Pembrey pole was pinned by 2007 champions GBMoto (Mark Smith Halvorsen/Mick Godfrey/Pete Jennings/Yamaha R1) in changeable conditions on the day before the race – the only team to dip under the minute mark with a 59.918s. The majority of the teams had experienced dramas during practice or qualifying; welcome returnees to the series Uprite Racing (Rod Lynn/Alex Cudlin/Declan Swanton/Suz 1000), and second fastest, had lost their number one engine and spent over six hours throughout the night trying to fix it, eventually fitting last year’s plant for the Sunday race, testament to the work of Triff, Gresh and the gang.

In 2007, Uprite won three out of the five National races but failed to take the title due to the consistent performance of GBMoto. Current series leaders Sweatshop Moores Racing 2 (Hugh Brasher/Nick Roake/John Paul-Scott/Yamaha R1) also said goodbye to their only engine, managing to locate a standard road engine from a breaker, miles away from the track – a journey to collect + purchase the replacement item was followed by an impressive engine swap by the Moores men in less that 90 minutes. Third fastest was Phoenix Endurance (Shelley Pike/Andy Jones/Mark Long/R6) making the most of circuit specialist Long and a well prepared Yamaha, Mark was deputising for Pete Gibson who was away at a social event!

At the start just before midday it was GBMoto who sprinted ahead keeping a respectable lead over the chasing opposition, pitting around the one hour mark and keeping their lead on the road, early dramas for Sweatshop Moores who spent 45 minutes pitted to sort the machine out after an ‘off’ by John Paul Scott, Moore’s R6 (Tony Jimenez/Mike Eglington/Jim Agombar) also returned to pitlane after Jim fell off at the hairpin following contact with a slower rider. This R6 had been suffering all weekend with binding brakes and took to the start line with the same issues, the team had literally tried everything to rectify the gremlin but to no avail – a DNF would effectively put paid to Moores championship battle.

We had also lost Greg Wilson’s Best Choice Endurance (Richard Greenland/David Hockham/Stuart Holloway – a strong combination with lots of North Gloucester experience of Pembrey at Streetstocks level) after the R6 continued at speed into the foam protection barrier, again at the hairpin, and it was impossible to retrieve the stricken machine so the team remained frustrated until they could leave the track after the race had finished.

Just prior to the two hour mark Uprite pitted with overheating problems which kept the team busy for a while, at the same time GBMoto had built up a 5 lap advantage over nearest rival, the Supersport of Ducks Cross Racing (Jon Railton/Grant Wagstaff/Martin Landmann/R6). Congratulations to student Jon who recently started blagging championship points at BSB meetings, starting with Snetterton. The Phoenix Endurance R6 was next in for a long stop at Shelley Pike tried to locate the source of disturbing and costly engine noises, eventually retiring from the race. This was a rare blemish in the team’s history where retirements are very rare indeed!

Uprite were back under the awning with a cooked generator – a legacy of the earlier overheating problems and Sweatshop Moores were back in the groove, working towards achieving 75% of the winner’s distance to qualify for championship points at the end of the round and work towards the championship.

Half way point of the race saw GBMoto heading the first of the 600s by a convincing 7 laps over Ducks X – we also had Darkside Endurance (Andy Buik/Darren Jones/Kevin Upstone/R6) and Team Viking (Paul Clarke/Crispin d'Albertanson) on the same lap a mere 4 seconds apart.

More dramas for Uprite, at one stage they were absolutely flying before the stopwatches showed a downturn in speed – rider Rod Lynn was called in for fresh rubber and returned to the fray as Team Viking were up to third place before dropping back. Uprite retired 40 minutes later, just after the four hour mark, when last year’s engine cried enough on the start/finish straight, a major disappointment to crew chief Max Scholl, the team and the trio of young top riders with masses of valuable experience.

For the closing stages GBMoto continued to rack up the laps and win the race by a convincing 18 laps over Ducks X, a real fight for third place saw Darkside beat Throttle Monkey (Dave Stewardson/Eric Chitty/Kevin Doughty) who had had a steady race with a very respectable outcome and finished on the same lap as their rivals. Viking were a mere lap adrift in fifth ahead of Black Flag Racing (George Duncan/Sam Smithson) demoting Black Cat Racing (George Bicket/Mark Westcott/Robert Knoyle) in the final couple of laps of the race, Moores Racing and Sweatshop Moores never really recovering from loosing so much time early in the race.

Spare a thought for Dave Stewardson who entered every race of the weekend and came away with a fist and second in MotoGrande, a third place in the 2 hour Junior and, replacing at the last minute, non starter Andy McKnight sporting crutches!, a fourth and a class win in the 6 hour Senior race! Andy was given the very important task of flagging the race away. As well as riding for the winning team, Mick Godfrey dropped the chequered cloth effectively on the third round of the Hottrax Motorsport Racing Club National and Senior Endurance Race.

Not even halfway stage of the championship and it’s getting closer at the top of the points table, and anything can happen in endurance racing, Round 4 is at Snetterton on 2nd + 3rd August 2008.

Results