Sunday 14th August, round 10
Mid-morning and the sun was out for yet another dry and sunny NGRRC race meeting, the ever-present Menai Straight wind was present but not a concern for the racers, all eager to make laptime improvements in the bright conditions.
Reassembled on the grid, our gaggle of GP45s all had work to do. Harrison again on a mission to join the mini-twin leaders from way back, the superb 450 Aprilia made light work of the pack posting a 6th position first time past the timing beacon. More rivals were quickly dispatched and again Harrison secured another front row start for the afternoon’s final and an impressive 3rd on-the-road finish. Harrison was now taking note of Martin Thrower as the undulating Welsh circuit was providing the Ashley’s of Yeovil General Manager with some impressive improvements over recent outings. Thrower finished well inside the top 10 and would be looking to make further gains come the final.
Matt Andrew was the man to beat yet again for the Super Singles getting himself through to a very impressive 5th position from his 30th grid slot and certainly giving the 650cc mini-twins something to think about. Despite a valiant attempt and some good passes Robbie Robson on the KTM GP45 couldn’t quite catch Gary Moran and settled for one place behind the Suzuki.
The round 10 final arrived to see Harrison take his 8th front row start of the season on the blue Motobits Aprilia, an on-form Thrower found himself on the 2nd row with Super Single Championship leader Andrew a few places to his right, also on row 2. The Trevor Pope Racing KTM of Robbie Robson once again seated side-by-side with Gary Moran ready to do battle. Despite an epic ride the previous day, Tony Bridgefoot was struggling to get his Honda CRF to play ball with another DNF in the qualifier, Tony took up a back row position looking for a good start to get him back in contention.
Despite losing a place on the first timed lap, Harrison pushed through to hold on to 3rd overall and take the GP45 Super Twin win, Thrower made great progress in the opening laps getting the Aprilia past Andrew on the Single and a couple of mini-twins into 5th spot but retired early with a mechanical issue. Matt Andrew was again on good form heading off all of his Super Single rivals and the majority of the mini-twins with another strong 6th on-the-road finish, Andrew’s best lap of 1:18.04 proved to the best Super Single lap of the weekend but not quite enough to conquer last season’s lap record set by Steve Pond of 1:16.09. Gary Moran took the GP45 Suzuki through to claim 2nd Super Single with Tony Bridgefoot was back in the saddle with another excellent ride of the weekend grabbing third in class and a top 15 overall spot from his 6th row start, all this despite an excursion on to the grass to avoid another rider’s incident.
