Dragon
Series Wentwood Round 10 & 11 (Finals) |
18th
and 19th September 2004 |
Back to form for
Gummy! |
| Wentwood was the venue for the final round of the Dragon Downhill Series, this was not the gnarliest course on the calendar and not the most exciting, however, it was one of the muddiest. |
| Paul May, Phil Mowatt, Pete Ward, and Greg Pickles donned the wet suits and slid there way down the Welsh hills, with Stefan Gleed 'missing in action' (building an extention) it was all down to Gummy to provide the silverware.......no pressure then? The course was a big dissapointment following last years event which was baking hot, it seems vitually every race this year has been deep in mud and I for one will be glad to see the back of the brown stuff. |
Saturday Practice started and it was
clear that the winner would be the one that fell off least, the course
was pretty damn good at the top with fast flowing sections through the
woods before it all went to....well mud really! The road crossing that
was hard to clear in the dry became incredibly hard to do in the slower
wet conditions, the jumping freak that is Phil "The Bird" Mowatt
reported that it was easy to clear.....tell that to the snapped frames
and broken wills at the track side. Greg also professed to clearing the
road gap but hucked up the rear with a big bang whilst showing me how
easy it was.....mmmmm....didn't convince me it was worth dying over, by
the look of the picture below even Gummy found it a challenge....no exactly
much travel left mate! |
 |
Ouch! |
| Gummy chose spikes and continued practicing at his usual warp speed, whilst he's not 100% he's still fast enough to make your eyes bleed. Pete opted for the Hartail category to try and improve his podium chances, this saw him railing the top section and struggling with the bottom section......having said that....so did most. |
Racing began
and the crashes started, the road crossing created it's usual amusement
as riders found their bikes did actually have 12 inches of travel after
all......Most struggled to get to the bottom without drama so it was looking
like the man with the least problems wins. Phil had a few incidents along
the way but still managed a great time of 2:27 placing him 8th his highest
result in a Dragon this year.....get in! The Development riders were here
to get down and dirty with the crew, and get dirty they did....Greg had
a few crashes and struggled to get a good result, however, he does get
the top prize for most stylish photo (see below)......and
Pete rattled his way down for a time of 3:00 and 5th place in Hartail.
Gummy also had some issues along the way but still managed an excellent
3rd place behind Bishop and Goode....top marks! |
 |
www.black2colour.com Greg Pickles - I can jump too you know! |
Sunday Sunday was a dry day which left the track sticky and still a challenge to say the least, Gummy's form improved still further with at 2:11 missing 1st place to Goode by an unbeleivable 200th of a second, it was to be 2nd place by a couple of inches....who says size doesn't matter! |
| Phil was riding hard and took 6 seconds off his Saturday time to achieve a 2:21, however, the mistakes cost him dearly and he slipped to 13th. |
| The Series results were in and Gummy had lost his series title by a few points to Steve Goode in a hard fought battle all year, 2nd place in one of the hardest race series is still a fantastic achievement, another 2 trophies for the cabinet.....he needs to be looking at an extention by now surely.....well done Gummy. |
| The season is nearly drawing to a close and what a year, talk about highs and lows.....masses of podiums and silverwear followed by torrential rain, bad luck and broken bones....who'd race DH eh? With this being our first season as a new team, the achievements have exceeded my expectations, Gummy and Stef have provided some nail biting duals and blistering times, Phil has improved race after race, and I've continued to crash faster and break more and more bones. Next year we have another new signing, he is currently a Pro Elite and a good friend of the team...watch this space. |
| With the rumours that the Pro Elite category will be cut next year from 45 riders to 20, that will mean a huge amount of Elite riders descending on the Expert and Masters category....that should be fun......NOT! |