Melton racer Antony Hart caps brilliant season with two national titles

Hart had almost conceded his two Classic Racing Motorcycle Club championships when opting to miss a crucial domestic round to race in Germany where he landed his first international grand prix title.

The Melton rider subsequently lost his lead in both RS 125 and TZ 350 Championships, but his hopes of domestic glory were revived when the new 350 leader announced he would not be racing at the Cadwell Park season finale.

Trailing by 45 points and with 50 points up for grabs, a win and a second place would clinch the 350 title once again.

In very wet and difficult conditions, and with a rebuilt bike, the Leicestershire ace qualified first on the Yamaha 350 TZ, and second on the Honda 125 RS and for the King of the Classics.

Hart mastered the very tricky conditions to bring the TZ 350 home in first place by more than five seconds.

He then secured a flag-to-flag victory in race two, postponed by 24 hours, to retain the championship for another season.

Next up came the RS 125 in which Hart needed two wins, or to finish in front of the championship leader in both races.

Hart took the lead as the flag dropped, but the tricky Saturday conditions kept him locked in a terrific three-way battle.

The championship leader crashed out while making his bid for the lead, and Hart went on to finish second which put back in the championship lead by six points.

With another runner-up finish good enough to retain his second championship, the Melton rider managed exactly that with a very safe second place.

But with both titles back in the bag, Hart didn’t stop there.

The King of Classics title had already been won, but he retained plenty of interest in the main feature race, the Colin Breeze Trophy, which brought out all the big guns.

Power is not everything at Cadwell so Hart was able to use his racecraft to win by less than a second after a terrific battle, and retain the Colin Breeze trophy for a fourth year running.

But still he was not done as the longer, one-off Race of the Year, gave him two more opportunities for trophies on the 125 and 350.

Hart maintained his dominant form to win both, by six seconds on the 125 with a new lap record, and by more than 13 seconds aboard the 350.

“This was a truly fabulous end to our season,” said dad Ron.

“None of this would be possible without the help of David King for supplying a superb Honda RS 125, Arnold Fletcher for endless help and advice, Tony Keele at TK Motorcycles for all the spare parts, Dennis Harrington in the Bell Centre for repairing the leathers after the occasional crash, and Simon and Margaret at BE Event Hire.”