Race of the Year 2021

Mallory Park 

24 October 2021

While travelling to Mallory Park to photograph the Race of the Year with my shooting buddy we discussed the importance of this one-off race trophy. For us it’s an important event as it’s the last sports bike race of the year, closing the door on the 2021 season in one last celebration of two wheel motorsports.

For motorcycle racers it’s a final chance to grab glory and to add their name to a list of previous winners of this race, which reads like a who’s who of motorcycle racing.

John Surtees the four times MotoGP and one time Formula One Champion was the first rider to get him name on the trophy sixty three years ago in 1958.

Barry Sheene, Kenny Roberts, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini and a host of others followed him in hoisting the coveted silver pot aloft at the picturesque Leicestershire circuit.

Mallory is undoubtedly a great looking circuit and brilliant for watching racing as it hasn’t got much safety fencing. The raised viewing banks around the outside of the track have been improved and there are now numerous park benches for use - something other tracks should note.

Our last visit to the Race of the Year was back in 2019 when Richard Cooper won. The pandemic and other issues paused this event, so it was great to see it advertised again.

I wasn’t the only one pleased to see it return as there was a very good crowd out to watch, not only the headline event, but also the finals of the East Midlands Racing Association championship.

As it had been some time since we had been to Mallory we were keen to see what, if anything, had changed. There were a few from a spectator photographers point of view.

The armco along the start line straight has moved towards the track. This now restricts your view of the race machines when  close to the track. Standing at the top of the viewing hill gives you a great view, but you are a bit detached from the action.

The other area we think has changed is Gerard’s, I say think, as it’s been so long there is no indication of construction work. We think the viewing area has been moved back.

There appears to be more grass between spectator and race track. I used to be able to get a decent shot of the riders coming into the corner from here, but they look a little far away now.

So, on to the racing. Arriving just as the first practice sessions were due to start we joined quite a big queue to get in. The fine weather and the last chance to see the British Super Bike riders in action had brought the two wheel race fans out.

As it was also the final round of the EMRA series where a few champions were yet to be crowned, it wasn’t surprising that there was a good crowd. The race of the year riders were not due out for a while so no drama sitting in the queue.

Parking up we headed for the hairpin, one of the best places to take photos at Mallory. The light is just right here first thing in the morning, and as the riders are turning towards you at low speed it’s a great place to capture the first action of the day.

The top riders can get round Mallory in under sixty seconds so the action was coming thick and fast. One warm-up and a qualifying session later and Geno Rea was on pole position for the Race of the Year.

Geno had recorded a best lap of 51.695 seconds in the warm up then went event better in qualifying with a 50.771 to get pole, followed by Leon Jeacock .343 of a second behind him, with Tom Oliver in third.

The grid of 17 riders were only separated by 3.1 seconds, not much you might think but Mallory is so short by around lap 16/17 of the planned 20 the slower riders were going to be lapped. As it turned out they all got their race pace on including Billy McConnell who is a class act.

A great racer who always puts on a great show for the fans but riding a Triumph 765 against Gixxer 1000 was going to be a difficult ask, he came in 10th.

As the headline event wasn’t being run until just after lunch we took in a few of the EMRA races. The BSB support riders had managed to get themselves entered into the Mallory Trophy and had been out practicing during qualifying with the local riders. 

Come the race most of them had decided to keep their powder dry for the main race later in the day. #2 Zak Corderoy who came third in this year's National Junior Superstock Championship didn’t and went on to win the race just ahead of #172 Ricky Tarren.

Unfortunately Russ Barrows took a tumble in this race at Edwina's, right in front of Rob who with his top notch photographic skills captured his off.

A few of the racers had come off in front of us during the meeting but Russ's was by far the most spectacular of the day! Sliding away from the other racers he walked away to race another day looking well pumped… well, his airbag had inflated.   

For the Race of the Year the three of us that had come to watch and photograph the race split up and positioned ourselves around the track. David at Edwina's, Rob covering the Start line to the Bus Stop and Hair Pin and me down at Gerard's to Charlies, yes I got the short straw!

If you are not sure where these corners are you can check them out on our handy circuit guide here - Mallory Park Photographers Guide

The race itself was quite uneventful, Rea got a good start followed closely by Jeacock and Oliver. They were all on the Hawk Racing Buildbase Suzuki GSX-R 1000Rs, as were Tim Neave and Charlie Nesbit, the 2021 British GP2 Champion. 

I was not surprised by the number of Hawk Racing bikes on track as Mallory is their home track after all .

#14 Tim Neave had started on row three, but 20 laps later he had battled through the pack to take third, with 55 Jeacock in second and #44 Rea being crowned the 2021 Race of the Year Champion.

As I mentioned earlier, we had three spectator photographers out track side and we all have our own way of capturing the action. I will leave you with some words from David Harbey and his evolving approach to taking motorsport pictures.

I’m probably ending up with less photographs that I will keep and I am still mastering shooting bikes. As a recent convert to two (and three wheeled) motor sport however, there is no doubt that the rush of seeing and hearing a field of the quickest bikes heading into the hairpin at Mallory should be experienced, whether you have a camera in your hand or not.

They are just feet away, there’s no big gravel trap and fence and then you realise that the quickest guys are lifting the rear wheel under braking …

Thanks to RPW Photography and David Harbey for helping out with this report, you can see more of Davids work by following the links below.