Thundersports GB Cadwell Park

Thunder Sports UK Round 7

Cadwell Park

This site was set up to help promote photographers of all abilities and skills and is free to use. If you are a professional promoting your business or an amateur who just wants to get their images out to a wider audience the site costs are the same, zero. 
However, to keep the visitor numbers to the site healthy and checking out our photographers' work, we need fresh new motorsport and event photography to bring people back and increase the audience. 

So part of the deal for being on PistonClick is contributing to the reports with images you have taken and a narrative to go along with them. It's not a deal breaker if you don’t do both and there is no pressure to contribute anything, it’s just a nice to have for the site.
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This is a winning combination. Our photographers' art gets seen by a wide audience you get to see some great motorsports photography. 

This hopefully inspires to go to the track to spectate, and if you have the kit, try out a few of our photography tips. In addition I keep busy doing a "job" I love, taking the odd snap and holding the site together.
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Chatting to a few of the photographers on the site that take some great pictures the conversation comes round to "would you like to do a few words to go along with those pictures?" Usually the reply is "words aren't my thing" and "I don’t know enough about the subject." 
If words are not your thing there is not a lot I can do about that, but I can help with information on the subject you might want to shoot. We have produced guides about many circuits around the UK, which helps you get to the right track and to the best locations to get that killer shot. 

Now we are expanding our reports to include information about the racing, the riders, the machines and the championships, where we can. 
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Top Tip #1. But beware, if this is the profession you want to get into, track side is a significant part of the business but you will also be capturing the action in the pits and paddock. If you one of those that prefers "to use ambient light", I would recommend practising with a good flash gun. 

The pits can be dark and riders' press meetings can be held inside. 

In the case of Thundersports GB the prize giving is held in the back of a large covered truck and at this time of the year there is not much ambient light in there. So dust off that flash gun, you might need it one day.
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So let's look at what information we acquired from the latest race meeting we attended - Thundersports GB Championships Round 7 at Cadwell Park, which is the penultimate round of this eight meeting motorcycle race series. 

Thundersports GB is one of the larger clubs that operate its own championships at tracks in the UK. Racing in this Championship is very competitive and exciting to watch. We saw some very good racing over the weekend from the 1000cc machines down to entry level 500cc twin cylinder models. 
Running over the two days there were 17 races on Saturday and 18 scheduled for Sunday with 16 different classes of racer. 

First up is GP1 this is basically 1000cc machines and above broken down into 6 categories. The classes range from Elite Riders in the open class with bikes up to 1300cc down to the Freshman Class on 1000cc machines whose riders haven't yet scored a top 50% race finish. 

Grid positions are determined by qualifying lap times for the first race then "Mega" laps, your fastest lap in the race determines your grid position for the next.
Katie Hand ThundersportGB
The GP1 Elite and Sportsman Classes run together with the Sportsmen eligible to win the race, if they can. Championship GP1 Elite leader going into Round 7 was #94 Lee Williams on a Kawasaki 1000cc who went onto secure the Championship at Cadwell. 

However, it was #28 Luke Hopkins on his Kawasaki ZX10r that won all three races, setting personal best lap times and putting on the style with a bit of elbow down action. 
He has now clinched 2nd place in the championship in his first year of asking - one to keep an eye on I think. In third place was #71 Phil Crowe who just missed out in the second race as he was given a 10 second penalty for a jump start, giving David Brook the last podium place. Race three was a repeat of race one with Phil Crowe getting third back from #73 David Brook.
In the Sportsman Class Championship leader #24 Lee McLaughlin took two wins from three races. During race two he hit neutral coming into the chicane, sending him over the grass with the subsequent loss of time which he couldn’t get back in the race. 

