The second Gedinne Belgian Classic TT meeting was run on a circuit that had never looked better thanks to the fantastic amount of work done by the hard working members of the CRMB, ably assisted by riders from just about all over Europe who had arrived early in the week and volunteered to assist the club members in their huge task. The CRMB were duly appreciative and provided Belgian hospitality in the form of food and of course, beer for the workers.

The final races of the IHRO season promised to be good in the dry but overcast weather in the Ardennes but delays in starting the meeting and a number of red flagged sessions contrived to loose time and as a result there was only one practice session for each class and only the 350’s managed to get a race on the Saturday. And what a race it was, with Ives Glauser fulfilling his practice promise after a fantastic scrap with Bill Wark on Brian Richard’s Manx, it was certainly one of the best races of the day and Ives won by a comfortable 3.6 seconds, which did not really reflect the closeness of the racing. Belgian Marc Michot got the better of a fast closing martin Hudson to gain third place after both had relegated fast starting Roel Weijers to 5th position after the first lap.

Sunday saw untimed warm-up sessions for all classes before the 500 class was let loose, and what a battle this promised to be with Ives Glauser having posted the fastest time again by over 3 seconds from Jarno Joncker on his beautiful BMW. There were a number of riders who had not ridden at Gedinne before and were taking their time to learn their way round this challenging circuit, but the prospect for a close race was making the crowd excited.

Adrie De Ridder made a stunning start and led the field into the first chicane, with Bill Wark and Ives Glauser in very close attendance, the three changed places repeatedly over the 5 lap duration of the race but it was Wark who took the flag by just 0.4 seconds from Glauser with De Ridder a further 0.4 adrift. William de Ridder in only his first race of the season managed to shake off his lack of track time to finish in 4th place with Osmo Partti behind him. Alan Windsor, after enjoying his usual relaxed start, fought through the field to finish 0.39 seconds ahead of Hans De Witt on his Manx after a good scrap. Alex Siertsma just led Charlie Dobson over the line in 13th after another good battle.

The second 350 race was a repeat of the first with Glauser getting the result from Wark with Michot a distant third, hard riding veteran Bob Rowe on his fabulous sounding Manx managed to beat off the attentions of Joss Sassen and Bernd Pollmann to claim 6th.

The season was not to end on the expected high note as the 500 race was red flagged on the second lap after Bill Wark, who was lying in 4th place behind the 2 De Ridders and Glauser fell heavily on a fast right hand corner, the resulting delay to the last race of the day meant that the meeting had to be cancelled as time had run out and the roads had to be reopened for public use. Bill was treated on the circuit, then taken to Libramont hospital with chest injuries, he was later transferred to Liege University hospital for further treatment. Our best wishes go to him and his family for a speedy recovery and we hope to see him out again next year.