Inter-Services Motorcycle Racing 2021

16th October 2021

Cadwell Park

Last weekend saw the Thunder Sport GB race series hold its final meeting of the year at Cadwell Park. The PistonClick team went along to photograph this event on a pretty cold but thankfully dry Saturday afternoon. 

The event was held over the weekend and qualifying started at 9.00am. I arrived just after lunch, so why did I not turn up until the afternoon session started? Two reasons, first it was cold, very cold, that doesn't bother me but it does bother motorcyclists riding race bikes.

Cold tracks and early morning damp conditions don’t mix well with two wheel race machines so I presumed that some of the riders would not be pushing hard or not going out until they had to so there wouldn’t be missing much. 

The second reason I turned up late was that I had only come to watch the Inter-Services race and, although it wasn't advertised on all of the time-tables, I had been told it was going to be the last race of the day.

It actually started at 17.47 and it was quite dark when the 21 Regular and Reserve military riders set off

There was 4 racers from the Navy and Royal Marines, 8 from the Army and 9 from the RAF riding everything from 1000cc superbikes to CB 500 Hondas. 

During the afternoon I had strolled around Cadwell trying to pick put the riders that would be competing in the final race of the day.

It wasn't difficult to do so, the Army riders have a corporate livery - red unsurprisingly. Some of the RAF had sky blue on their bikes but not all of them, and the Navy were the easiest to spot - blue bikes with a white ensign on one side and the colours of the Royal Marines on the other as they are a combined team.

While waiting for the main event to start I caught up with David Gowshall who was shooting around the Gooseneck complex which is a great location for taking photos at Cadwell.

This location works best in the mornings as the sun is to your back, but you can still get some nice shots later in the day shooting back into the Gooseneck from Mansfield, if the marshals haven't parked their cars on the hill crest!

As it was overcast we had no problems and you can see 50% of the track from here, 7 corners and the Park straight so it's also a good location to watch the racing.

For the Inter-Services Race I moved up to Park Corner. Not many people make it up here as it's one of the few places at Cadwell with thick wire fences, and it's as far as you can get from the best viewing areas at Cadwell - the mountain and Hall Bends.

I like it as you can get a pleasing picture at the start of the race and it’s a great spot for action as the riders try to out brake each other after the long Park straight.

Once the riders had completed a few laps the field had spread out, as you would expect when you have 1000cc superbikes down to 500cc machines all racing together.

At the front, Army riders #18 Richard Spencer-Fleet on a Ducati was having a right battle with #33 Kelvin Heaver on a Kawasaki all the way through the race. 

There wasn’t much between them, but it was Heaver who crossed the line 0.199th of a second ahead of Spencer-Fleet to take the win. Second place for Spencer-Fleet was enough for him to be crowned Inter-Services Road Racing Championships individual Champion for 2021.

In third, and the first RAF rider across the finish line, Dave Langley who was being hounded all the way through the race by Army rider Leon Wilton who came in fourth. 

Wilton was followed in by a trio of RAF riders #8 Paul Cunvin, #43 Rob Vickerman and #36 Kenneth Macleod. Highest placed Royal Navy/Royal Marine rider was #56 Brian Fuidge.

The Army might have won the race, but with the RAF and RN/RM getting ahead of the rest of the Army team, it meant the RAF defended the title they won in 2020 to retain the Inter-Services team championship for 2021.

I really enjoyed this race and would like to see more large team races in motorsport. It takes me back to the transatlantic  trophy days when the US and UK riders used to go head to head. It was a great event that attracted big crowds cheering on their teams.     

There are loads of great road racing clubs in the UK. Wouldn’t it be great if they could all come together at the end of the season in one last weekend of racing to compete for a British Club and Individual Championship? 

I watch a lot of club racing and quite often one rider will dominate a class. Wouldn’t it be great to see who is actually the best Club racer in the UK? I'm sure the military would enter an Inter-Services team.

Thanks to David Gowshall for helping out on this report, you can see more of his images by following the link.