Round 1 (Sunday)
Round 2 (Monday)
Relentless National BMX Series 2007 - Rounds 1 & 2
Cheddar, 6-7 May 2007
Images: Richard Robotham
Report: Rich Eames
Round 1 Results | Round 2 Results | Rider Rankings After Round 2 Rankings
The 2007 National BMX series got off to a great start with a double-header at the spectacular Cheddar track and Rich Eames was on hand to report back on all the action.
6 and Under: The pocket rockets are back and the racing just gets better and better, no one can say this class isn't entertaining even if the little un's spend most of the lap looking round at each other and struggling to get over jumps. Lochlan Dudley took Sunday's win from 'Super' Ted Dalleywater and Aaron Bennett. Monday's win went to Ryan Brookes from Preston in his astronaut helmet that looks way too big for him even though it isn't. Big shout out to Ivan Salthouse who deserved his round of applause down the last straight, those jumps must be like mountains to him!
7's: Gideon Orena won both days in this class but Jamie Norris Still will win a national this year for sure as long as he doesn't fall asleep on the fence at the side of the track as he was trying to do on Monday!! Even the lure of a free helmet couldn't raise any interest from him, Ethan Vernon took third place both days as well.
8's: How many times can Harley Taylor fall off in one day? He could barely stay upright on Sunday and that allowed Luca Premoli to take the win. Harley made up for it on Monday with the points and Luca in 2nd Honourable mentions for Ben Turner, Haydon Green and Louis Gray Blest for top threes over the weekend as well.
9's: The battle between Reece Brownson and Paddy Sharrock just goes on and on with Reece taking first blood. Paddy is another rider who will win a national this year its just a matter of when. Mind you, he's so laid back he probably won't even care anyway. Don't rule out Tom Novis and Kye White from throwing a spanner in the works either.
10's: George Hawker took his new firmbikes.com ride to the win on Sunday from Harry Gray Blest and Nathan Hastings. Monday was a different story as George saw his rival Jimmy Orena make it to the line first with Elliot Pateman and Jack Clarke in hot pursuit of the pair of them.
11/12's: This class rocks, plain and simple. Jacob Roberts came back from a winter of racing inactivity to take a win on the Sunday from Reece Hoggatt and 'Our Bradley' but his gate let him down on Monday and it was 5th for him as Bradley Minns took the win from Reece and Daniel Pullen who scared the living bejeesus out of me in his first moto on Sunday. I thought he was going over the bars for sure but he stayed upright on that second straight, one to watch definitely.
13/14's: Another totally rad class! I thought Jordan Hayes was gonna be the man this weekend but Dan McBride and Matty Kirk were the winners with Jonathan Hastings in close proximity with Sam Novis, Ben Clarkson and Ryan Stack not far behind. I can see these guys in 19 plus in the future giving the rest of the class fits!
15/16: Can someone please explain to me why Arran Shrosbree got placed last on Sunday in the semi? I still don't get it! You can hear Arran's side of things on the Bicycle Motocross Radio podcast but it wasn't the only questionable refereeing decision of the weekend. Anyway, back to the action with Matty Masterson taking a well earned win on both days but any of the other seven guys on the gate could have taken it. Watching them go down the second straight wheel to wheel was absolutely fantastic and I reckon we'll have a number of different winners and some of the best racing of the year in this class.
Junior Men; Dan Price was looking good for the win on Sunday until Dan Whyte conjured up the swoop of the weekend to take the win with Dan Thorne (confused? I am!) and Steven Sewell in the mix too. Talking of Steven he went down hard on Monday and left the track holding his shoulder, hope he's OK. Monday saw Dan Price on the winners step of the podium with Dan Whyte second and Luke Tamblin third.
