Pre-TT Classics Oversubscribed for Billown Again! - Printable Version +- TT Website Forum (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums) +-- Forum: Isle of Man TT Website (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=3) +--- Forum: TT Related Posts (Only) (https://www.ttwebsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=9) +--- Thread: Pre-TT Classics Oversubscribed for Billown Again! (/showthread.php?tid=8997)

Pre-TT Classics Oversubscribed for Billown Again! - Malcolm - 22-04-2010 Yet again the popularity of the Classics at Billown has been proved as the organisers of the Blackford Financial Services Pre TT Classic Road Races have had to add an extra race to the programme to accommodate the number of entries received for the event which takes place on Friday, Saturday and Monday 28th, 29th & 31st May. Heading the list of entries are all seven of the solo class race winners of last year, Roy Richardson, Roger Birkenhead, Mike Hose, Alan Oversby, Chris McGahan, Paul Coward and Ewan Hamilton. Whilst the ‘magnificent seven’ will be wanting to once again take home the silverware and their share of the £11,930 prize fund, the quality of the entry for each race will ensure that the first past the chequered flag will ridden hard to achieve victory. In the opening Singles Race on the Saturday afternoon for 250cc and 350cc machines, 14-times winner Bill Swallow will be hoping to go one better than 2009 and equal Bob Heaths’ record of 15 victories. The Huddersfield flyer will have a very special ex Syd Lawton Aermacchi on which his late brother Richard won five consecutive Manx Grand Prix Races. Add in ‘Manxies’ Chris Palmer, who makes a welcome return to the classics after a twelve month sabbatical and Allan Brew, along with Mike Hose, Arthur Browning and Rich Hawkins and the like and the atmosphere will be electric. The quarter-litre capacity class last year’s winner Roger Birkenhead will be up against Paul Coward, Terry Kermode, Rich Bool, Mike Barry and the ever youthful 82-year-old Ted Fenwick amongst others. Monday’s race programme gets underway with the Quine & Cubbon 250cc Lightweight race, which will see a strong challenge for the honours, with the likes of Mike Hose, Ewan Hamilton, Paul Coward, Terry Kermode, Bud Jackson, all previous winners in this class going for victory once again although Les Trotter, Danny Pullen, Roger Birkenhead, Jamie O’Brien, Bill Robertson and others will be wanting to share the spoils. The Greystone Senior Classic Race will see the first appearance of the fabulous sounding MV Agusta 3-cylinder at Billown in the hands of 2009 race winner Alan Oversby. Opposition will include previous winners, Mike Hose, Bill Swallow and Chris McGahan along with other suspects, Paul Coward, Roy Richardson, Watty Brown, Allan Brew, and Alec Whitwell. The Sidecar Classic is the only race where the previous year’s winner has not entered, however previous winners, Nick Houghton and Paul Thomas, and Ralf Engelhardt and Winfried Viecenz will ensure the sparks fly in the six lap race as they battle for another race win. With Eddy Toombs/Bob Dowty, Nick Cutmore/Nancy Thomas, Dick Hawes/Leo Kuypers, Albert H Price/Dicky Gale in attendance the previous winners will not have an easy time getting to the flag. There are no less than six previous winners in the Quinn Legal Junior race headed by 2009 victor Chris McGahan. The Peel man will have his fellow victors, Richardson, Oversby, Swallow, Hose, and Coward to contend with plus Palmer. Brew, Whitwell, Ulster specialists, Barry Davidson and John Burrows, Dave Madsen-Mygdal, Arthur Browning along with another nineteen competitors wanting to win the nine-lap race. The 4-Hire Post Classic Superbike & 850cc Classic race sees the appearance of the flamboyant Guy Martin on the John Sims 997 Suzuki Superbike, but once again the Lincolnshire rider will be up against winners, Alan Oversby, Bill Swallow, Mike Hose and Stephen Walls. Line-up Coward, Madsen-Mygdal, Brew, McGahan, Browning, Richardson, Brown, Hamilton, Burrows and once again everyone on the grid is capable of taking victory. Entries are 10% up on last year with 118 individual competitors which is excellent despite the economic climate which prevails at the present time. Practice for the Blackford’s Pre TT Classic Road Races takes place on Friday evening between 6.05pm and 9.35pm and Saturday afternoon between 1.00pm and 3.50pm, which also includes the first race of the meeting the Singles race commencing at 2.45pm. Monday’s morning’s action takes place between 9.10am and 12.05pm and the afternoon from 12.50pm until no later than 3.50pm. The Concours D'Elegance and Prize Presentation takes place in Castletown Square on Tuesday 1st June between 1.45pm and 4.00pm.