After a 5 hour drive we arrived at the venue on Friday with the sun shining. Upon inspection of the track on foot, it was apparent that there was a whole new final section to the finish and a few tweaks here and there up the top, all appeared on first take to be for the better. Practice started promptly on Saturday morning with all the team riders heading up the hill together for their first chance at taming the hill. First reports back to the pits were good with most people finding the lines picked out on Friday inspection and the bikes were performing as expected (top drawer). After a full day’s practice and around 6 or 7 full runs the energy levels started to drop a little and some riders decided to call it a day, which turned out to be the best plan as the heaven’s opened for the final runs which left the track sodden and the riders caked in mud, and struggling for traction with dry tyres laced to their rims. Although it was a blast riding in such conditions and spirits were still high as we all retired for the day.
7am……..time to get up and change those tyres for some cut down spikes I reckon. This was a good decision as we headed up the hill for a final practice run before the timed seeding runs the weather was looking anything but stable.
Emma (Wareham) was off first in the Elite Women category and clocked a time of 3:13.840 placing her 4th which she was happy with but felt she could have gone faster if she could just piece everything together. Next off were the boys in the Expert category with Andy (Woodvine) first off the blocks posting a time of 2:28.603 placing him 7th, he was happy enough with a solid run but made a few mistakes and felt he had got more in the tank, next off was Rich (Challinor) posting a time of 2:30.576 some 2 seconds off Andy, he wasn’t happy as he had been off the track in the lower woods but again he knew he was capable of more. Jethro (Whitfield) was next to hit the hill posting a time of 2:35.415 which he was not too happy about as he knew there were seconds to be shaved off his time.
The bikes were then cleaned (again) and prepped ready for the race runs by Tom the mechanic (hero) who excelled all weekend in keeping the team above water and running smoothly. Again the first rider going to the top for their race run was Emma, we wished her well and she headed off into battle. She came through the finish with a time of 3:05.107 Shaving over 8 seconds off her seeding time placing Emma 6th and 17 seconds off the leader Helen Gaskell. Emma wasn’t so happy - feeling deflated as she had made a big mistake on the first right hander up top causing her to crash and drop precious time, regardless, 6th place is a serious result and a good boost for the team.
The boys were next to head into battle embarking on the coach taking them to the top of the hill. First man off was Jethro who screamed down the wet track posting a time of 2:31.897 knocking 4 seconds off his seeding run and placing him 23rd in the Expert category. Rich was next off, knowing he had to pull things together posting a time of 2:26.669 with a solid (ish) run and no crashes placing him 9th and 6.874 seconds off the leader Jack Reading. Andy was last off the gate with a finishing time of 2:27.086 placing him 10th just behind Rich, those boys can’t be separated. The boys & Gals were happy to have bagged their first results of 2009 and are now looking to improve on them throughout the season. So Watch this space.
This was a very successful weekend of racing for the Leisure Lakes DH Team, thanks to all the riders for their efforts and Tom the mechanic for all his support. A big thank you to Sandy the team manager for making it all happen and letting it roll, and hats off to the organiser’s Si Paton and Steve Parr who worked hard to pull it off.
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