01/10/2026
From the NSA page ..Our roving reorter Neil Jenkinson ahs sent over his write up from the Manston Finale on the 19/20th September , Many thanks Neil
Manston 19/20 Sept
Our last visit to Manston for this year and a good turn out of some 40 pre-entries and 10 or so day entries and taster session riders took to the smooth, but not particularly grippy, track.
The weather on Saturday was pretty chilly with a strong ¾ head/cross wind which made life tricky for some riders, particularly the lighter bikes and the scooters.
We had some very interesting machines in the pits.
Terry Homan had brought along the amazing Drag-Waye, supercharged VW powered special, although Terry chose not to run the bike it was great to see it out in the fresh air again!
He also had the Scripps 'Solitaire', a blown Triumph 750cc running some 75% nitro which did put in some runs.
The Norman family had brought 'Stormin' Normans' beautiful double 850cc Norton engined machine Conquest 2, which, on initial checks sadly developed a worrying 'tightness' in the rear motor, the team stripped as much of the ancillaries as they could in search of the problem but it seemed to be something more internal, so they chose not to run the engines until a full strip down can be done.
Matt Owens had brought Little Conquer, which runs a blown 350cc Triumph engine and Terry Darton had an ex George Coles 650cc methanol breathing Triumph sprinter.
Along with Tim Howells two bikes we had some great classic machinery on show.
Talking of the cross wind, unfortunately Terry Homan seemed to get the worst of it on Saturday, with Solitaire not really running cleanly he aborted his first couple of runs, then on his next run the bike was sounding good but the wind caught him and he drifted from the left lane across the centre line and he had to shut off. Later in the day he tried again but the wind caught him again and he drifted across the centre, taking out the 1/8 mile sensors for good measure.
The weather on Sunday was much better, quite warm with a gentler breeze but straight head on this time, and times were quicker virtually across the board.
In the classes, it was just Rhianne Braine in Juniors on her GPZ500, running 15.15s, 'no speed recorded!' on Saturday and 15.02s on Sunday, 'no speed recorded!'.
In 500cc Racing, Kerry Phillips was quickest on Saturday with a single run of [email protected] mph but the bike sounded very 'flat' through the finish. A quick check in the pits and the problem was quickly found to be a missing ring on the centre cylinder, so that was it for the day pending the arrival of spares from their base.
Next, only running on Saturday, was Adrian licence, jumping from his usual Suzuki T500, with a best of 13.3s@98 mph, onto a Kawasaki H1 triple, with a best of [email protected] mph.
On Sunday, with the spares having turned up and despite the barrel being slightly incorrect for this bike, Kerry was back in action, having actually managed to strip and rebuild the centre cylinder on the KH before racing had stopped on Saturday. He put in just a couple of test passes on Sunday to check all was well before a full rebuild with the correct bits back at base.
In 750cc Racing, Bob Hancox was quickest, taking his very standard looking SRAD 750 to a best of [email protected] mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday
The only other runner in the class was Tim Howell on his immaculate BSA 650 Lightning sprinter, running on straight petrol and normally aspirated he got a best of [email protected] mph on Saturday.
On Sunday Tim had a couple of runs on the big, blown, 750 BSA Lightning. Running around 45% nitro-methanol he got a best of [email protected] mph and sounded great!
In 1000cc Racing, Paul Houghton was quickest on both days, taking his GSXR1000, to [email protected] mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday. Josh Gilbert, on his GSXR1000, was next on Saturday with a [email protected] mph, Liam Harper, with no wildly engineered 250 this weekend, on his VTR1000 with an [email protected] mph on Saturday and Paul Cleall, only running on Saturday on his ZX9R [email protected] mph. Josh and Liam swapped places on Sunday, Liam with an [email protected] mph and Josh with [email protected] mph. Kerry Herrington put in plenty of runs on her GSXR1000 with a best of [email protected] mph.
Unlimited Racing had a bumper 9 entries on Saturday, with Bobby Semple on a GSXR1000 and Steve Everett on his 'Busa trading fastest times all day until Bobby finally got the quickest time [email protected] mph from Steves best of 9.738s@140 mph.
Then it was Barry Curtis on his ZXR1100 drag style bike, 9.8s@140 mph before being sidelined with what turned out to be two cracked pistons.
Next it was Tom Gilbert, (GSXR1100), [email protected] mph, although he did manage to hit 154.7 mph on one run for top speed of the day.
Bobby Semple was next, this time on a 'Busa, [email protected] mph, Pete Herrington on his mighty 'Busa, [email protected] mph, Steve Mayes on his drag style GSXR1100 [email protected] mph, Bleddyn Ireland on his GSXR1300, [email protected] mph and Andries Van Der Walt on a beautiful powder blue Nostalgia Pro Stock Z1R with just a single run [email protected] mph.
On Sunday Tom Gilbert had clearly had some Shredded Wheat for breakfast, (other cereals are available) and topped the time sheets with a new class record and a new track record, taking his turbo charged GSXR1100 'shed built' bike to a cracking [email protected] mph, beating Steve Everetts' previous record of 9.55s.
Steve was next quickest with a [email protected] mph, followed by Bobby Semple [email protected] mph, Pete Herrington with a [email protected] mph, Steve Mayes, [email protected] mph, Bleddyn Ireland, [email protected] mph and Bobby Semple on the GSXR, with just a single, troubled, run, [email protected] mph.
In Vintage up to 350cc, it was just Graham Thompson on his Velocette MAC 350 on both days, on Saturday he put in just a single run at 16.3s@75 mph. Clearly fired up on Sunday, he managed a new class record of [email protected] mph, beating Allen Randalls 15.93s.
