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4X
National Points Series 2007 |
Sheffield
Rnd 1 |
4th
March |
NPS 4X Round 1 Sheffield indoor by: Aidan Bishop Pictures courtesy of: Joolze Dymond
First blood to Garland Well again a year has past by quickly, already it’s the early season opener of the national 4X series held again at the welcome indoor dirt facility in Sheffield. A few alterations from last year’s track, the first straight had slightly larger rolling doubles half way down and the set into the first berm had been made larger. Second straight was step up to double to table top down followed closely by a small double into berm two. Third straight was the biggest change, pedal hard to clear the first pretty large double followed by a slightly smaller set then a third into the final berm. Fourth straight had double double table top to finish. Overall a good track but extremely tiring to sprint….Extremely! Another noticeable difference was the event as a whole, a pat on the back goes to Chris Roberts who has been working hard through winter to make this years series bigger and better than the last. He has succeeded, with red bull supplying a big finish arch and a decent sound system supplying music to keep the atmosphere alive, as well as getting onboard more sponsors offering up an array of prizes across the categories. A welcome change was the whole running of the event, it went very smoothly I thought, with 4 motos for everyone instead of the 3 last year it managed to run quickly keeping everyone entertained (although my legs are feeling them now!). A quick shout out goes to Si Paton who is a very busy man, not content with taking on the running of the NPS DH series this season, he was again running his Descent-Gear shop track side as well as being on the mikecommentating and finding time to stop talking long enough to race as well, good job.
Aidan Bishop A healthy turn out was seen in all categories this year, in masters there were 15 entries compared with last years 8 so it was shaping up to be a good days racing. The championship winner from last year Darren Howarth from Kona was there again to defend his title, so he was definitely a target of mine to aim for. I also had my eye on Dave Garland (Stendec owner and team sponsor) in practice, who was gating like a pro in practice and looked very powerful.
Motos came and went quickly,
my first moto I got to see how fast Mr Garland was, not being able to
match his start straight speed and ended 3rd. Second moto managed to
get a needed win. Third moto finished in third again and started have
some concerns about getting enough points to qualify for the semi’s
as with 7 people to be dropped I couldn’t afford any mistakes.
Fortunately my 4th moto went well and I took another win, ensuring my
place in the semi finals. I was in Semi final number 1 and had third
gate choice due to me not scoring high in the motos. Mr Garland had
gate 1 and lead into the first corner again, although jumping the big
doubles into the first berm he got kicked a bit funny in mid air and
that allowed me to get inside of him and stay there to the finish, ending
with myself and Dave making it through to the final. Semi final number
2 contained, amongst others Darren Howarth, who unfortunately ended
third and didn’t make it into the final. Elites was shaping up to be very exciting, the motos I followed closely. Dale Holmes was riding and was looking unstoppable, Scott Beaumont was looking sharp and got the better of Oggy both times they met, also some new elites were looking dangerous standing out were Lewis Lacey and Ryan Poolman. With a field of 20 it was a healthy turn out again, so healthy they had quarter finals. This is where there was a bit of a shock departure of Mr Ogden who led in to the first berm but went down much to his anger. The elite final lined up with Scott, Dale, Lewis Lacey and local Steve Taylor. Scott and Dale went into the first berm close, Scott tried the inside but couldn’t make it stick, then tried again and again finally colliding with Taylor in the last berm but coming off better to take third, Lacey got the benefit of these attempts to get second with Holmes managing to just stay up out of trouble to take a well deserved win, a really great final to watch.
It's all about the lighting.... April fool’s day hosts round two down at Chicksands in Bedford. I for one am looking forward to getting outdoors and mixing it up, although I need to work on my sprints beforehand. There is a rumour that Gummy might fancy his chances at a bit of 4X action so watch this space, just have to get Craig into it next!! Master (15 Riders) |
| Thank you to all our sponsors who have again supported me and the RapidRacers team for 2007. |
