Mallory Park Monday 26th December 2016

Ho,ho,ho....For the first time since 2011, The Spectator headed to Mallory Park for the circuit's annual Plum Pudding meeting. After the mass over consumption of Turkey, alcohol, chocolate and Sprouts the day before, Boxing Day has always been a day to enjoy a bit of fresh air and (perhaps more importantly...!) escape from family...
For many years the old New Era Motorcycle club organised a full meeting on Boxing Day, then in the 90's car racing appeared on the programme in a bid to attract the four wheeled fan. The BRSCC and then the BARC organised the car side of things, usually a couple of races each for Saloons & Sportscars but there have been races for Minis, Caterhams & FF1600 in the past too.For the first time in many years the BRSCC took charge of car racing on this particular day.
When New Era folded, Thundersport GB ran the bikes then the local East Midlands Racing Association club (EMRA) took over. My first Plum Pudding was in 1999 and the event has changed a lot since then and has evolved into an evenly balanced timetable of 2 wheel Motorcycle, 3 wheel Sidecar and 4 wheel car racing action.
What you don't want for the Plum Pudding is frost on the ground as the bikes don't run, so it was with some relief that the temperature gauge in the car read 5 degrees on a very sunny Boxing day morning as I headed to Mallory. As you can see below the early morning practice sessions were run on a wet track that would gradually dry out as the day progressed.

As the meeting is somewhat "unusual" the way the grids for racing are devised is somewhat "unusual" too! The first race grids are on receipt of entry so the keen and well organised driver and rider is rewarded. Race 2 for cars was then a completely reversed grid from the finishing order of race 1.
I'd like to tell you in more detail about the 3 Solo Motorcycle races but with a PA system that was only working in limited areas of the track, an entry list in the programme that seemed to have an awful lot of additions to it at the sharp end of the field plus (as of January 5th) absolutely no results to be found anywhere on the internet, I can only tell you that the battle for the lead in all 3 races was very good and admiration of all riders to put on a show in very cold and damp conditions was very high! As the circuit dried the speeds increased as the day progressed and Edwina's chicane saw a number of fallers pushing just a little too hard.
The 2 Sidecar races were definitely the downside of the day as there were only 4 outfits to be seen in race 1, followed by just 3 in race 2. I can tell you that both races were won by Greg Lambert/Julie Canipa on their wonderfully named Golden Fleece GLR Honda.
The BRSCC had garnered a good 24 car entry for the 2 Saloon races. Rod Birley easily won the first race of the day and apparently isn't far away from 600 wins in his career. Whether the win was 599 or 600 I have no idea!! Entertainer of the race was Brett Lidsey in his Ford Fiesta ST whose sideways approach around Gerards an many laps saw him on the grass on a few occasions.
The 2nd saloon race was sadly eventually declared null and void following 2 red flags and with light fading, there wasn't enough time to run it at the end of the meeting. The first start saw the MG ZR of Alan Forster tapped into a spin at Gerards and chaos ensuing behind him with several cars taking to the grass. The Mini Se7en of Joe Thompson had suffered damage though and he couldn't get going again so the race was stopped.
Attempt two lasted a little longer until Nik Barton had a big crash at the Devils Elbow which resulted in him rolling his VW Golf.
The first of the days 2 Sportscar races saw Phil Hart inherit the win in his Clubmans Mallock following the retirement of Dave Porter's Radical and the pitting of Ray Rowan's Pilbeam. Rowan emerged from the pits late on in the race only to have his engine drop fluid on the circuit which resulted in a delay to check if the track wasn't too slippery for the next Motorcycle race.
The second race saw Porter's Radical (now fixed after retiring in the first race) romp to victory in the rapidly setting sun

The Plum Pudding is a curious meeting. A large crowd as always in attendance but if this meeting took place during the regular season then it would be viewed as poor. In the depths of Winter though it was a good opportunity to get the backside trackside again though and see some racing. Mallory would have made some good money from gate receipts, the earthworks at the Esses up towards the Hairpin look to be finished but the area was still out of bounds to spectators. The lake in the middle of the circuit was half empty and at the lowest level I'd ever seen it so it will be interesting to see if it's being drained.....maybe to create infield viewing??!
Admission was £12 on the gate and programme was £2. More accurate entry lists for the bikes plus lap lengths of all races in next years programme please!