By Over the years many a pure road racing great, has won the prestigious Welsh open title, at Wales only pure road race meeting, the Aberdare Park Road Races.
Previous Welsh open winners include Carl Fogarty, John Surtees CBE, John Cooper, Ian Lougher and John Simpson.
The dominant force in recent years at Aberdare has been former TT privateers champion Dan Cooper. Set to return this weekend on his own teams 675 Daytona Triumph, he is bidding to become a three time Welsh open winner.
Having shown true grit and determination in finishing sixth in this years Lightweight TT, competition at the park, marks his return to roads competition.
In my opinion Dan will start favourite to make it a hat trick of Welsh open victories, but there’s many believe they can get the better of him.
They include Matthew Rees, who recently confirmed today he would be piloting at the weekend, a factory backed Tsingtao Racing MV Agusta.
Established amongst Wales leading pure road racers, Matthew is a proven front runner at Aberdare Park, it would not surprise me and many included if he secures the Welsh open title on Sunday.
Fellow Welshman Jay Bellers Smith, is confident of securing many a top class result, as he competes on the Trickbits FBM Performance 675 Daytona Triumph.
Rising roads star Mark Goodings backed by Team York Suzuki, is another contender for Welsh open victory, as he competes on ZX6R Kawasaki machinery.
Seasoned roads competitor Paul Gartland, has the pure roads craft to seal many a notable result.
Same applies to Justin Collins, who is looking forward to returning to the Mountain Course, for the 2016 Manx Grand Prix.
Alongside the Welsh open races, there’s 125’s, 250’s, 400’s, Super Moto’s and classic machinery a plenty in action.
Plus 23 times TT winner John McGuinness will be in attendance as will JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Peter Hickman, the reigning Macau Grand Prix winner.
Plus David Johnson will be doing demo laps around Aberdare Park on the SG5 Norton, which he took to a brilliant seventh place in the RST Superbike TT.
Since it first began in 1950 the Aberdare Park Road Races, has seen top draw, high quality pure road racing competition over the last seven decades.
Expect no different this weekend, as multiple rising roads stars aim to secure the prestigious Welsh open title.
Words by Stevie Rial
