NO FUN AT MALLORY
The second round of the Maxxis British Championship took place at the home of the British GP for the last two seasons, Mallory Park in Leicestershire. As the teams set up on the Saturday with the rain falling continuously the track looked like it would be a quagmire but the rain subsided overnight and as qualifying got underway the next morning the riders were left with a different challenge. The sodden layer of soil formed lines of continuous ruts covering the whole of the track which as they dried throughout the day led to the track becoming more and more one lined, making passing extremely difficult.

Qualifying proved difficult for both riders with Noble posting 10th and Parker a disappointed 20th.

The 1st race saw Noble make a great start but as he approached the first turn a the front of the pack Brad Anderson lived up to his Mad Brad nickname as he cut straight across from the outside losing his front wheel in the process and taking down the likes of Noble, Nunn & Dougan. After picking himself up, Noble started his race long fight to get back through the field only to be further thwarted by more bad luck. After getting back to 18th with four laps left a stone lodged itself under his rear brake pedal rendering it useless and leaving him to struggle home in 20th.
Parker made a great start and was up to 7th but disaster was to strike as a blown water pump seal resulted in him losing all of his bike’s coolant and as his engine overheated his clutch was the first to give up the ghost leaving him to grind to a halt.

Race two saw the reverse of the first race as this time Parker got the jump out of the gate and looked like he was heading for the holeshot, only to lose the front end in the slop at the end of the straight and hit the deck. Noble made a reasonable start in 12th but as the track became increasingly one lined there were virtually no passing moves taking place amongst the front runners and he was left to play follow the leader to the end of the race picking up just one place to finish 11th.
Parker, after re-started right at the back of the field in 37th rode a storming race to pickup 20 places as he finished in 17th.

Race three was a repeat of race two for Noble only this time he had made a better start in 7th which is where he finished in a completely tedious, uneventful race.
Parker finished the first lap in 14th but was trying too hard to make amends for his first two races and after stalling his machine on lap 3 and dropping it on lap 4 he was left to fight his way back from 30th place to eventually finish in the points in 20th.

Team Owner, Steve Turner was not amused. “ Why is the ACU bringing us to tracks like this, especially so early in the year. Apart from the first block of races the track was virtually one line the whole way round. I’m sure there were less passing manoeuvres than in last week’s Formula1. James and Nez both suffered their fair share of bad luck today but to their credit, although they both hated the track they still gave it their all. I felt really sorry for James in the last two races as he found it virtually impossible to pass anybody. I’m certainly looking forward to a week off before getting back to some proper racing down at Landrake on the 3rd & 4th April.”