HOOLIGAN RACE REPORT - Round 2 & 3, Peterborough Speedway, MCN Festival
CHRIS NORTHOVER SCORES A DOUBLE TOP 4 FINISH, DANNY HEADS TO MALLORY PARK FOURTH IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP!
Rounds Two and Three of the national DTRA Flat Track Championship headed to the Motorcycle News Festival on the 13th/14th May for a Hooligan series double header. This time around, full timer Danny Williams was joined by Bike World TV's Chris Northover on our Age Of Glory x PCC BMW R9T Hooligan machines. Chris is a BMW Off-Road Skills instructor so it was going to be great to see what he could do on the R9T for the first time. Additionally, Chris and Danny were racing in the Vintage, Inters and Pro classes on day one, so it was going to be a busy weekend all round.
Despite the bog on the infield showing signs of heavy rain all week, the track was looking great on Saturday morning and the action started with the Vintage and Rookie classes. The race format differed to the usual running order so we were going to have to run the Hooligan class races in amongst the Pro & Inters schedule, this meant that both Chris and Danny would need to run back-to-back heat races and finals - a tough ask given the intensity of the racing!
A quick practice session, for the riders to get up to speed, was followed by three heat races which saw Chris running at the front competing against a handful of other Pro riders doing double duties, Danny neatly nestled into the second pack fighting for a place in the top 6. In the first of the weekend's Hooligan finals, Chris started on the front row and finished an amazing fourth, behind three riders competing in the 2023 World Championship. Danny put in a solid ride in the final to finish eighth, and maintained his fourth position in the Hooligan Championship standings.
Sunday started off warmer than the previous day which meant that the track was going to ride very differently to the first days Final. With Chris only joining us for the weekend, we thought it would be worth risking a few things with the set-up on one of the bikes to see if we could improve traction - mostly adjusting the suspension settings. Unfortunately, nothing paid off to give the bikes the extra grip we were hoping for. However, there was an added bonus in that both riders would only be riding one class today which meant more of a break between heat races - hopefully allowing them to push harder than the previous day. Danny was definitely feeling it on the Sunday and scored his best heat race lap times, whereas Chris was struggling to get the power down with the dustier track conditions and suspension adjustments - all good information and development for future race weekends
Sunday's final saw a similar result to the first day, with Chris managing a fourth place hot on the heels of Skye Adams' Devitt x Vanoni Ducati, and Danny finishing up in an improved sixth position - still maintaining fourth place in the DTRA Hooligan Championship points standings.
Congrats to Jack Bell for winning on both race days aboard his Devitt x Vanoni Ducati Scrambler! You can check out the full race results and championship standings here - DTRA Hooligan Championship
Our next weekend of riding will see us racing at Mallory Park for the Mallory Park Bike Bonanza, 15th & 16th July. This event will host Round 4 of the Hooligan DTRA championship, and we'll be joined by Vintage and Inters race winner on our second bike - keep your eyes on our Social media feeds for updates!
Thanks to our partners for supporting our racing; Age Of Glory, BMW Motorrad, Dunlop Motorcycle Tyres, DNA Performance Filters & Putoline.
Amazing pics by Jon @ Braking Point Images
