True Heroes Racing at the NG Road Racing meeting

Cadwell Park 

9 - 10 July 2022

The fifth round of the NG Road Racing championship took place at Cadwell Park last weekend. This is an event that the local Pistonclick spectator photographers always put in their diary as it can usually guarantee a packed interesting race card with some very capable riders.

When I say packed that’s a bit of an understatement as there are loads of different types of racing motorcycles taking to the track over the weekend. Well, three days if you include the free to get in Friday test day.

From the latest 1000cc Superbikes to the ring a ding ding of the TZ 250 and 350cc two strokes of the GP originals, they have just about every class except vintage.

We aren’t going to go through every class in this report, we will just focus on a few select classes and riders that stood out for us from the spectators view point.

True Heroes Race Team

By far the largest and probably best known team participating in this year's NG race series are the True Heroes Race Team. If you are a regular visitor to the Pistonclick website you will know that we are following these inspirational racers this year.

If you don’t know much about the team, their strap line sums them up “Keeping British Forces Rehab on track”

With six riders sporting the distinctive orange, black and white camouflage leathers they were easy to spot. Three of the team were competing in the Sound of Thunder - a Ducati race series that mirrors their racing in the British Superbike support class, the Ducati Tri-Options Cup.

#15 Leon Wilton on his Ducati 959 Panigale & #44 Charlie White Ducati V2 took first and second respectively in the SoT. #789 Chris Ganley came in 4th also riding a Ducati V2 Panigale. The results were repeated on Sunday, adding to the team's silverware haul.

Associate True Heroes rider #87 James Cleary took 1st and a 3rd in the Junior SuperSport race. He was also first in class on his Kawasaki EX400 in the 500 Newcomers class.

After 14 races in the Your Call Ltd Junior SpperSport Championship James is in third place, one point behind William Grant and two points from front runner Finn Smart-Weeden.

#61 Dave Sellers was riding a Suzuki 1000cc GSXR in the competitive Phoenix Motorcycles Open, coming in 4th on Saturday's race behind race winner #10 Joe Sheldon-Shaw who set a new club lap record of 1:29.898.

#22 Dave Mackay, also on a Suzuki 1000cc GSXR came in 8th. Dave Sellers and Dave Mackay both race the Gixxers in the BSB SuperStock. 

#19 Craig Neve won Sunday's Phoenix Motorcycles Open race with Dave Mackay 6th. Craig had a great battle with #10 Joe Sheldon-Shaw during Saturday's race. Dave Sellers didn’t race on Sunday due to issues with his bike. Let's hope they can get it sorted for the next BSB meeting in a few weeks where he and the team will take on the Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch.

Two Grassroot riders that the team are mentoring are #3 Chris Duggan on a Suzuki GSXR 600 and #10 Christopher Jacketts on a Kawasaki ZX6-R. Both were in the Open Newcomers Class, gaining valuable experience and track time posting sub two minute laps of the mini Nurnberg Ring.

So to conclude this review we will take a look at the GP Originals. This race series is based on early two stroke 250cc and 350cc Grand Prix race bikes that at the time were mainly run by privateers who were taking on the factory race bikes.

The machines racing in this class must be no newer than 31st December 1981 for 350cc machines and 31st December 1984 for 250cc machines.

They must also use period correct parts where possible including fairings, forks and frames to keep the look of the bikes as authentic as possible.

These machines are not only great to watch out on track, but sound good as well. #1 Philip Atkinson on his Yamaha TZ 350 would claim the top spot all weekend with #55 Daniel Jackson on his Harris TZ 350 2nd. #8 Nick Williamson, #7 Jason Davis and #33 Chris Moore took the third place spot in each of the three races. In the 250cc class #20 Michael Grigson grabbed a hat trick of wins.

As we said at the start of this report, there are loads of classes and great riders out on track and we can't feature them all. However, we must mention local Lincoln rider Ash Barns who is riding in the ultra competitive British SuperSport Class which is one of the support classes for British SuperBikes. 

Ash couldn't compete in the first two rounds of this years 2022 championship as he wasn’t old enough having only just turned 16! He did impress us with his style and speed this weekend, qualifying in pole position for the IMS 600 100% Suspension race. I'm sure we will be seeing a lot more of this stylish rider in the future and we here at PistonClick will keep an eye out for him.

If this review has whetted your appetite for some more NG Road Racing action there are two more meetings on the race calendar this year. 20th - 21st August at Castle Combe and 17th - 18th September at Anglesey. Both race days are preceded by a Friday test day.



Our photographic guides for both of these circuits can be found here by following this link.

Thanks go out to David Gowshall for helping out with this report. You can see more of David’s work here.