Race Reports
Drumclog 27th March 2022
Race Report Drumclog, Report by Jim Grieve
Scottish Twin Shock Round 1
Drumclog
Sunday 27th March 2022
Report by Jim Grieve
So here we are into another year and onto the first round at a Superbly conditioned Drumclog track, I must say that Tommi and Stuart have done a lot of hard work and would recommend this track to anyone.
The sighting laps were done with no major incidents, well done everyone for going steady during these laps.
Now onto the racing and we had a slight change in classes and the set-up too.
So the racing would commence with the Pre-77, 4 stroke, and the under 300cc twinshock class.
The Pre-77 class was a Barry Smith benefit race, with the returning Suzuki rider James Mclean in second, and enjoying his day thoroughly, in third would be Tam smiley.
The 4 stroke class was a lot more hotly contested and with two very, very close finishes in race one and three, it would be the second race as the decider and the rider taking the spoils in this race and the overall would be Keith Stanford with a very worthy close finisher Keith Birse in second, and taking the final step would be Findlay White, with three very consistent rides.
In the under 300cc twinshock it was a clean sweep for Jim Grieve for the overall with David Watson and Paul ness fighting it out over second and third positions, David Watson would take the silver trophy and would be chased hard by Paul Ness who would grind his way through the pack for third overall.
Moving swiftly onto the over 50’s and the open twinshock classes, these would be hotly contested, in the twinshock class it would be Brian Alexander, leaving the field for dead, and taking three straight wins for the overall with Craig “smitch” smith, and Paul Chiappa having their usual ding dong battle, and it would be smitch coming home in second and Paul in third.
The over 50’s class was a clean set of wins for Gordon Montana , Morrisson, as he romped away to leave everyone else for dead, and so taking up the final steps on the podium would be Suzuki man Robbie Allan in second and Jim(over60)Baxter would push his little ktm 150 to the max and was rewarded with the bronze prize.
So we would now see 33 riders line up for the clubman class, and with such fast times, it is surprising these guys are only clubmen as the first few had times fast enough to be in the top 5 of the monoshocks.
Anyway it was a clean sweep of the races and some super-fast riding from Louis Tobin and he would hold the red plate going into Kilmartin next week, and equally consistent were Stuart Wilson and Mathew Duncan, with a brace of second and third places respectively, To climb the last two steps on the podium.
Moving on swiftly to one of the largest groups of racing and it would be the 2 stroke open, the evolution class, the youth class and the evo 125cc class, racing together.
So in the 2 stroke class, we would see John Montgomery run to three solid wins and a well deserves first overall, being followed home by Bryan Colligan and kyle McClure who would have their own little battle most of the day, Bryan coming out top on this occasion and securing second overall with Kyle in third, well done to all.
Also zipping around the lovely sandy groomed track of Drumclog would be the evolution class and with Roy Potts winning the opening race and doing enough to take the overall by one point from a very consistent Mark Glegg and a superb couple of rides for Graham Blacklock to get onto the third step of the rostrum, after his DNF in the first race. There were indeed some very quick riders in this class.
The youth class would see the Haddow boys flying around the track and three super quick rides for Graham and Ryan, would put them in the top two positions with Graham first and Ryan second overall, also with a consistent ride from Husqvarna mounted Stewart Bagen who would take third overall.
The 125cc evo class was nice to watch too as the eight litre boys threw their small machines about at an impressive rate of knots and with Jonathan Young and Micheal Mclarty taking one win apiece it would be the second race that was the decider, with less than one second between both riders as they crossed the line it would be Jonathan who would take the overall, with Micheal taking silver, and comin home in third with a consistent brace of rides was Damian Carter.
Moving onto the monoshock class and we would see a mixture of two stroke and four stroke bikes. In the end it would be Gregor Campbell taking a well-deserved first overall, albeit by only one point, from Greg Maxwell securing second and two-stroke mounted Jason Martin, pushing his KTM to the limit to get a well-earned third step on the box, congratulations to all. And I certainly look forward to seeing some more close racing at Kilmartin.
Also may I just say a big get well soon to Elaine Maceachearn and Mathew Harper, hope that you have a speedy recovery guys and girls and I look forward to seeing you at Kilmartin on May the first.
Well done to all involved,