The Biker Place

Report from National Junior Superstock rider Jonathan Lodge from his, and his brother James’s race meeting at Anglesey.

We got to the circuit to be greeted by pretty good weather especially compared to what most got at Snetterton that same weekend. We didn’t do either of the test days saturday or sunday so we were straight into the fray monday morning. I put some new tyres on for practice and qualifying (a mistake!) and qualified 3rd in the powerbikes and 4th in the 600s. I noticed after only these 2 short 15 min sessions the rear tyre was already starting to show serious cold tearing.

To get some extra heat into the tyre to try and reduce this I lowered the pressure a bit and softened the rear suspension to just try and get the tyre to work more and get more heat into it. But for the 1st powerbike race I put some new Pirelli slicks on my spare wheels, I have never ridden on slicks on a bigger bike and to make things worse it started drizzling on the 1st section of the track in the last couple of laps. The other section was bone dry, but the 2 riders up front at this time had backed off the entire circuit and I passed Adriam Williams, leading 1000 and got behind Jay Dunn to get into 2nd. I reeled him in on the final section and I nearly went for it, but I had another 3 races that day and I didn’t want to make a mistake and end up goin home early due to a trashed bike!! I did however set the fastest lap of the race.

For race 2 I put the worn Racetecs back on thinking they would last the duration of the race. To make things even more frustrating I got a really good start and passed Jay into turn 2 taking the lead, but with everyone else in the top 4 on new tyres I just went backwards with the rear tyre shredded on the right hand side, I nursed the thing home in 4th. This is an expensive trait the very abrasive circuit has on tyres especially when it is cold!!

For the 2nd powerbike race I put the slicks back on and started to get a little more confident with the bike. I was away straight into 2nd and on Jays tail. I stuck with him and was elbow to elbow for the first 4 laps. I made a move on him into the tight left hander at the top of the hill, but with a backmarker there I made a mistake and only went down into 3rd gear instead of 2nd allowing Jay to repass me coming out of the next turn. To make things worse the backmarker got between me and Jay goin down into the corkscrew so the race was lost. A little bit of a dissapointment, but I knew i could run with him and I set the fastest lap of the race again.

For the 2nd supersport race I put a brand new tyre on the back and knew I had a real chance of fighting for the lead. Unfortunately after getting an average start again I got pushed out the way by some overkeen late braker into turn 2 and I was back into 5th spot. I fought my way back through them into 2nd spot, but by then Jay had got away. When I did get some clear track on the last lap I set a 1:11.255 lap time, the previous Nantwhich and Chesire record was an 1:11.596 set by Craig Beggs on an R1. I believe the outright of the circuit is an 1:11.325 set by Adam Jenkinson in the Wirral 100 club also on a 1000.
For my first race meeting of the year, no testing in spain, on a standard R6. For me to come back with 3 2nds, a 4th, 3 fastest laps and the absolute circuit record, I was pretty pleased!!

James entered in the 125GP races, but having no real competition he walked away with both wins by miles. He was left fighting in race 1 with Colin Wilcock who was the leading 250, but been half the capacity whatever he made up round the corners meant he could not challenge him overall. He won the 1st 125 race by nearly 25 seconds and race 2 by just over 12!

The photos in this article were taken by Paul and Linda and PLJ photography.

Want to discuss this article? Sign up for the new social network for bikers. Think MySpace or Facebook but for bikers only.