Race of the Year

Mallory Park

23rd October 2022

I had a choice last Sunday go and photograph the final round of the East Midland Racing Association which included the Race of the Year, or head to Mablethorpe for the beach racing. The weather forecast for both locations was bad, very bad with yellow weather warnings issued for both of them.

In the end I decided to take a risk and head to Mallory as there will be more beach racing this season where as there is only one Race of the Year.

I always enjoy spectating at Mallory. It’s a very nice circuit with lakes which makes a great vista, and with very little safety fencing you are able to get great unobstructed views of the action. The access around the track is good and you can park your car track side, which was great when I arrived as it was raining hard.

When questioned on if there would be racing today considering the biblical rain that was bouncing off her rain mac, the lady in the ticket booth was confident it would.

She was proved correct.  There was a delay, but the bikes started warming up mid morning and the practice and qualifying started at 11:00. The thunder of large capacity motorcycles was accompanied by the ring a ding ding of the two strokes, and leading this mechanical orchestra was a very special bike and one of my all time favourite motorcycles.

The RG 500 is a legendary machine, being a motorcycle that was as close to a MotoGP bike as you could buy and run on the road back in the day. I was therefore quite surprised to see one approaching through the rain and spray considering they are quite rare these days and worth a bob or two, but then again what race bike is cheap these days?

I went looking for it and it’s owner Alan Moreton during lunch, but only managed to find the bike. I presume Alan was off re-fuelling himself. I took the opportunity to have a good look round. It was in great condition with what looked like an original Kevin Schwantz signature on the tank.

This bike on its own made the challenging trip in the rain storm to Mallory worth it.

The qualifying continued after lunch and then it was time for the Race of the Year stars to make an appearance. I make no bones about it, these were the riders I had come to see  - Christian Iddon, Bjorn Estment, Richard Cooper, Danny Kent, Leon Jeacock and Charlie Nesbitt werebut a few of the headline riders that would brave the wet conditions.

It was interesting to see the tactics that the top riders employed in the wet. Most were taking it steady. Richard Cooper, who it seems can jump on any bike and get on the podium was one of them, qualifying for him in a lowly P10.

A load of the club racers had hit the tarmac hard earlier in the tricky qualifying conditions, so the race of the year riders were a bit wary of not doing the same on their pristine bikes.

As the day progressed a drying racing line started to appear and the pace increased in all of the classes, and by the time that the RoY riders came out it was looking a lot better. Tyre choice was going to be critical - slicks, cuts or wets as there were still wet patches around the circuit.

The race stared and Christian Iddon on the Buildbase Suzuki got a great start and took the lead. As the riders screamed past I tried to see what tyres they had chosen. It looked like a bit of a mix, slicks, cut slicks and possibly intermediates.

Iddon was making good progress until lap four. Standing at Gerard’s I had my back to him when he came off so didn’t see what happened but his bike looked very second hand!

Thankfully he was fine and sat out the rest of the race with the marshals watching the race unfold. Not what he wanted or where he wanted to be I’m sure.

Charlie Nesbit, who looked to be on slicks, was elevated to the number one spot after this incident and managed to hold on to it despite being pushed all the way to the final flag by Richard Cooper who took second place.

Coops had a great race considering his starting place mid pack and he had probably chosen the wrong tyres as the track dried out quickly during the race.

In third was #52 Danny Kent, the 2015 Moto3 World Champion who now rides for the BSB Buildbase Suzuki team who’s home is Mallory. #55 Leon Jeacock was fourth with #Rhys Irwin fifth, #12 Luke Hedger in sixth and #3 Billy McConnell in seventh.

The East Midland Racing Association riders continued battling in the different classes at their last race meeting, giving no quarter and pushing the limits of adhesion to the limits. I didn’t take many more photographs after the race of the year. I was rather enjoying the last sports bike racing for 2022.

Well it’s the last sports bike race I will see this year but not the last time that Mallory will host an orchestra of mechanical noise. There is one more opportunity, the Plum Pudding races on the 26th of December where bikes and cars will have one last hurrah in 2022. 

I have never made the Plum Pudding, a family Boxing Day tradition is permanently reserved in the calendar for this date. My shooting partner for the Race of the Year was David Harbey.

He attends the Plum Pudding every year, so this will not be the last report from Mallory for 2022. You can see more of David’s pictures by following the links below and if you dig into his Flickr archives,  shots from previous Plum Pudding races and Race of the Year.

Links to previous RoY are also below.

You can share this report with your friends on Social Media using these links.