Despite being 5 months later than planned, the No Limits Racing club kickstarted their 2020 season in style. Featuring huge grids and action-packed racing throughout the weekend, it was worth the wait.
A big surprise for the fans were British Superbike Regulars Ryan Vickers and the RAF Regulars and Reserves team competing in the Pirelli Super Series 1000 and the No Limits Enduro. With Vickers on top form ahead of this weekends BSB season opener, he was utterly unstoppable throughout the day.
3 Hour Endurance
The main highlight of the event was a 3-hour endurance race featuring refuelling, tyre changes and even rider changes to spice up the action. Not only this but the No Limits tradition of starting the enduro old school LeMans style was retained despite the race being shortened from eight to three hours.
With a relatively clean start, it was the 59 BMW of Fast Past Pits (ridden by Truelove duo, Matt and Harry) who got the holeshot from the unique starting procedure. It wasn’t all plain sailing for them though with DC Racing and Dales Sports both within a second of the 59 BMW after just 15 minutes of racing.
Team RAF Kawasaki had dropped back after starting from the pole. Sitting in 10th position after 15 minutes and 41 seconds back, things looked bleak for the airforce.
One hour in and the Truelove boys had extended their race lead up to 17 seconds from the DC Racing BMW with the 199 On It Racing bike having moved up into 3rd position after the first round of pitstops.
Their strong performance continued and they remained unchallenged throughout the 2nd hour of the race with nearest rivals M&M performance dropping to over half a lap behind after being passed by a flying Vickers with only four bikes on the lead lap.
Two hours in and the Trueloves were still leading and now by a whopping 55 seconds. Vickers had now fought his way up to second position and set about catching the leading BMW. Consistently lapping over two seconds faster than the 59, the teams were on the edge of their seats until the penultimate lap where Vickers has closed to within a few bike lengths of the leader. After three hours of flat out racing, it came down to the final lap where the race win was decided. Vickers made his move and charged to victory by 1.5 seconds.
Post Race
However, late into the evening it was announced that the 22 RAF Reserves Kawasaki had been disqualified for an unknown offence therefore handing the win to back to the Fast Past Pits BMW after such a dominant performance to finish as the only bike on the lead lap.
It was heartbreak for early contenders Dale Sports who retired with just 10 minutes of the race remaining with a mechanical failure. DC Racing and M&M Performance rounded out the top 3 positions on the rostrum.
Upcoming
Round 2 of the season takes place at Oulton Park as a one-day event on the 15th August. Matt and Harry Truelove will be looking to consolidate their championship lead whilst the 26 Bike of Chrissy Rouse will be hoping to go one better and take his first win of the season.