l, 20 July 2012
Now in its second year, the AMS grassroots racing series final MiniDH round took place at EVR bike clubs very own Bikepark in Newmilns. Riders warmed up on the new pumptrack before racing there 3 timed runs down the main track. Previous rounds have seen the track marked out across the hill using some sections of the main track and other sections of natural features such as grassy flat turns and off cambers, but this week, riders had to race the main line at the Bikepark. At normal pace this is usually a laid-back track consisting of table top jumps, rollers, drops and berms, but taken at race speed it’s a full-on flat-out drifting smash-fest!
The race had a wide range of riders from 10 years olds such as EVR’s Emma Kiltie and Ross Taylor to Duncan Campbell who refused to disclose his exact age except to say he was “over twenty”. Some fast riders turned up such as James Stenhouse, fresh from racing the SDA's for Walkers cycles and local EVR coached rider, Lewis Kiltie who has been upsetting lots of older riders all year by smoking them good and proper.
So the stage was set, with a full-on Downhill track marked out and everyone well up for racing, it was the under 8-12's categorie that provided its first winner with EVR's Fraser Heggan winning the MiniDH race and overall series on a time off 58 seconds despite a really good ride by Jamie Nix. The main line was clearly Frasers favourite due to the many big Table jumps. He looked smooth and focused the whole way down. Young Ross Taylor had spectators cheering for him, showing awesome bravery to take his tiny Mountain bike down the hill safely! Both Ross and Emma were riding the table top jumps all night, looking relaxed and in control in there attack riding positions. Emma wins the girls 8-12’s overall series with a maximum 1000 points!
EVR coached rider, Mark Kiltie has been leading the 13-16 class after winning the last XC round at Craufurdland Estate, beating his older brother Lewis into the bargain. Rumour has it the Kiltie house was not the place to be after that race! However, the Downhill round is where Lewis was able to shine and took the MiniDH win for the second time with a time of 44.77secs, putting him in second place behind Mark Kiltie who wins the AMS series overall.
Over 17’s class had been pretty much wrapped up at round four by James Neil, James already had a 200 point lead meaning the best James Stenhouse could hope to do was to draw with him. Jamie Cooper took the win with a time of 43.08. James Stenhouse he came in second place on Fridays MiniDH race giving him a much deserved Bronze medal behind Jamie Cooper with Silver and James Neil with Gold.
The AMS race series has had lots of support from local parents and volunteers, EVR bike club and Walkers bike club would like to thank everyone who came along to help and to race, and also to Scottish Cycling for their support. EVR will be running a winter MiniDH series so look out for detail on www.evriders.co.uk or contact Jamie Cooper on 07792921103.
