Bronze Medal for Woody at National Champs – Bala

 

National Downhill Championships 2008 (nr Bala)

Well the weekend finally arrived for the National Champs 2008 and we were all in good spirit and ready for a weekend of racing in the lovely picturesque area of Llangynog nr Bala in Wales.

Everybody arrived at the track on Friday night (except Chris) and the first impression of the pit area and track was first class with everything looking very professional and organized, as we have come to expect from Dave and Lindsey Pearce perfectly. By the time we had got everything setup it was getting dark so we decided it would be a waste of time to walk the track, so we had a couple of beers under the stars and talked about the track and tyre choice, amongst other things of varying degrees of sanity!

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Saturday morning came round after a poor nights sleep due to the heavy rain lashing down on the caravan roof all night. The track was very wet with spike tyres being the weapon of choice for most competitors apart from the hardcore few choosing to stick on high rollers (you know who you are Chris and Jed).

The first run down was a nightmare for most people complaining of lack of grip in the wooded mid sections and also on final field section where people were sliding around all morning. Luckily the weather did turn and the track soon started to dry resulting in some better moods around the pit area and some consistent runs being banged together by the whole team.

The seeding runs started at 3pm with the senior category of Myself (Chally) and Woody going down first followed by Chris and Mark in the Masters and finally Jethro in the Elite class.

Both Woody and I had good seeding runs clocking a 3:21.088 and 3:23.238 respectively which left the Woodvine in 1^st place and Chally in 2^nd spot. Then it was the turn of Mark (Weightman) who did a 3:24.902 to leave him 6^th and Chris (Whitfield) came down in a fast 3:20.949 to place him 3^rd. Finally Jethro (Whitfield) took off to clock a 3:24.844 leaving him 51^st in the super fast Elite category. That afternoon we all walked the track to check for lines and watch the remainder of the Elite category thunder down the hill.

A big thank you goes out to Tom the mechanic from Leisure Lakes Wolverhampton who spannered everyones bikes the whole weekend ensuring they were all running in tip top condition and ready for each run. All in all everyone seemed happy with the results of Saturday and were all looking forward to race day on Sunday!

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A little rain had fallen throughout Saturday night but the track was now dry and ready to be hit with full dry tyres and a new level of grip.

Most of the team did 2 or 3 morning practice runs involving various crashes as new lines were tried out and more pace being squeezed from the new conditions.

Racing started at 2pm, once again with Woody and Myself going up for the Senior races and leaving the start gate last in the group. I was off first and had a good run apart from coming unclipped in the mid section loosing some valuable time to finish with a 3:09.902 taking 14secs off my seeding time and leaving me 2^nd, then the last person down in our group was Woody who looked good for the win at the split with everyone was watching in anticipation as he came down the hill, a not so fast field section lost him a little in the final sector to clock 3:10.951 to place him 3^rd so we were both very happy with our results and could now relax and watch the rest of the boys take the reigns.

Master category was next off with Mark down first for the team, we were all waiting for “earthquake” Weightman to come into sight in the field and he didn’t show! due to a crash in the middle wood section which saw him leaving the bike and having to re-gather himself, he still came down with a 3:27.542 to place him 20^th but he was not happy with the result. Next down was Chris who was showing good form all weekend and capable of winning the group, at the split he was clocked at 2:01.170 putting him top 3, he flew into the field section cleared the double kept on pedaling hard to bring in a 3:16.681 to place him 5^th, a strong result but Chris knew he was capable of more.

Then it was on to the Elite category and all the big boys were looking strong, Jethro was mid way through the pack from his seeding run. He hit the split with a 2:04.659 which was quick but not his full force of practice pace, he came into the field looking strong to finish with a 3:19.823 placing him 51^st although Jethro wasn’t a happy man and knew he had more pace in the pot.

The man of the day was Steve Peat as he came down the hill with a 2:50.677 to take the win after Gee Atherton crashed in his race run! Steve Peat is still the boy!

Overall we had an amazing weekend with the weather playing a big part in the proceedings but still managing to keep it together! Thanks to Tom the mechanic for all his help!! What a weekend!………..

Chally Out!

Woody & Weightman make podium At Fort William NPS

 

 

NPS Round 3 (Fort William)

Where shall I begin…..how about the 9 ½ hour journey from Shrewsbury to Fort William, on which we got lost in Glasgow city centre for an hour thanks to Sandy’s navigational skills…… oh well.

Upon arrival at the track on Friday afternoon the gods appeared to be on our side and the sun was shining, we decided to head straight to the top of the track as Woody (Andrew Woodvine) and I (Richard Challinor) had not been to Fort Bill before and we were looking forward to learning the track along with Sandy (Plenty), Jethro & Chris (Whitfield) and Mark “earthquake” Weightman.

Sandy, Jethro, Woody and I got on the gondola to the top and enjoyed the spectacular views of 360 degrees countryside and a mother of a DH track running straight through the middle of it that looked like it was going to take a lot of taming. We started walking down the track with excitement, discussing lines and having the crack with each other, the track looked smooth at the top section with flat out open turns which then lead into large rock gardens with steep twists and turns then into the wooded sections which were rooted to the max with nice wet mud before leading onto the final section of flat out pedaling over table jumps, doubles and the final hip jump. We were all coming out with some exotic looking lines but by the time we got to the bottom were all abit overwhelmed by the sheer length of the course and were struggling to remember it all. We decided to forget about it til the morning practice and went for a couple of beers in the lovely seaside town of Fort William before returning to our digs for a deserved sleep.

Saturday morning was again dry and sunny, with practice starting at 9am we got all the bikes out of the vans and did some final spannering on them before heading out. We decided to go steady trying to site the track for the first run, this went well but we soon realized that we would be absolutely knackered if we did not conserve energy as much as possible, so we did half runs and smaller sections to try and survive the punishment of this massive track.

Then it was time for the seeding runs where I think everyone in the Leisure Lakes team had an Ok time of it, with Mark Weightman doing a 5min 38sec to be the quickest on the team. I managed a 5min 40sec, the 2^nd quickest team rider was Woody also doing a 5min 40, closely followed by Chris Whitfield on a 5min 42sec and Jethro Whitfield having a nightmare run which he wasn’t happy about, but everyone had made mistakes which needed to be ironed out for the race on Sunday

 

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Race Day arrived and everyone was up for it and ready to hit the track ………. We decided to do two practice runs on Sunday morning, but this soon turned in to three runs as bike problems and line choices played their part in the proceedings. After practice the bikes were all washed down by their pilots and prepped ready for the longest run of their season!!

The Master category were to be first down the hill with Mark taking the healm and pulling off a 5.32.870 run to place him 2^nd followed by Chris on a 5.37.678 to take 6^th …..and Sandy who had a red flag on his run, had to push back to the top after 30secs of racing and do a re-run of 6.10.051, so top draw performance by the old (er) boys for pulling off some convincing results.

Next off was the Senior class with Woody followed by myself, Woody did a 5.30.944, then I set off to see what was occurring, I managed to crash on the open section, like a girl….. getting back on to do a 5.36.524 and find woody on the hot seat smiling like a Cheshire cat. Our results stood for quite some time before we were finally knocked back to 4^th and 8^th but we were both happy enough and a first National Podium for Woody…….so job well done!

The final category for the team was the Expert’s with Jethro not having a good day in the office (for his usual high standard) to do a 5.53.986 after crashing which he wasn’t happy with, but as the wise man once said “that’s racing!”.

Overall we all had an amazing time at Fort Bill and enjoyed the experience of a World renowned track with good people and good times.

Chally Out!