Manx racers take the New Era win at Donington Park

The new era of the former Grand Prix circuit in Leicestershire continues with this last weekend (6th November) seeing the New Era Motorcycle Club hosting their Fireworks invitational meeting at the recently re-opened circuit.

The meeting gave the Isle of Man DSC Racing team a chance to sample the delights of the Donington circuit and to compete against many of the other Formula 2 Side Car pairs from around the UK on what turned out to be a beautiful autumn day.

The travel across the Irish Sea obviously hadn’t dulled the abilities of the number 1 pair of Glyn Jones and Richard Murphy from the DSC Racing team. They stormed the circuit with an average speed of over 90mph and a top speed in excess of that -leaving them with a huge 14 second gap behind them to the second place outfit of husband and wife team John and Susan Longmore.

Glyn & Richard were aboard a DMR Suzuki 600 which they have competed with all over the Island including the TT races. Glyn certainly found driving the Donington Park circuit different to the road courses on the island but enjoyed the opportunity to experience the tarmac where such motorcycle legends as Valentino Rossi and others have raced.

Unfortunately Glyn was not able to match his qualifying and first race form in the second race of the day suffering mechanical gremlins with a flat battery that forced him to retire to the pits on lap 6 whilst clearly in the lead and powering the Suzuki 600 to what would have surely been another dominant win.

He did however manage to entertain the crowds with his exit from the reformed Goddards chicane with the outfit raising the passenger wheel off the ground to what appeared to be some impossible angles without the unit flipping over and power sliding through the first corner at Redgate.

Meanwhile the second DSC Racing team pair of Sean Rideout and Chris Lake took a sixth place finish in the first race and a fifth place in the second aboard their Honda 600 powered outfit.

Sean and Chris took advantage of what was surprisingly good weather for the time of the year and had an average speed of 84mph enjoying the adrenalin rush of riding at such speeds down the famous Craner Curves.

Also taking part were two young riders who demonstrated that age is no barrier to being quick around the sweeping Doningon Circuit.

Jake Bayford and Taryn Taylor (just 12 years old) certainly held their own with the other riders and qualified well up the grid even though they were on smaller 80cc machines in the Formula Junior class.

These could be two stars to watch out for in the future.