Croft Preview by Jono Yardley

The first two meetings have certainly been very good and have produced some great rides from many riders. In the sidecars, the pairing of Mike Bellaby & Dave Gristwood, see them leading the up to 1300cc class, despite some great performances by Danny Quirk / Sharon Reeves and David Tetley / Dan Mills. Mike will be hoping that his good run continues, it certainly would be great to see them do well in the championship. In the new ‘Era 3 Superbike class, Ant Hart was in top form riding his 916 Duke, but he didn’t have Mike Smith to contend with. But Smithy will be back at Croft aboard his ZXR 750, and for sure will be an exciting one to watch. 

At Darley Moor the Supermono lap record was shattered by over two seconds by Jordan Giddings, but he most certainly didn’t have it all his own way. Dean Widdowson, Joe Woodward and of course Ant Hart saw to that. Great close racing and more to come at Croft I am certain of that. In the Goldstar 350 races, Tyler Scothern was amazing and unbeatable. He will be looking forward to repeating his performances. In the same race, we witnessed great three way battles between Will Loder, Graham Higlett and Neil Watson. Graham is missing Croft as he is racing with the Lansdowne series elsewhere, but will be a good one to watch regardless. 

In the TZ race for the fast Grand Prix 250 and 350 versions, Daniel Jackson will be one to watch, but someone who impressed me enormously was Robert Mawbey. Rob is new to the CRMC and definitely made his mark with some brilliant, quick and smooth riding, we can look forward to more of the same, hopefully throughout the year. In just his second year with the club Michael Burke riding his beloved Ducati’s in the PC 750 race, will looking to repeat his four straight wins over Chris Saltinstall on his Big Guzzi and Mark Taylor riding his little TZR 250. Neither Chris or Mark made for easy wins for Mike. Can he do it again? 

The winner of all four Classic 500cc races was Mark Cronshaw, despite the best efforts of Alex Sinclair and Joe Woodward. Joe is again riding Andy Molnar’s Norton and Andy tells me that me that he is super impressed with Joe’s riding. He seems to get better with every meeting, Joe’s riding is consistently so impressive; ultra smooth and crazy angles of lean. How does he do it? The second ‘Post Classic Era 3’ class for the Supersport 600’s is growing nicely and it is great that Adam Sheriff is back with us; his start to the year with three 2nd places and a win bode well for Croft, but I continue to be megga impressed with Mark Roxborough’s riding - as the year goes on he just keeps getting better and better. 

So hopefully that has given you a little taste of what we can expect to see on the 1st & 2nd June at Croft.  

It’s simple – Be there or be square! 

 

And remember, at Croft the long Sunday race scores DOUBLE POINTS! 

By Jono Yardley, CRMC Commentator 

 

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