Wednesday 29 September 2010

Northern Downhill Series Finals - Kidland



This was the final eound of the Northern Downhill Series and it was back up to Rothbury and back to the track at Kidland. This is a typically English tight, technical and twisty track.

Can you imagine my surprise when it was actually DRY on the Saturday, I kid you not, wow! I can do further and say that the course was mega dusty in places too but that would be bragging! T
ook it steady on Saturday, just building my speed up and putting full runs together. Couldn't fault the uplifts, absolutely spot on, and although not as big a turn out as a National, this weekend was organised really well. Full compliments are going to Carl Davison for putting such a good race series together. It's really great to see a full downhill series back in the North to continue where both the NEMBA and NAMBS series of old left off, so well done Carl, hats off.

The track was mega tight in some areas, one in particular section was the "V Tree". Coming round some loose rocky corners and there was a V shaped tree you that you jumped through the middle of. Cue: plentiful clipping of people's bars and on one occasion I managed to rip my bar-end out! Hitting that flat out was pretty scary and the adrenalin was certainly pumping. After this you went around a right-hander into a big open left hander with a number of lines to choose from. I was railing the main berms rollercoaster stylee and clearing the tree roots that followed, drifitng nicely after landing around another tree before hip jumping to the right and through the finish line.

(Photo courtesy of www.photo-moto.co.uk)

Rain over Saturday/Sunday night meant all of the exposed roots, of which there were plenty, were now as greasy as hell making things more difficult.
My race run was pretty relaxed and I was really happy with practice. At the start of my run I tried to avoid a big rut that had developed on the course and you know what they say, the more you stare at it the more likely you're gonna hit it - and guess what? I did, which sent me off the side of the track! Got straight back on and thankfully managed to make my time up with no further issues. Kept it smooth and flat out, hit all my lines perfectly, pretty much nailed everything else and came across the line leading the Experts category, awesome!

Obviously I knew that the other guys were gonna be pushing harder on the second runs. however I thought I could make up a few more seconds on the track. Had a great start and everything was going good until about half way down. Going round one of the fast loose corners my front wheel washed out on a root and sent me toward a tree I went over the bars. Absolutely gutted and knew I couldn't make this time up, it was sooooooooooooooooo close damnit.

Once at the bottom I was desperate to see the race's overall results, unfortunately the computer timing screen had crashed so no-one knew the overall results, argh! After a seeming eternity everything was back up and running, Liam Little beat me at the line on the second run which put me in second place. However, I got my own back as I took the Northern Downhill Series overall Expert Category Series Winner title, my first overall title win in the Experts, rock on. The beers were on me!

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