman in fourth.
The Powerbike saw Tsingtao ZX10 pilot Kyle Wilks take a narrow and hard fought win over newly crowned champ Phil Bevan, Dan Helyer and Mark Compton.
The Jamie Adam JAMR Trophy race.
As is now a regular at Thruxton the many Royal Navy armed services riders get together to race for the Jamie Adam Trophy, and once more it was Royal Marines Motor Sport rider Bill Callister that took the honours on his CBR1000 RR over Lee Matthew and Steve MacMillan. This was Callister's second win after taking it in 2013, but this year he headed home Matthew by just 0.2 second at the line as Matthew set the fastest lap in his pursuit of victory.
Performance of the meeting.
Mark Compton was a well-deserved winner of the Denise Jenner-Lambourne performance award. He is a rider that revels at high-speed circuits, and there is none faster that Thruxton. Mark bough two bikes to this meeting, his regular Powerbike, plus a 2005 spec GSXR1000 that he had, in his words ".....cobbled together" to run in the Streetstocks class. Mark set pole position for the Powerbikes, and was in the mix in the final with a raft of BSB boys, he eventually finished fifth. The Bike Moto K5 "bitsa" GSXR took Mark to not only the Streetstocks win, but also a new class lap record.
Dale Thomas was also singled out for the Clive and Pam Flood award for a stunning ride into third in the 600 Open on his Cardiff Motorcycle Centre R6
This meetings special award winners...
Denise Jenner-Lambourne Performance of the Meeting - Mark Compton
Clive and Pam Flood Special Performance Award- Dale Thomas
Bardahl Newcomer of the meeting - Kevin Clayton