A Postcard from Anglesey

Report and Images by David Gowshall

4^th –  5^th September 2021

Anglesey (Trac Mon) was the venue last weekend for the penultimate round of the Classic Motor Cycle Club championship.

What must surely be one of the most scenic circuits in the world, let alone the UK, was bathed in sunshine throughout the two days of racing.

Unfortunately, from a photographer’s point of view, the Welsh mountains, which normally provide a spectacular backdrop to the racing, were shrouded in haze throughout both days.

Nonetheless, there was plenty of competitive action on track to keep the cameras clicking.

It was the normal protagonists fighting for the podium positions in the respective classes, with each of the nine classes competing in three races, over what was a busy weekend. 

Joe Barton (#106), was again very much the star of the meeting, recording 10 podium finishes, with 6 first places, including the two “Feature” races.   He was pushed hardest in the F750 / Superbike / Stock Class, by John Deiterman (#18) with whom he fought out three titanic battles.

Separated by fractions of a second, Deiterman narrowly triumphing in two of their three epic dices.

Other winners on the day were sidecar ace Kieran Clarke (#9), who won all three outings for the three wheelers after overcoming a poor start in the third race, and Ant Hart (#75), who went home with four wins and a second place.

Mark Cronshaw, Jamie O’Brien, Peter Boast, Joe Woodward and Mark Taylor all stood on the top step of the podium twice during the day, and Mike Cooper, Jerry Woodward, Neil Robinson and Dominic Herbertson, who recorded one win each.

Although not recording a win, every rider/passenger surely enjoyed themselves on this superb circuit.

Despite the journey home taking almost six hours, it had been a thoroughly enjoyable but busy weekend, and I will definitely be making another journey to Trac Mon before long.

Passenger Styles

It was only after I had an opportunity to look closely at my many photographs taken on the day that I realised how many different techniques are used by sidecar passengers. 

The following are six images of three different outfits at the same downhill left hand bend on the 

Each demonstrate their own individual way of aiding their pilots to negotiate this feature.

Sadly, the Corkscrew, so named as it resembles a similar corner at the infamous Laguna Sega circuit in the USA, is not accessible to spectator photographers, as a large area of tarmac used for the bikes to gather prior to taking to the track, is only available to Officials.

Finally, an update on Mike Pennell (#12), Pistonclick’s “adopted” solo rider for the past two seasons, who took to three wheels with his passenger Della Bufton, at the beginning of this season. 

After a frustrating opening meeting at Mallory when mechanical gremlins led to non-starts in three of the four scheduled races, Mike and Della have been progressing well, making steady progress through the field as each meeting has taken place.

After a consistent meeting at Cadwell Park, the pair headed to Castle Combe with high hopes and overcame monsoon conditions to record a highly creditable sixth place. 

Their first outing at Anglesey this weekend saw them record  12^th, 11^th and 10^th place finishes.

They’ll be looking to further improve on these results at the final meeting of the CRMC season at Croft in October and :DEEGEE: Motorsport Photography will be there to capture their progress.

Gallery

You can see more of David’s work here