Treble History made in Suffolk
Sunday saw the inaugural grass track meeting staged by the brand new Chick Garrod Racing club at their Iken venue on the stunning Suffolk Coast.
It was also the very first a Grass Track meeting has been held under Nora regulations… and arguably the biggest class in grass track the GT140 class was split into two categories, the GT140 pro class for the super tuned engines and the GT140 stock class was trialed for the very first time with enough entries for two heats per round, an A final and a B final.
The minute you drove through the gate, you knew this was going to be special. A healthy crowd witnessed not only great racing on a superb fast race track designed by Adam Garrod and Tommy Nichols with super long straights and perfect radiused corners. A proper grass track with huge run-offs, freshly painted stakes and the Nora advised green mesh fencing, the whole venue looked sharp and professional. The smell of the burgers, the hum of generators made it even more atmospheric, plus a tombola tent and VIP and sponsors tent made it look even more professional. There was even a display from the local Copdock motorcycle show.
Adam spent a lot of time and effort in the pits ensuring that everyone had a great spot, separating the quads, chairs and solos ensuring a large free flowing opt box area.
So to the racing, a small track was set up in the middle opposite the crowd, perfectly mowed with its own starting gate for the Revi class with little Roxy Green stealing the hearts of everyone there.
A small entry of youth racers were present with Oscar South winning the E-Bikes class, Alfie Shipp winning the cadets, Oscars brother Albie winning the Juniors and the super fast Kane Newby taking the Inters.
There was a superb class of 250cc pre 75’s with some great machinery on track. Plenty of BSA’s and also the sound of many two strokes was a great sight, sound and smell. CZ, Kawasaki’s, Greeves were in display and it was Mark Woods to took the honours.
Entries for the main 250, 350 and 500’s were thin on the ground so a decision was made to run an open class where young Kenzie Cossey took the win. Two full heats of quads are always ever present in east Anglia with Lewis Strudwick taking the win in the A final.
Two 1000cc right hand sidecars wowed the crowd with some entertaining racing with Tom Marvel and Micheal Tottman taking the win. There was also an MX class with Alex Ketteringham taking the win.
That takes us on to the GT140 class with 25 competitors over three heats and finals per round, one Pro and two Stock. The pro class racers put on a good show with Ian Clark taking the win in all his heats with Kevin Gwillam and Mark Scopes, second and third, however some great battles lower down with Ron Steward, Kev Bundock and Connor Sargeant not far behind.
It was the GT140 Stock class that all eyes were on. A huge turnout of 14 riders, all on some old, some new standard 140cc motors enjoyed a great safe day of racing. No egos, plenty of laughs, all chatting between races, folk swapping parts, trying new things… it was what grass track should be. The idea of Steve Newsham who is trialing this idea who had a full display of GT140 machines at the OFTR Racing tent would love to make this a permanent class right across grass track, whether Nora or ACU.
Steve said ‘How do you define success? ‘Everyone in the stock class came to thank me for putting it on or DM’d me last night saying what a great day and can’t wait for the next one’. ‘We wanted to get this out of the way to see if there’s a desire for it before we plan the future. I recon just from yesterday from the many people that visited our tent, another three riders will be onboard soon’
There were three brand new riders, the top three of the B Final being Billy Collier, Stefan Bailkowski and OFTR team rider Matt Walker.
The GT140 Stock class was won by Steve Newsham who had a one-off ride in the standard class. Steve used this meeting as a test to see how the new OFTR bikes would perform and all three OFTR piloted bikes riden by Steve, Tim Newbrook who managed a fourth in the A final and Matt who took third in the B, ran a dream all day. Fast and reliable.
Next Chick Garrod Racing move into the lovely Henly circuit on 22nd August where the where we celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the GT140 class.
Results
Revvi
1st Roxy Green
E-bikes
1st Oscar South
Cadets
1ar Alfie Shipp
2nd Oliver Walsh
Juniors
1st Albie South
2nd Brayden Blyth
Inters
1st Kane Newby
2nd Finley Theobald
Gt140 pro
1st Ian Clark
2nd Kevin Gwillam
3rd Mark Scopes
Open solo class
1st Kenzie Cossey
2nd Carl Hard
3rd Kevin Beer
Class Pre 75
1st Mark Woods
2nd Giles Dismore
3rd Duncan Burton
Gt140 Stock A Final
1st Steve Newsham
2nd Kevin Gwillam
3rd Jay Sayer
GT140 Stock B Final
Billy Collier
Stefan Bialkowski
Matt Walker
Quads
1st Lewis Strudwick
2nd Matthew Saunders
3rd Brian Rodwell
R/H1900 Sidecar
1st Tom Marvell/Stephen Russell
2nd Anthony Sales/ Michael Tottman
MX Adult
1st Alex Ketteringham
2nd Kyle Garrod
