The penultimate round of the British Motorcycle Racing Club’s season took riders back to
Norfolk and back to Snetterton, with a number of championships wrapped up in the process.
The Reactive Parts MRO Powerbikes will go down to the wire at Brands Hatch later this
month, but Steven Butterworth was able to secure the club’s Retro 1000s and the Clubman
1000s titles over the course of the weekend. Butterworth took a brace of overall wins on Sunday to take both championships, despite Clubman rival Morgan Creasey winning the opening race of the weekend. Creasey finished second to Kieran Smith in race two, the overall win also giving Smith the Retro 1000s victory. The main MRO Powerbikes championship will be decided at the season finale, with 26 points separating Josh Wainwright and Peter Baker.
Two of the club’s three Thunderbike classes were also won over the course of the weekend
at Snetterton, with Matt Wetherell winning the Clothing Kings-sponsored Thunderbike Sport
class, and David May taking the TW Suspension Thunderbike Extreme title.
Wetherell turned pole position into three dominant victories aboard his Lamonde Racing
Suzuki GSX-R600. Sadly for him he was denied the perfect score when he crashed out on
the last lap of the final race while battling with Josh Harvey, who went on to take the win.
Four wins from four in the Extreme races gave May the 2024 title, but the Thunderbike Ultra championship will be settled at the final round, to which Steven Butterworth will take a slender 18-point lead after taking three wins from four races at Snetterton. Kieren Smith took the other available win of the weekend.
Buzzing his way around the Snetterton 300 circuit to four race wins in the DFDS Yamaha
Past Masters was Kevin Wholey, who had already clinched the 2024 title with two rounds to
spare. The four win took Wholey’s tally for the year to 22 with four races still to run at Brands Hatch.
In the club’s other two-stroke class, the Modality BMZRC 250 MZs, Alexander Mann etched
his name on the 2024 championship trophy with a single win. There were four winners from the four races at Snetterton, with Mann sharing the top step of the podium over the weekend with Andrew Wales, Peter Woodall, and Louis Kershaw.
Both of the British Motorcycle Racing Club’s sidecar championships saw champions
crowned with a round to go. In the Chris Wright and Paul Bailey only needed a fourth and
two second place finishes to take the F1 Sidecar title, with the wins over the weekend at Snetterton going to Sam and Tom Christie, Ryan and Callum Crowe, and twice to Faiers and
Fox.
The F2 championship was won by Greg Lambert, who had Andy Jevens and Andrew
Haynes in the chair over the duration of the season. Lambert won all four F2 class races to
take the title. Despite a number of championships wrapped up, there is still plenty to play for at Brands Hatch in two weeks’ time. Just one point separates Phil Atkinson and Ben Brown in the Senior Ninja Series, after Atkinson took two overall and all four class wins at Snetterton. 61 points split Luca Wilkinson and Ollie Sims in the ACU Team Green Junior Cup. Wilkinson share the wins evenly with Kade Watt at Snetterton to edge closer to the title.
Anthony Johnson was on course to clinch the DART Motorsport MRO 600 championship at
Snetterton, taking victory in the first three races. However, a crash on the final lap of the final race means he holds a 94-point advantage with only 100 to play for at the final round.
In the Clubman 600s just 16 points is the difference between Aaron Monk and Jake Kourti.
Currently second in the standings Kourti was three times second and once third to close in
on Monk, while all four class victories went to David Lindemann.
Paul Bloomfield took all four Rookie 600 wins and remains in title contention in fourth in the
standings, 64 points off the top, held by Aaron Hickmott.
David Twyford takes a 47-point series lead into the final round in the Properly Protected Ltd
MRO Minitwins. Twyford finished third four times at Snetterton, but was beaten every time
his closest rival Darren Dowds and David Lindemann, who finished second and first
respectively in all four races. William Barret took three of four Rookie wins, the other going to David Luff. In the Supertwins Craig Howton took one win to Darren Dowds’ three at Snetterton, but also takes a 47-point lead into the season-closer at Brands.
A paltry five points separate the top two in the Formula 400s going into the final round –
Kade Watt and Andrew Gill. However, it was Zack Weston who claimed the bulk of the
points at Snetterton with three wins. Marley Mackenzie took the other.
The final round of the 2024 BMCRC season takes place at Brands Hatch on 20-22
September.
Words: James Sharpe Photography: Rachel Bourne
