Chris Mort (Honda 600) raced home to a clear-cut hat trick of wins to climb to the top of the 451-1100 Open championship at the half way stage in the Crewe and South Cheshire’s four-round series at Tonfanau.

After six of the season’s 12 races, Mort has 44 points, 13 more than James Evans.

Mort had only managed a fifth and a fourth in the season’s opener in April, but he was in uncatchable form this time.

He won race one by two and a half seconds from Robert Varey (Yamaha 600), with former champion Martin Powell (Yamaha 1000) another five seconds further back.

Mort was three and half seconds in front of Varey in race two. David Lewis (Suzuki 600) was third.

It was the same finishing order in race three, but this time Varey was just half a second behind in the six-lapper.

Mort set the fastest lap each time out.

Jason Markham was a busy boy. He was out on the Suzuki in the Minitwins class and also the John Stephens Honda 350 K4 in the Classic 251-500 races.

Practice for the Minitwins started off very steadily, with conditions damp, but a dry line soon started to appear. By the first race the track had pretty much dried out.

Markham started with care, making sure he finished to ensure the signature on his Manx GP licence.

His bike was moving around a lot under heavy breaking, but despite that he finished fifth, behind Alan Russell, John Wright, John Nicklin and Michael Brookes.

By the second race Markham had the bike handling better and managed a risky manoeuvre to go round the outside of Brooks and Rob Taylor going into and coming out of paddock corner.

That gave him second place. After that he tried to get after Russell, but he was just too far away.

Markham made a terrible start in race three and was passed by several riders after starting second on the grid. On lap two, going into the hairpin, Brooks took out Russell in the middle of the corner. They both went down and Markham set off after the leader. There was not enough time in the shortened six lap race to get past and though Markham set the fastest lap, Taylor won by eight hundredths of a second.

Russell on 50 points after five wins this season, tops the points’ table by ten from Vincent Brett.

Running with the Minitwins were the 125GP bikes. Kimberley Rose won the first and third races and this fast lady is on
target to win the 125 title again. She has 47 points, with Derek Clarke, who was absent from this meeting on 30.

Markham was unbeatable in his Classic class, but his 350 could not keep up with Richard Ford on the Norton 920 and Mick Crompton on his BSA 750.

In the first two races I managed to beat Mike Bevan to the line on his Norton 745 but in the final race he pulled off a good block pass up the inside of me into the hairpin with two laps to go and I didn’t manage to get back past before the line finishing just behind to take 4th overall.

Ford was the winner in all three of his Classic over 501cc races. Crompton chased him in all of them, with the gad less than a fifth of a second over the line in the third.

Ford is on a maximum 60 points, now, with Crompton, who did not race in April, second on 27.

Sam Grief, the 17-year-old from Derbyshire, stayed top of the 50cc championship table, despite a rare breakdown on his beautifully prepared Kreidler, which at first appeared to be caused by a broken chain, but turned out to be a stripped axle nut.

There was early morning drizzle, but it was not the weather that reduced the 11 strong line-up in practice to nine, but mechanical problems.

Both club chairman Alan Leeson and committee member Alan Naul had machine troubles. Naul who had melted a spark plug in practice on his new silhouette class machine, so he switched to his open class 50cc rocket ship to give him time to re-assemble his ailing machinery.

Grief notched up his fourth win of the season in race one. The club’s youngest member and current lap record holder won easily.
Steve Porter, who travels all the way from the Isle of Wight to compete at Tonfanau, was second, on an air cooled Kreidler. Veteran John Lee was third.

John Harrison, on a Minarelli, was fourth. All of the other competitors had retired with machine problems.

In the second, non-club championship race Grief only made it to lap three, before retiring. Naul, having largely cured the troubles on his Silhouette class machine, was an easy winner, despite his machine still not running as well as he would have liked.

Lee, not realising that Grief had dropped out, pulled out all the stops in an attempt to catch up to the rest of the field believing that he was actually at the back of the field and about to be lapped. In fact he actually finished second.

Veteran racer, but newcomer to the 50cc club, Liverpudlian Ernest Parry, took a well-deserved and hotly contested second place on his Minarelli behind Grief’s repaired Kreidler in race three.

Grief, who had been injured in a start-line crash in another class, rocketed again to victory, despite a painful knee injury, which made folding himself up on his tiny bike far from comfortable.

Naul, again on his silhouette class bike, was third, with Porter and Lee following very closely behind.

Grief leads the Tonfanau 50cc class championship on 50, six ahead of Naul and 13 clear of Porter. Grief also tops the 50cc club’s own championship from Porter and James Widdowson.

Grief’s accident came in the Forgotten Era 250 class. Out for the very first on anything other than his 50, a Kawasaki, provided by John Lewis of Hereford, the teenager was hit on the start line, damaging his shoulder.

He was back out for race two, finishing second to Phil Leatherland (Suzuki) who had won the earlier event. Grief’s best lap was 1.3 seconds slower than the winner.

Grief’s final 250 ride had him again second to Leatherland.
Karl Bovill (Yamaha 400) and John Price (Kawasaki 400) battled it out throughout the day in the Forgotten Era 251-500 class.

Bovill won the first race by four seconds from Price, but Price bounced back to take victory in the second, crossing the line just under a tenth of a second ahead.

Bovill failed to finish in the third race, leaving Price to take victory over seven seconds in front of Paul Tye (KTM 300).

Price tops the points’ table on 56, eight ahead of Bovill. Richard Ford (Kawasaki 400) has eyes on this title, too. He is third on 45, just 11 down on the leader.
 
 Just two points separate Bovill and Mike Carter in the hard-fought 400 Supersport class.

Bovill on the Yamaha won race one, beating Paul Odlum (Kawasaki) by a fifth of a second. Carter, who set the fastest lap of the race, was only fifth on his Honda.

Odlum came out on top in race two, beating Bovill home by just over four seconds. Carter was third.

John Price (Kawasaki) won race three, beating Carter, who set the fastest lap, to the line by a tenth of a second. Bovill was third and Odlum fourth.

Martin McGrath remains unbeaten in the Steel Frame 600 class after the first six races of the season. He won on all three races in April and headed the three races this meeting.

Race one was cut short after an incident, with McGrath, who set the fastest lap, almost four seconds clear of Dean Ephgrave. Half a second further back was Lewis Clark.

McGrath was an easy winner of race two, which went the full eight laps. He was almost eight seconds in front of Adam Rees, again setting the fastest lap of the race. Ephgrave was third, just three quarters of a second down on Rees.

Fast lady, Caron Roberts, had a tough day. She was third home on her Suzuki 250 in the first Classic 250 race, but halfway through the first Forgotten Era 250 event, on the Yamaha TZ250, she was clipped from behind by a Novice 600 rider.

This was her first crash at Tonfanau in about 15 years, so she was not happy about it. Although in a lot of pain, she rode in the remaining Classic 250 races, just to get points. She was fourth in both.

Adrian Harrison (Jackson Suzuki) won all three and stays unbeaten in the championship, but plucky Roberts is still second 12 points adrift.