Lamonde Racing 2025 - Round 2, Oulton Park

Last weekend, 4th & 5th April saw the second round of the British Motorcycle Racing Club's (Bemsee) 2025 season, held at the popular Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire.

Unfortunately, Tom, #74, was unwell and unable to race this weekend - best wishes for a speedy recovery Tom. This left Leigh, #8 to fly the flag, so to speak, with Matt, #9 providing instruction to Bemsee riders on the Thursday test day.

There are restrictions on racing at Oulton Park, very few races are permitted on a Sunday there, so the test day was Thursday, with qualifying and one race on Friday, and two races on Saturday.

Qualifying:
Leigh qualified 7th in class on Friday morning, placing him on the 8th row of the shared grid. 

Race 1:
Race 1, held on Friday afternoon - Leigh got a good start, finishing 6th, 0.622s ahead of #69, Terry Smith, Leigh and Terry were evenly matched over the weekend and spent much of it swapping places during races,

Race 2:
Was held on Saturday morning, Leigh was just behind Terry on the grid, as grid positions for the next race are determined by the fastest laps of the riders, rather than the race finish position.

Leigh stalled on the start line, which, is a terrifying thing to happen as everyone else is head-down trying to launch as fast as they can, luckily there was no collision, Leigh took off like a scolded cat, and had to battle from the back of the grid for the duration of the race, reeling in the places, lap by lap, finishing 6th, behind Terry Smith this time, a great recovery from a potentially disastrous start!

Race 3:
Saturday afternoon, Leigh was on the grid, no doubt apprehensive about the possibility of a start line stall, but also filled with some renewed confidence having ridden the wheels off his bike in the previous race, the last few laps of the 7 lap race were exciting with Leigh and Terry Smith swapping places, making the pit board crew earn their crust. Leigh crossed the line 6th again, and ahead of Terry Smith and also chalked up his best lap time of the meeting. 

After the weekend's racing, Leigh sits in 6th place in the Thunderbike Sport Championship with 67 points.

Matt:
Matt instructs with Bemsee for the benefit of other competitors, with three champoinships under his belt he's well placed to coach and advise riders to improve their racecraft.

John Wetherell, AKA "Dad"
After a great weekend of racing by Leigh and instructing by Matt, we're extremely sad to report, that Matt's father, John, a tireless supporter of Matt's racing, and Lamonde Racing passed away on Sunday after a mercifully short illness. John was well liked in the race paddock, and was himself a keen motorcyclist. Having been trained in the 60s by the Police on a Velocette "Noddy bike", John continued to ride until the end of his life, including participating in trackdays in the UK and Europ in his 70s, an inspiration, a real character and a true gent to boot. Ride in peace John.