Organisers of the regular Tuesday 20-event series of road racing at Hillingdon cycle circuit report a six percent increase in senior race participation in 2012 over the previous year. This was despite the weather bureau verdict that 2012 summer weather was the worst ever. Many meetings had heavy rain and two of them had the lowest entry in the 17 years of operation as storms nearly forced cancellation.

On behalf of BC West Thames Promotions, Stuart Benstead said: “This healthy increase would obviously have been much more with even just normal weather and shows the continuing growth in the sport. It should be remembered that this is a very established series of events and has always attracted riders from a very widespread area of 50 miles or more, so this is an excellent increase from such a healthy base.”

Bob Spencer, co-organiser and treasurer, adds: “An increase in circuit hire cost forced an increase in entry fee to £12, which is comparable to other series. Coupled with greatly higher petrol costs affecting our riders from further afield and the general financial recession, it is remarkable that the racing a Hillingdon goes up and up.”

There are three prize lists each evening geared to categories, with a popular new addition this year being the Soul Wheels superprime series. In both the races there has been the Soul Wheels super prime that brings a cash prize. In addition, at the end of the season there was a draw of the winners’ names for the very desirable prize of a pair of Soul race wheels valued at over £500.

In this the winner from the E/1/2/3 races was Andy Betts, of the Felt/Colbornes Team. From the 4th cat. race superprime winners the lucky rider whose name came out of the draw was 17 year old Callum Oliver, Rapha/Condor club.

Figures for youth racing in the series are not directly comparable with previous records as fewer events were held to avoid very early starts, but indicate a four perecnt increase. This is again from a very stable base consistently developed over many years.