Motorcycle racing returned to UK circuits at the weekend, with the British Motorcycle Racing Club kicking things off at its spiritual home of Brands Hatch. And while winter is still hanging on, the weather was cloudy-yet-dry as established classes and new championships got their seasons underway.
One of the new series making its Bemsee debut was the ACU BMCRC Thunderbike 500. Supported by Fyne Audio and SF Parts, the championship is open to Honda’s fabled CB500, with numerous classes split via combined bike and rider weights. Overall, there are four classes within the wider series: the lightweight class (C1) is for those coming in under 75kg, the middleweight class (C2) for riders between 75-100kg, and heavyweight (C3) for riders over 100kg. There’s also a Rookie class. The maiden pole position went to Peter Woodall, with the front row covered by a third of s
second. He was joined by Daniel North and Jake Kourti. Come race time, it was North (C2) who secured two race wins and a second-place finish, with pole-sitter Woodall (C2) and Adrian Kershaw (C2) claiming a victory each, with Kershaw’s race-four win featuring the largest gap of the weekend, at over five seconds. Kourti (C1) took two class wins, the others going the way of Abigail Marshall and Paddy Moore, while Ian Carter (C3) was the most consistent heavyweight rider, taking two class wins, placing as high as fourth overall, with close battles defining most races, especially in
the top three. 2025 also sees the British Motorcycle Racing Club welcome new generation twin-cylinder machines from the likes of Yamaha and Aprilia into the TW Suspension Supertwins series. Fenton Seabright, entered on an Aprilia RS660, was untouchable over the weekend, taking all four wins in dominant fashion. He was joined on the podium by Maximus Hardy and Oliver Arbon.
In the Clothing Kings Thunderbike Sport class Jack Muir and Shaun Wallis took a brace of victories each, while Daryl Dance cleaned up in the TBR Performance Ultra on his Yamaha R1, though he had his work cut out on Sunday, when he was pushed by Ramone Hunte and then James Fearn, taking the wins by less than a second. There was also dominance on display in the TW Suspension Thunderbike Extreme races, with all four of them won by Tony Russo on his Suzuki GSX-R750. Shaun Wallis chased him across the line on three of the four occasions, with the other runner-up accolade going to Ben Doolan.
Reactive Parts returns for another year of sponsorship of the flagship MRO Powerbikes and Clubman 1000 series, which incorporates the Clothing Kings MRO Retro 1000s. Sam Cranstone secured the opening win of the season aboard his Fortis Racing Honda Fireblade, and with it the Clubman victory, too, after long-time race leader Scott Halliday crashed out with two laps to go. Lee Healey and Ross Dunning completed the podium. Halliday bounced back to win the remaining three races, however, on the Performance Fitness Gym-backed Suzuki GSX-R1000. Healey picked up another pair of seconds, with Cranstone third each time to take the Clubman wins. Cranstone was then second in the final race, ahead of Luke Wallington.
The Retro 1000 wins were shared between Jamie Thomas – who secured two – Daryl Dance, and Tyler Donovan. In the L&W Contractors Rookie 1000s narrow margins decided victories. In the final race, just over one hundredth of a second split the winner Mindaugas Storpirstis and Tommy
Jones, down from the tenth of a second that separated them the race before.
In Saturday’s previous outings Storpirstis had taken victory in race one, again from Jones, but after missing race two with an issue, it was Luke Foreman who denied Jones the victory. DART Motorsport also returned as title sponsor of the MRO and Clubman 600 categories for 2025. Saturday’s 18-lap feature race was won by Matt Pallett. Pallett, eventual runner-up Joey Lambden, and Zack Weston all took turns at leading, before Pallett beat Lambden to the line by three tenths of a second. Weston dropped to fourth, with Elijah Everton completing the podium. Paul Bloomfield’s 10th gave him the Clubman win. Lambden won both of Sunday’s 12-lap races, with Weston and Michael Mills taking a second and third apiece. Bloomfield and Harry Gower shared the day’s Clubman wins evenly. The four Rookie 600 races saw three different winners across the weekend: Adam Frewin and Daniel Preston won a race each on Saturday, before Sean Gosling won the first of Sunday’s encounters, with Preston taking his second win in the final race.
Close finishes were the order of the weekend in the Team Junior Cup and Senior Ninja series races, with less than a second covering the entire podium in three of the four races. In fact, half a second covered the top four in race one, with an all-Junior Cup podium of Henry McCartney, Hudson Cooper, and Kian Busa taking the chequered flag ahead of Senior Cup winner – and Kian Busa’s father – Daryn Busa. Less than a second covered the top four again in race two, this time with fourth going to Travis Rooker. Daryn Busa was the Senior winner in fifth, half a second back on the Junior runners. The winning margin in Sunday’s opener was less than second, with Coope holding off McCartney, after Kian Busa crashed out on lap one. Rooker was third, two tenths off the winner’s time, and Daryn Busa fifth to take another Senior win. Cooper and McCartney took another one-two finish in race four, Isabelle Wingate was third, and Daryn Busa completed the Senior Cup clean sweep in sixth overall.
Alexander Mann secured all four wins in the BMZRC 250 Championship, while Luca Wilkinson and Craig Dance shared the spoils evenly in the Formula 400s and David Ball won three from four in the DFDS Yamaha Past Masters, the other victory going to Alan Cooper.
In the ProperlyProtected.co.uk MRO Minitwins reigning champion David Twyford qualified on pole and won all four races to get his title defence off to the best possible start. Darren Dowds was best of the rest with four second place finishes, with the bronze medals going to Mitch Ducran, Kevin Lilley, Ronnie Harris, and Steve Costin. The Rookie spoils went to William Howarth three times, and Joshua Crisp.
In the BMCRC F1 and F2 Sidecars three of the four overall wins went the way of F1 pairings. The outfit of Luke Williams and Ruben Janssens won both of Saturday’s races, with Kieran Clarke and Andrew Johnson second overall and the F2 class winners. Sunday’s opener was won by Andy Peach and Josh Hope, with Greg Lambert and Andy Jevans the F2 winners in fourth overall, before the final race was won by the F2 pairing of Clarke and Johnson, recovering after a DNF in the previous race. Peach and Hope were second across the line and F1 winners.
The second round of the BMCRC season takes place at Oulton Park on 4-5 April.
Written by James Sharpe
Photography: Rachel Bourne
