4X
National Points Series 2006 |
Hamsterley Forest Rnd 2 |
16th
April |
 |
Series
leader Aidan Bishop takes another silver |
| Aidan Bishop is fast becoming the RapidRacers podium hogger after his 4th podium in 4 races (all being gold & silver). Aidan took a valuable silver in the second round of the 2006 National Points Series 4X race held at Hamsterley, he cruised the moto's to get to the final but the win wasn't to be. His consistent podium finishing means he's now the 4X series leader overall going into round 3. For all the lowdown on the race read his race report below: |
I feel like
I’m in the twilight zone or something, from the previous weekend
in wales where we had to race in a bog, to this weekend up far north where
the sun shone all day making the course dry and dusty...but that’s
racing!. |
Arriving
on race morning, like I said, the sun was shining there were no tractors
towing people into the car park (another bonus!) and I was ready to get
back onto the 4X bike to ride in the dry conditions. I went to sign on
for the race and check the track out a little, Oh sh*t!! It looked fast,
the only section you could see was the first straight then it snaked off
Down the hill between the trees. It looked good, the only thing that wasn’t
good was the weather, the sun was out the skies were blue…BUT there
were massive cross winds blowing across the hillside, making everyone
laugh nervously! |
| The track started up on a 20ft high start mound (highly exposed to the wind!) propelling you down the first straight over two step downs then over a higher step up, pick up more speed around the first left double berm with a speed jump in the middle of it. Exit this over another low step down over a table top then step up followed by step down, then around an un-bermed right hander with a small double on exit (more of these should be in 4X tracks I think!). Then followed a series of four or five table tops in succession all followed by left and right berms although most chose to cut a straight line down the track. Land the last table hold a tight off camber line into a quad pack down and round a fast left berm up and over step up table jump down the landing and over another quad pack to finish with a smile on your face (now breath). I would love to go back and ride this track without the wind as I think it would be a lot of fun, but as it was you had to really keep it as low as possible so as not to get blown off track. |
 |
Aidan
mid-flight |
| Racing got underway, 3 moto's had to be raced by everyone, then points were added up and run offs raced to decide the semi finals and finals. Moto's went better for me this time round compared to the first round in Sheffield, the nature of the more DH style track suiting me better, ending the moto's with a 2nd, 1st and 1st this added together put me into the final and gave me first lane choice. Finals time and I choose lane 3, the idea being that as the wind was so bad I would have two riders to my left to shelter me from it a bit. I got caught by a gust on the start making me miss time it a bit allowing the rider to the right to get in front of me. Nearly went down in the first corner as I collided a little with another rider who I think did go down (sorry Ian!) then I tried flat out to catch up to the leaders, coming into the final berm I thought I would go for glory and head for a block pass manoeuvre, I was beaten to it and the leader couldn't’t hold it up on the loose gravel and wiped out only to look up and have me ride into his stomach (sorry Steve!). Mr Darren Howarth just managed to ride over Steve’s bike to stay on track and finish first with me getting going to hold onto second and Steve Williams finishing third. |
| Elites were looking good all morning for Oggy, Scott and Will Longden who wasn’t at the first round. Will got taken down and out in the semis by Steve Taylor, leaving the finals to be taken by Oggy again chased down by Scott then Will Evans in third. All in all a good outing again in the 4X for me, now with two 2nd places I am leading overall in the series, hopefully I can keep these results going to secure the overall for the year. |
| Peace! Aidan. |
| Thank you to all our sponsors who have supported the RapidRacers team for 2006. |