#82 Joe Holdsworth took the win in race two with #145 Daniel Forbes third. Race three was a repeat of race one, McLaughlin, Holdsworth and Kirt Powell from Spalding on the #55 Kawasaki 1000cc in third.
In the other GP1 the categories and classes are Classics, Sport 1000, Freshman and Golden Era Superbike Cup who all run together . The Classics is for large capacity Sportsbikes from the pre-2000, including the 1998-2001 Yamaha R1, Suzuki GSXR750 and Ducati 998. The Golden Era motorcycles 1985-2000 are 750cc 4-cylinder and 1000cc twin cylinder models. 
Golden Era Superbikes
#71 Richie Thornton riding a 750 Kawasaki in the Golden Era Superbikes Class had a great battle with #7 Craig Neve riding in the Classics. Considering they were both going to be first in class, the racing was very close with no quarter given, but regardless of the class you still want to be first guy over the line.
In the 600 class it's much the same as GP1,with six different categories regulated by licenses and the type of machine ridden. These are Elite (the top riders), Sportsman (newly qualified national Road Race License holders) and Freshman (yet to complete10 events). 

The classes of machine are Golden Era Supersport, 600cc 4-cylinder and 750cc 2 cylinder Supersport machines designed and commencing production before 1st January 2000. Steelsport is the other class and must have been produced before 1st January 2000 and have a mild steel beam or trellis frame as standard.
The 2018 600 Elite champion #66 Dan Frear got off to a great start with a win, but it was #28 Luke Hopkins now on a Yamaha R6 who is also competing and winning in the GP1 1000cc Elite class who grabbed the most points, taking two race wins on Sunday to back up his second on Saturday. 

He also set a personal best lap time around the Mini Nürburgring. Those podium places extend his lead in the Elite 600 Championship to 51 points. 
The 1000 and 600cc motorcycles have always been the main classes in road and circuit racing, but it all starts a little lower down for the club racers who have aspirations of being the next Scott Redding. 

However, a lot of people can't afford to go and buy the latest 1000cc sports bike and go racing, so the Thundersport 500cc is an ideal place to learn your craft or just have some cheap fun at the weekends.
The 500cc bikes are the commuter's favourite, the Honda CB 500 which can be picked up for a small amount of money these days and is cheap to run. These races are broken down into Elite, Sportsmen and for this class Seniors who race together. The Seniors must be over the age of 40 on the 1st of March for that year's racing season, catering for the "what could have I been if I'd had the cash a few years ago, racer". 

This is a popular class, with 46 riders out on track for each of the races. When you consider there is also the Freshmen and Cup racing separately, that puts out another 36 riders - it’s a popular class.
In the Freshman Class, #26 Bailey Harker from Spalding in his home race is leading the Championship but crashed out in qualifying going into Barn, and was hit by his bike. Dusting himself off, he managed brace of seconds and a third place but his bike cut out in the rain on the last race for a DNF. 

Gary Gray on bike #4 was fourth in the Championship going into the Cadwell round, bagging three wins and a third over the weekend giving his chance of finishing in the top three of the Championship a big boost.
In the Elite race, #30 Will Leaning, #121 Josh Leaning and Championship leader #19 Grant Whitaker battled it out for the podium places. Will Leaning took a brace of seconds on the Saturday and two wins on Sunday in what looked to be his first run out in this class this year. 

The next and final round of the championship will be at Oulton Park 18 - 19th October which for most classes there will be double points on offer. After the Cadwell round Grant Whitaker is now only one point ahead of Josh Leaning in the Championship, so all to play for in the final round.
In this report we haven't covered every Class in the Thundersport Championship, to fair there are a lot. We will pick the ones we didn’t cover next year when Thundersport GB returns to Cadwell for two rounds. 
To finish off this report we will look at our Military Men. This race series is popular with our Armed Forces with 20 of them competing in various races including the GB Racing British Military Inter-Services Challenge. 

The Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines held the Inter - Services race on Saturday. 

Pep Brown from the Army was first with Danny Marston from the Navy second and Leon Wilton representing the Army in Third. Dan Southerland was the highest placed RAF rider in 5th place.
Thanks to Lonely Furrow Photography and RW Photography for helping out with this article.
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