6th September saw another large turnout of riders at the final round of the South West Summer Series with 250 entries on call and the action on track was fast and furious. The weather held despite it being overcast and the track had been superbly prepared by the people of Bath BMX Club.
Novice 6 and Under saw Bristol's Jamie Phillips take the first Final of the day from Decoy's Bailey Squibb whilst in the Novice 7-9 group, which had run to semi-finals, Bath's Jack Tranter used home track advantage to take a fine A Final win from Duchy's Christian Harris after a crash took out two of the front runners. Burnham's Curtis Pickard took the Novice 10-12 A Final from Fergus Smith-Jones. The regional debut of Cornwall's Nathan Bache in Novice 13-15 saw him net a clean sweep of wins heading home the A Final from Duchy's Nicky Stevens. Novice 16+ ran as a Grand Prix with Bideford's Alan Johns taking overall victory from Jacob Coward. Five riders competed in the MTB class with Bath's James Wilson heading home Duchy's Sean Herman. Duchy's Richard Holroyd crashed out in the motos and suffered a break to his leg which put paid to him competing in the final round of the 4X Nats. at Chicksands.
The Cruiser classes were up next with Tiverton's Ben Blake and Exeter's Sam Leggett fighting it out all day for victory in Cruiser 16-24 with Blake taking overall honours. Cruiser 25-39 was a frantic affair in the A Final with Tiverton's TJ Baldwin storming home ahead of club mate Jason Nicholls and Burnham's Clive Hawkins behind. The largest Cruiser class was the 40+ers with fifteen riders battling it out all day but it was victory by Welshman Linsay Jones which upset the form book as he led home Exeter's Brian Shell and Duchy's Dave Herman in the A Final. Exeter's Rachel Brooks secured the overall win in Ladies 20+ from Burnham's Kimberley Scoones.
The ‘pocket rockets' in Expert 6 and Under saw Exeter's Freddie Cole head home the A Final from Cornwall's Ashley England. Exeter's Ryan O'Loughlin continued his fine form after winning all his motos to take a Final win from Bristol's Samuel Dyer in Expert 7's. Finlay Mead from Burnham was unbeatable in Expert 8 just getting home ahead of Tivvy's TJ Baldwin on the last straight. Cornwall's Alex Diment won the Grand Prix group of Expert 9's ahead of Exeter's Zak Ramsden whilst in the 10s it was Burnham's CJ Tye who stole the show from Decoy's Katie Yeates. Burnham's Eddie Moore fought hard to hold of the challenges of Cornwall's Josh Caddy and Decoy's Benji Armitage throughout the day but netted a full set of wins whilst Caddy slipped a pedal entering the second berm in the final to allow Armitage through to finish in that order. Roy Jones of Burnham held off the challenges of Duchy's Antonia Rickett for Expert 12 victory ahead of Tyler Caddy.
Bristol's Ben Waters never looked back after winning the motos in Expert 13 ahead of Exeter's Brandon Rutley and Decoy's Elliott Caruana. All eyes were on the gate for the Expert 14 A Final as series leader Dan Davis from Cornwall and close runner-up Matthew Roddis from Duchy Pirates lined up. Roddis faltered at the start and unclipped later handing the Final and consequently the Series victory to Davis. Decoy's Oliver Fay finished 2nd to Davis from Burnham's Josh Moore. Current SW1 holder Daniel Hill from Exeter took a full set of wins in Expert 15 leading home Bideford's Daniel Jury and Decoy's Jake Cornforth. Another GP group in Expert 16 saw Tredegar's Ashley Ransom win all the races ahead of Bath's Finnley Woodhouse albeit Bristol's Aaron Jones took 2nd in the final moto. The BMX females were out next with Cornwall fielding four of the five riders in 7-9's and Megan Wherry netting a sweep of wins from Louise Penfold whilst in the 10-12's Burnham's Alesi Tye was unbeaten to win the A Final ahead of Tiverton's Shannon Blake. The combined group of 13-15's and 16+ saw Alan's BMX sponsored Charlotte Green win all the races from Burnham's Amelia Silvestre with Cornwall's Becky Davis winning the younger group.
The masters of the South West in 25+ saw Bideford's Michael Smart reel in the early lead of Richard Green of Bath BMX Club to overtake him on the third straight to win and Exeter's Ben Galloway was in third place. And so to the last race of the day with the young guns of 17+ on the gate for their A Final after some excellent tussles in the motos. Martyn Green hit the gate but rallied to carry on chasing the pack only to find carnage in the first berm as Dan McBride, Matthew Mitchell, Tom Palmer and Daniel Thorne all went down. Burnham's Curtis Manaton was ahead of the trouble to lead home from Bath's Jason Egan and Tiverton's Ben Blake with Martyn Green scooping a lucky fourth place to round up a great days' racing in the South West on a superb track, another of Steve Jenk's efforts.
