The 2nd round of the NPS took place this weekend at the new venue near Llangollen. The word on the street was that the track was STEEP, and they weren't wrong! ..... but amazing fun to ride!
After track inspection on foot on Friday it was on to Saturday practice and then seeding runs on Sunday morning. Unfortunately Emma Wareham had a nasty accident on Saturday badly injuring her hand putting her out of the running for the Elite Women category.
First off for the seeding run in the Expert Men category was Andy Woodvine, next off was Rich Challinor and finally Jed Whitfield who banked 5th, what a run!
Both Andy and Chally knew they had to do better in the race runs and Jed wanted to repeat his form in the race run. Again Andy was first to tackle the infamous Llangollen battle ground, but the track bit him back as he hit the deck and went off track losing valuable time, he got back aboard and posted a worthy 02:25.6 Placing him 30th, Chally was next putting in a “safe” run posting a 02:16.2 placing him 14 th. Next off was Jed who had an eventful run but kept it lit and brought it home with a 02:17.3 finishing 16th, well done lads!
Overall the weekend was a mixed bag of emotions with many top riders crashing out and results were all over the place really. The experience of riding such a full-on track was beneficial to the team in terms of experience and we can all build on that for the next round.
A big Congratulations to Sandy Plenty the team manager who had a blistering day and finished 5th in the Master Category – big up Sandy!
Also a big thank you goes out to Tom the mechanic who once again kept us all on the track, after numerous scuffles with trees and salad.
Top Marks to Si Paton and Steve Parr for putting on a superb event that ran like clockwork.
See you all at Fort Bill 27th & 28th June
