Chicksands 4X race November 2007

I arrived on Saturday for some much needed practise having been on a downhill bike for the year. I was looking forward to trying my hard tail (a Spooky Bandwagon; bit retro but it served me well since the beggining). I treated my self to some new forks that I brought of a friend and put some light-weight high rollers on it for the weekend.

In Saturdays practise I was disappointed as I struggled to clear the triple. However I found out that many people were having the same problem and my tyre choice was maybe not the right one. After a few alterations I made it clean each time. I thought about giving the inside line into the triple and seeing Oggy clear it with ease made me go and give it a go. I tried a little too early, I came up short blowing my mech and taking a spoke out of my wheel. It was going to be dark soon so I rushed to the top to do some repairs. Dad sorted the wheel and I sorted the mech and chain. We put a slick tyre on the rear to help with getting the speed up. I went basically in the dark to roll down and check everything worked well. It was a lot faster with the slick tyre and all felt good.

Sunday came and I was keen to carry on where I left off Saturday. I tried all kinds of things in practise and managed to get the triple dialled from both lines. I was looking forward to racing!

My first moto I was beaten and came 2nd place. This wasn't the best and made me push hard at the next 2 motos more and I got 2 wins. This put me into the semi finals.

I was beaten out of the gate and in 2nd place. I kept close and saw him go for the outside line so this is where my practise of doing the triple from the inside was about to pay off. I took the inside and launched over the jump now in the lead. I almost knew that I was going to win...medics were around me and I hurt quite a lot. when I landed the triple my bike snapped in half and I went into the ground at some speed from quite a height. No result for me anymore! I hit my head quite hard and my arms are bruised and scraped but luckily nothing too bad.

Here are some pictures;

- My only bike after the weekend; snapped in half
- Jumping the big jumps
- The nice new show-bikes
- Jason(dragon dh organiser) and daughter Manon
- Jason showing us what he can do on the dirt jumps!
- The triple on the 4X
- It was quite a popular one off 4X race!




Thanks to Rezurgence, Lifestyle Ford and Mojo,

PORC Race 4th November;

This was Bill's first race as the official organiser... The race was run properly just like it usually is, and the track was very well built. The course was the closest to feeling like a bigger race than P.O.R.C has ever had before.

Here are a few pictures;

- Sam Shucksmith over the first table-top
- Myself doing the step-down. For me this bit was the best part of the track. It had 4 steep corners going straight into the jump.
- A picture to set the mood
- Warming up before race run number 2
- The veteran podium; Frenchman Phil, winning and my dad in 2nd.
- fastest and second fastest time of the day came from the senior catagory.
- Sam wins the junior catagory
- I won the youth with 3rd fastest time of the day

Thanks to Lifestyle Ford, Rezurgence, Mojo and Bill for a fantastic first independant race.