CRMC, Malory Park, May 05

The Classic Racing Motorcycle Club turned out over 300 Classic racing machines at a sunny Mallory Park this Bank Holiday Monday. Plenty of spectators (even one of the Burger Bars ran out of food) saw Norton’s, BSA’s, Honda’s, Triumph’s, Ducati’s and Aermacchi’s all thundering around the famous circuit vying for glory or just for the fun.

Phil Sharp did the double in the very hard fought 350cc races on his Aermacchi whilst Lea Gourlay brought off a similar feat in the F750 class. The Post Classic race was a stunner with Mark Carkeek on his TZ 350 Yamaha just managing to get into the lead on the last corner of the last lap after dropping back to dead last due to an earlier incident. The new Edwina’s bend put in to slow bikes down before the ‘Lake Esses’ certainly made for action packed racing with fairing and handlebar manufacturers rubbing their hands with glee.

The feature race was for the Mike Hailwood Trophy, which was donated by Mike’s wife Pauline. This race was an ‘open’ race so 250’s were out with 750’s. From the start Lea Gourlay hit the front on his wailing 750 Triumph triple, echoing the 70’s when these bikes ruled F750 racing. Behind Lea, Mike Hose on a 750 Weslake, Phil Davenport on another triple and Colin Breeze on a 500 Manx Norton scrapped for position. At the end Lea won with Mike Hose second and a misfiring Phil Davenport was third.