BSB MALLORY PARK ROUND 8 18/07/ 2004

Friday at Mallory Park started with rain, but cleared up in the afternoon, then stayed dry all weekend, with sunny intervals.  All the usual runners were going well in qualifying with Scott Smart taking his first Superbike pole position.  Tommy Hill (Yamaha) was a revelation during qualifying, holding provisional pole at one stage, finally taking 2nd position on the grid.  John Reynolds and Michael Rutter completed the front row.  Ryuichi Kiyonari was back on form, qualifying in 5th, with James Haydon in 6th.

RACE 1

Scott Smart made good use of his pole position start to lead until lap14, when Yukio Kagayama, who had worked his way through the field, took over at the front of the pack.  Reynolds had also had to work his way up from 6th at the start, into 2nd place by lap17.  Tommy Hill was riding well, but unfortunately crashed out at the "bus stop" on lap 17.  Meanwhile James Haydon had been swapping places throughout the race to finally finish 4th and the first Virgin Mobile Yamaha again.  Reynolds finally took over the lead from Kagayama to make it a Rizla Suzuki 1,2.  Dennis Hobbs (Suzuki) won the privateer's  battle from James Ellison and Jon Kirkham.  Steve Plater (Virgin Mobile Yamaha) made his return to racing after injury, and finished a creditable 11th.

RACE 2

Smart led again on lap 1, but the race was stopped on lap 5 when Malcolm Ashley crashed.  Hill led the restart for a couple of laps until Reynolds took over. Smart was hunting down Reynolds, and finally passed him at about half distance and went on to win from Reynolds and Kiyonari.  Haydon finished 4th, with Sean Emmett coming through from 13th on the grid to finish 5th, and Hill took a well deserved 6th place.  Hobbs had his first Superbike Cup double win with Ellison 2nd again and Sam Corke 3rd.  It was an incident packed race with the safety car being deployed twice when Kirkham crashed and then Rutter crashed.  Kieran Clarke also crashed out in spectacular style. 

SUPERSPORT

Jay Vincent (Honda) took pole position at his home circuit, with Simon Andrews (Yamaha), Pere Riba (Kawasaki) and Karl Harris (Honda) completing the front row of the grid.  Michael Laverty (Ducati) led on lap 1 but was soon passed by Harris with Vincent in hot pursuit.  Vincent took over the lead on lap 8 and looked set for a win until Harris passed him on the final lap.  Leon Camier finished 3rd with Laverty in 4th.

SUPERSTOCK

There were two Superstock races at Mallory Park, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  The same four disputed the lead in both races, but with different finishing orders.  Tristan Palmer (Suzuki) came out on top in both races at his local track.  Danny Beaumont had a 2nd and a 3rd, Marshall Neill had a 3rd and a 4th, and Ben Wilson took a 4th and a 2nd place.