SuperBike Magazine July 2020
The July issue is packed with awesome content to keep you busy over the remaining days of July. We are hard at work putting our August issue to bed!
The July issue is packed with awesome content to keep you busy over the remaining days of July. We are hard at work putting our August issue to bed!
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
ecord was smashed in Thursday afternoon’s<br />
Manx Gas championship event, with the first<br />
three crews lapping in excess of 100mph for<br />
the first time in history.<br />
The scene was set in Wednesday evening’s<br />
Ace Hire & Sales race, even though it<br />
was staged on wet roads.<br />
Tim Reeves won the shortened race by<br />
seven tenths of a second from Dave Molyneux<br />
and Dan Sayle, who had made up from<br />
a poor start to narrowly edge out Ben and<br />
Tom Birchall and John Holden/Andy Winkle.<br />
Conditions were near-perfect for championship<br />
event 19 hours later on Thursday,<br />
when Reeves/Farrance again got the best<br />
start.<br />
Ben and Tom Birchall were right on their<br />
rear-wheel, with Molyneux/Sayle and John<br />
Holden/Andy Winkle a close fourth.<br />
Four seconds covered the first six at the<br />
end of the first circuit, with Wayne Lockey/<br />
Mark Sayers and the second local crew<br />
of Karl Bennett/Lee Cain completing the<br />
leaderboard.<br />
There was no change on lap two, but by<br />
then the lead four had distanced themselves<br />
from the rest.<br />
The Birchalls edged past Reeves/Farrance<br />
into Ballakeighan at the start of lap<br />
three, and seconds later Molyneux executed<br />
a late-braking manoeuvre up the inside of<br />
Reeves/Farrance into Iron Gate to move up<br />
to second place.<br />
Moly and Sayle were lining up a similar<br />
move on the Birchalls when the head gasket<br />
on their Honda-engined outfit blew; caused<br />
when a stone kicked up from another<br />
machine pierced the radiator releasing the<br />
coolant.<br />
Reeves and Farrance close the gap back<br />
up on the Birchalls, with Holden/Winkle still<br />
well in touch in third.<br />
The leading two crews lapped at a<br />
smidgen under a 100mph lap on the next two<br />
circuits, then on lap six all three crews went<br />
over the magic ton for the first time.<br />
It was the proverbial waiting for a bus<br />
scenario - Nick Crowe and Dan Sayle lapped<br />
within a narrow margin of a 100mph lap in<br />
2007 with a speed of 99.778mph, but then -<br />
nine years on - three crews did it within one<br />
second of each other!<br />
Ironically, it was Reeves and Farrance<br />
who went quickest, but they were still in<br />
second place.<br />
That all changed in dramatic fashion<br />
entering Iron Gate corner on the final circuit<br />
when the six-time world champion powered<br />
up the inside of the Birchall brothers on the<br />
brakes.<br />
2016 - First 100mph laps in Sdecar Race
Change language