In Vintage Unlimited, Tony Lockwood was quickest on both days on the ex John Young, Norton J*P 500 single, running [email protected] mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday. Noah Harrison was the only other runner on Saturday, putting in some 'spirited' runs on his 1931, Rudge Ulster 500, with a best of [email protected] mph. Sadly on Sunday he only did a single, slower, run before the Rudge cried enough and stopped.
In Classic Scooter, on Saturday, Jamie Lawn on his Vespa 180 and Stuart McVicker on his 244 Lambretta traded quickest times all day until Jamie took it with a [email protected] mph to Stuarts' best of [email protected] mph.
Danny Cassey-Gurne wasn't far behind on his Lambretta, [email protected] mph and Scott Wilson on his Vespa [email protected] mph.
On Sunday Jamie Lawn improved to 13.95s@90 mph, this time Danny Cassey-Gurne was next, [email protected] mph, from Stuart McVicker, [email protected] mph and Scott Wilson [email protected] mph.
In the crazy world of Open Scooter, all eyes were on Paul Gurney who was running with wheelie bars on his Lambretta 265 for the first time, the rest of the scooter lads were waiting to see if this was a good idea or not.
It seemed to work pretty well as he and Eric Cope, who only ran on Saturday, traded fastest times all day until Eric just took it on his Lambretta, [email protected] mph to Pauls best of [email protected] mph, the bars were clearly doing something as Paul managed to snap them towards the end of the day!
Then it was Steve Rowe, Lambretta GP265, [email protected] mph, Adie Horrocks, Vespa V90, [email protected] mph, Shaun Nickells, Lambretta 260, [email protected] mph, Nige Howard, Vespa 210, [email protected] mph and Mike Pacey on his Rotax GP335 snow mobile engined Lambretta, who only did a single 16s run before discovering a ring had caught in the power valve and done for the piston, so that was his weekend over sadly.
On Sunday, Paul Gurney improved to [email protected] mph, from Adie Horrocks who also improved to a [email protected] mph but he was extremely happy to crack the 100 mph barrier on one run, clocking a splendid 100.14 mph. Nige Howard improved to [email protected] mph.
In Classic Open, Mark Taylor was quickest on his GSX1300, [email protected] mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday, from Steve Mundy, ZZR1100, 10.85s@121 mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday. Eric Frith, on his GPZ1100, [email protected] mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday, Mick Perry was on his smart Kawasaki GPZ750 Early Stock racer running [email protected] mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday.
In 750cc Road Bike, on Saturday Ben London was quickest on his ZXR6, running [email protected] mph, from Matt Braine, MT10, [email protected] mph, Mick Perry, this time on a Triumph Trident 750, [email protected] mph and Steve Stacey, GSX750 [email protected] mph, Amanda Taylor on her Ducati 750s [email protected] mph, Gill Pacey, CBR500, [email protected] mph and Ian Dale, going for the 'quickest MZ of the weekend' award on an unusual MZ Skorpion 660, running [email protected] mph. On Sunday the order at the top was reversed with Matt running quickest, [email protected] mph and Ben running [email protected] mph. Mick ran [email protected] mph, Amanda ran [email protected] mph and Gill ran 14.55s@88 mph.
Incidentally, Rhianne got Matt to have a test run on her bike as she felt it wasn't running quite right, Matt immediately jumped the gun and pulled a red light!
In Unlimited Road Bike, Steve Walton on his GSXR1000K6 topped the timings on both days, running [email protected] mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday, Dunk Rose was the only other runner, taking his GSXR1000, (he has decided the Panagale is a bit 'leery'!) to [email protected] mph on Saturday and [email protected] mph on Sunday, and, only running on Sunday was Roy Cole on his Speed Triple 900, [email protected] mph.
A quick shout out to Terry Darton and his crew who persevered all day on Sunday with the recalcitrant Triumph sprinter. First it wouldn't start, then it would but not run properly, then a bolt fell out and jammed the back brake on but they kept trying and finally got a good series of runs with a best of [email protected] mph.
Finally we ran the first of our new format , 'Max Power Shoot Out'. The top 8 quickest riders from the morning sessions went into a random draw to see who they'd be running against and in which lane. Then it's a straight race at the green light, first to the end wins with no breakout this time.
The top 8 kept changing throughout the morning and wasn't settled until the lunch break.
Round 1 saw Tom Gilbert beat Paul Houghton by just over 2/10th second. Bobby Semple took out Steve Mundy, Mark Taylor took a holeshot win against Steve Walton, a 10.111s win to a loosing 10.10! And Steve Everett beat Pete Herrington.
The next round was another random draw, this time Steve Everett beat Mark Taylor and Tom Gilbert beat Bobby Semple.
So the final was Steve against the quickest man of the weekend thus far, Tom Gilbert.
At the green, Steve got away first, 0.12s to Toms 0.35s but, for the first time pretty much all weekend, Tom lit up the rear tyre and that was it, Steve held on to take the win.
Everyone seemed to enjoy this new addition to the days racing so we'll try it again next time out at Smeatharpe.
Finally we ran the last 2 rounds of the Ruler of the ¼ mile.
On Saturday Ben London just held on against Steve Everett, Ben running 11.00s to win against Steves loosing 9.832s but it was close!
On Sunday Ben made it through to the final again, this time he was up against Matt Braine. It was close again with only 1/100th difference on the tree, Matt was ahead pretty much all the way and got there first but broke out, running 10.71s against his index of 10.79, so Ben took another win!
Another cracking weekends racing, and if you didn't think you got your moneys worth with the NSA, just ask Liam Harper who managed something like 25 runs on Sunday alone!
As always huge thanks to everyone that makes the racing possible and to everyone who came and had a go!
