Hottrax Report from FaceBook DUCATI DESMO DUE Just six points cover the top three in Class A of the Ducati Due series after the second round. Andy Pike tops the standings on 86, one more than James Gerrard, who led after the opening round at Oulton Park and six in front of David Wood Jr. Pike, from pole-position on the starting grid, won the 12-lap first race, on the Saturday, by over seven seconds from Gerrard, with Mark Roxborough third, less than a fifth of a second in front of Wood Jr. Pike made a sluggish start in the second race and found himself baulked by Jim Brian on the opening lap. By the time he had got by Wood Jr and Gerrard had a three seconds lead. Pike caught them, but at the end of a good scrap had to settle for third place, with Wood Jr the winner and Gerrard second. The trio were covered by just 1.4 seconds. Gerrard high-sided coming out of the last corner, early in race three, escaping with just bruising, causing a re-run in which Wood Jr and Pike scrapped it out. At the chequered flag Wood Jr was just half a second ahead of Pike. Three more wins, maintained Thomas Hallifax’s unbeaten run for the season to five, giving him a commanding 47-point lead over his closest rival, Dave Jenkins. It was a good weekend for 60-year-old Phil Wilcock, winner of Desmo Due Class B championship in 2011. Going under the name of G.H.O.S.T., an acronym for Grey Haired Old Silly Twit, Wilcock finally cured a bogging-down engine fault that had plagued him all last year and the early part of this by getting rid of a faulty adjustable fuel pressure regulator. Revitalised he came away from Anglesey with a fifth, a fourth and a third in his three Class A outings and he is now fourth in the points’ table. It was a memorable meeting for Jim Brian. The 39-year-old electrician from Lincoln, a class B novice, has never raced before and has only done a few track days at Cadwell Park. He qualified third overall behind Tom Halifax and Andy Pike and second fastest in his class. I race one he finished third Class B, but lapped two seconds a lap slower than in qualifying. He changed his tyres for race two. His pace was much better and he broke the Class B lap record by nearly 2 seconds. On lap two, though, he too late braking into Rocket and lost two places. He was too late braking again at the same corner a lap later and lost a bit of time. Soon after that he had a coming together with Tom Halifax, just after Rocket, in which his brake lever actually torn open a hole in Halifax’s leathers. What Brian had not realised was his brake lever had been flicked up in the incident, so that when he went to brake, going into Peel, he had no brakes and ran wide, losing a place to Phil Wilcock. Brian re-passed Wilcock and was catching Halifax. when he lost the back-end coming out of the hairpin, causing the race to be red flagged. Race three had to be restarted after James Gerrard had had his high-side. In the restart Brian was holding a comfortable five second advantage in second place, before Dave Jenkins caught and passed him on the penultimate lap. |