Wed, 02 Nov 2011

Ian Mackman Wins Anglesy Grand and Thundersport GB Superstock 1000

Wirral 100 – Anglesey Grand – Race Report Posted: October 19, 2011 by Andy Findlay in Anglesey Grand Report

I always do my best to support my club, Wirral 100, whenever possible. Unfortunately with so many clashes with other events this season my only Wirral 100 club meeting would be the Anglesey Grand. Having won this event in 2008 and 2010 I was keen to equal the current record of 3 wins (currently held by Tim Poole).

I elected to run on treaded tyres for the club races on Saturday, saving some slick tyres for the main races on Sunday. Saturday saw some great racing between myself and John Ingram. I crossed the line on his rear tyre twice to take two second places with Russ Mountford in close behind. Generally your can get a good idea from the club races on who is going to go well in the Anglesey Grand, scheduled for Sunday. The three of us in Powerbikes were all looking strong contenders alongside a few riders from British Championship on 600cc Supersport machines, David Jones, Sam Hornsey, Connor Behan and Johnny Blackshaw. With the layout of the circuit at Anglesey, riding a 1000cc machine doesn’t give the big advantage that you would expect. Lots of short sharp straights don’t really give the big bike time to stretch it’s legs.

The Grand was run over two legs on Sunday with the aggregate times of both determining the overall result. Qualifying didn’t exactly go my way where, once again, I made a calculated error with tyre choice! Some heavy overnight rain had passed over but left the circuit very wet. It appeared to be drying quickly and I elected to run full dry (lightly cut) road tyres. This turned out not the be the best move as at the end of a session, spent mostly wheel spinning, I was 16th on the grid! Note to self, in future just ask my 2 year old son, Ted, which tyres to use!!

The first leg started in the early afternoon. I was sitting at my 16th place grid slot with, whom I considered my biggest rival, John Ingram in 5th. Things weren’t looking too rosy.

I’m not going to lie but I had a few flashbacks to two years ago when I started, at Anglesey, from the back of the grid. Whilst pushing my way through the field I, got a bit over excited and crashed causing some very well documented damage to myself followed by a two month recuperation period.

The lights changed and I had the best first lap of my life to slot into third place by the time 2/3rds of the lap were completed. Russ Mountford directly in front and John Ingram in the lead. I made a couple of failed attempts to pass Russ but eventually made the move stick by the end of lap two. John had got away by around 2 seconds. I pushed on hard, with the track now dry I slowly pulled up to his rear wheel and set the fastest lap of the race. With four laps to go I stayed with John planning to make my move for the lead on the penultimate lap at Rocket. Once this time came, I was thwarted by a yellow flag at my favoured spot. Which left me with just the final lap to make my move. John did a good job of protecting the line on the final lap and I dived in on the brakes. I only managed to get halfway past andwith John cutting across to the apex of the left hand corner I had to grab the brake harder to avoid ramming into the side of his rear wheel. A shame that this failed pass had now cost me some time in this late stage of the race. I crossed the line in second place with a half a second defecit.

I fitted a new rear tyre for the second leg, two hours after the first. Grid slots for this leg were allocated by fastest lap times from the first race. This put me on pole position, at least I wouldn’t have to go from 16th again!! Knowing that I’d need to win this leg by over half a second to be crowned champion. My plan was to get into the lead and put my head down in the early stages to attempt to make a break. This worked out for me. I hole shotted the start and set the fastest lap of the race on the 3rd lap. John Ingram had made a mistake and lost some time on the first lap. I pushed hard and was being given pit signals to indicate that I was pulling a gap on the following group. By lap six I had an eight second lead. At this point I was still braking late, with the rear wheel waving in the air and locking up into the hairpins, I decided it was best to calm things down a bit. I kept the pressure on but took it slightly easier to win the race by 9.7 seconds and take the Anglesey Grand title once more. What a great relief, after such a poor qualifying and against some quality riders, I was over the moon with the result. I have to thank Kemtile, my biggest supporter of this season, for their input at the meeting. They gave me the chance not to worry about tyre costs etc and just go for it!!!

My next, and last, meeting of this season is at Mallory Park over the weekend of 22/23rd October. The final of the ThundersportGB championship. Wish me luck.