In a repeat of the last round of the Fastest 40 championship, Conrad Mewse and his Crendon Tru7 Honda teammate Taylor Hammal dominated and took first and second places on the podium once more. Words: Press Release
Exactly as the duo had done in the sand of the Preston Docks round, this time the hard pack track at Landrake in Cornwall was the scene for Mewse to continue his undefeated run in the series with an easy double win. He led Hammal home in both races, and the pair are now first and second in the series.
The first race started as a showcase for the Crendon Tru7 Honda team as Mewse, who had been fastest in qualifying, blasted the CRF450R to the holeshot and was followed by Hammal in second place.
Mewse instantly began stretching out his lead and rode a smooth yet incredibly quick pace to take the win, recording incredibly consistent lap times that none of his rivals could get close to.
Behind him, Hammal was chased hard by the likes of Jamie Carpenter, John Adamson, Jason Meara and Apico Honda team-mates Martin Barr and Tom Grimshaw. Meara quickly moved into third place but could make no inroads into catching Hammal, who usually rides a CRF250R in British championship races. When Meara slipped back, Adamson gave chase but could not match Hammal’s pace and finished third, 13 seconds behind the Honda man.
In race two, Scotsman Adamson snatched the lead at the start but Mewse was in no mood for second place and he scrubbed his way past on the second jump of the track. From that moment on, the defending champ simply stretched the gap every lap. And in a show of might, he ramped up the speed on the very last lap. Although he has a commanding lead and the track was at its roughest, he set a time that was within a 0.2secs of his fastest lap of the race.
But all eyes were on the action behind him as Hammal closed in on Adamson and the pair put on a titanic battle. For five laps, Hammal tried everything he could to get past the experienced Adamson and they even clashed bars as they flew down one of the track’s rutted hills.
But Hammal was clearly the faster rider, making a clean pass then pulling away for a safe second place, 15 seconds in front of third. It meant Hammal moved into second in the series, behind Mewse.
Mewse said: “With a 1-1 it’s a good day! And of course I have the red plate, and it was a 1-2 for the Crendon Tru7 Honda team. My mechanic Rob made some changes for moto two and it worked out a treat. I really pushed on in the last half of the moto and I’m feeling great. Every day I’m working hard to getting back to 100%, it’s working well and we’re getting there.
“Usually this isn’t my favourite sort of track but we’ve got the bike set up perfectly and it worked a dream. It was the best I’ve felt in a long time, and the suspension changes have done a world of good.”
Hammal said: “It was a good day and I enjoyed being back on the 450. I felt like I was really riding well when I got into second place. It took me a while to get there as John Adamson is hard to pass as he’s very aggressive. But it makes it interesting and it fired me up to go faster. I got the pass done and pulled away but Conrad had already opened up the gap.
“I felt like I could have been a bit closer if I’d have got behind him to start with. But I’m happy to be up there, I’m enjoying it and the bike is so good.”
Image: Crendon Honda