19 plus; Where do I start? Trash talking on t'interweb? Takeouts in the turns? Or do we just throw everyone in the air, see where they land and call it a result? The results of the weekend could be construed as positive or negative dependant on which way you view it. Is it a good thing that a 40 year old ex pro on flat pedals can win our hardest expert class? Or is it a sad indicament of how our talent pool are not performing on a domestic level let alone in Europe? If a 15 year old can be placed last for a phantom takeout in one race earlier in the day, How do two riders coming together on no less than three occasions over the course of a weekend get sorted out with a nothing more than warnings? And why were other members of the class able to stick their two penneth in? Some consistency would be nice in these situations wouldn't you agree?
Anyway, enough ranting! Let's look at the positives, Cal Strickland made his debut in the class and took a second and a third with some subliminal speed and skills. Chunky Del Isola pulled a third out on Sunday after some Del Boy moves in the pits on Saturday and what can you say about 'that bike'? Nate Dogg Routledge and Jonathan Roberts also stood out with some top 4 finishes but it was a hard day for Dan Clifford and Michael Brown who didn't get the results they were looking for. There's more to come from these guys later in the season I'm sure.
However, the performance of the weekend came from Tony Fleming who took the win both days in a class that is stacked with talented riders. Flemdog measured his efforts for the day and put it in when it counted and the results was two first place finishes, he even said he was going for a beer on Sunday night! If it makes you that fast I guess we should all be on the Carling nutrition plan or something similar?I'll start training tomorrow for next season!
Masters; Jason Jessop took the win both days but Monday was the exciting day, the first turn saw a wreck that took out Lee Alexander and Mardy Boy Williams. This left Mike Pardon out in front with the win in his grasp as he went down the third straight. Cue slow mo 'Oh no!' moment as Mike's bike became in his words 'a bucking bronco' (I think he said 'bucking' anyway?) and he bobbled left leaving enough gap for Jason to come through and steal the win. Exciting racing for sure!!
Cruisers; 12 and under went to 'Our Bradley' both days, 13-15 saw wins for Lee Crowther and Thomas Elvin. 16-29 wins were split between Alix Deakin and Shai Duke Norris and 30-39 Cruiser finished Hill, Sharp, Butler on both days. 40 plus saw Mike Pardon make up for his Masters disappointment with two wins but Steve Noble was riding like a totally different man. He gets a cruiser and suddenly starts riding like Christophe Leveque (albeit like when Christophe is asleep) and took a top 3 both days.
Girls; 7-9 went to Chloe Taylor both days, Isabelle Ferrada and Bethan Hallet split wins in 10-12 Girls and Charlotte Green dominated 13-15 Girls. 25 plus continues to be a battle between Abi Hill and Nikki Spiers but look out for Claire Morrison and Rebecca Vaughan. Junior Female was the Ria Goodman Show all weekend but I await the return of Joey Gough with interest.
Elite; No Kelvin, Liam P or Bloomy in this one so it was going to be interesting to see how it panned out. Wazza Bancroft feels he can be number one and Laurence Mapp has escaped the lure of the bingo hall for the time being so it was a battle between these two for the top spot. Liam Batey was struggling with his gates but Ashley Davis had no such problems, his gates were mint! Shanaze Reade also made her Elite debut and was going well till she binned it in the third main on Monday, I saw her by the medic station after racing and she looked in some discomfort. Shinny's tough so I'm sure she'll be back at the next race ready to go. At the end of it all Laurence racked up two wins and an early lead in the standings. Will he be able to keep it going? We'll soon see?.
See you at Bournemouth!!
For another slant on the action, we've alos we've received the Braintree Club's Report
Relentless National Series 2007
- Round 1 & 2: 5-7 May Cheddar: Results | Results | Rankings
- Round 3 & 4: 26-28 May Relentless Nationals at Bournemouth (www.bournemouthbmx.co.uk)
- Round 5: 16-17 June Eastern National at Peterborough (www.phantomsbmx.ukonline.co.uk)
- Round 6: 30 June-1 July North Region National at Mid Lancs (www.northregionbmx.co.uk)
- Round 7: 11-12 August Dragon National at Tredegar (www.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk)