Redhill NPS 4X and National Champs

Picture courtesy of Dave Thomason.

Redhill hosted another round of the national series and the 4X National Championships this weekend. As racing goes this was probably one of the best events I have been part of. The track was brilliant, perfectly manicured and with tons of line options that allowed some tight and exciting racing. The riders I think have really stepped it up a level. In my opinion the 4X scene is really thriving at the moment. turn out for events is really high and in Senior there are now a large number of riders that when on form can be contending for the top spots and who are putting in some highly fought battles out on the track.

Saturday was NPS day, the track was the standard Redhill track finishing with the flat out grassy left hander. Off the start there is a small start straight that funnels into a tight left hander. The straight gives no chance to spread out and so this corner determines what position you enter the next straight. The next section of track is fast, really wide and has 3 main lines. Loads of moves were made here, when ridden well the two outer lines allowed a stack of momentum to be built up and riders were using this to nip up on the race leaders. Morgan, the local boy, took this to extremes coming up behind Keeny shouting "surprise" as he did so, Keeny fell over due to the shock of this experience. the left hander following this had a high and a low line. Moves were made going both ways the top line being less risky but the main rat run while the bottom line when nailed could be really quick. Loose dusty corners lead into a sprint towards the massive table and the final grass corner. Will Evans was making some great passes down here with a move that looked a lot like slip streaming in motor racing. He would charge out of the corner tightly on the guys tail pull to the side on the table and sneak past over the table and round the outside of the grass, a very stylish move that he pulled off a few times on some very quick riders.

Motos were really fun I managed three seconds and a third. My quarter went well and I made the semis. It then all went wrong I literally forgot how to ride and hung up everything in my semi ending up positioned 8th overall in Senior.

The big race was the champs on the Sunday. This race uses the UCI format that is used in worldcup events. Senior and Elite riders are all mashed in together and have one individual timed qualifying run that leads in to straight knock out rounds. The qualification determines who you are lined up against in the knockout. The track was also altered to include a tricky grass chicane and an extra 180 degree hairpin into the finish.

The qualification is a totally different game and was really good fun. Line choices had to be made based on speed as to those that were easy to defend mixing up the tactics a bit. My qualification run was good despite getting lost in the chicane and making a mash up of my gear changes that I had been working hard on in practice. 46.3 seconds left me qualifying in 19th place. I was in the last 4 to go down and we could see a massive rain cloud blowing in, spots of rain could be felt as I was on the gate so the incentive was to get down before the grass corner received a soaking. Mop Head put in an absolutely storming run qualifying 11th, not bad for his first champs.

Between qualis and the heats the other categories raced motos as usual, it was great to be able to actually sit down and watch the action for a change. Mop was leading the crowds with some enthusiastic cheering creating a great atmosphere. Mid motos the showers came in a couple of torrential downpours completely changed the dry dusty track and made the grass insanely slippery as riders were going down all over the place. Some tough deliberations occurred over tyre choice. In the end I went for the Bonty "Jones wet X" which are skinny xc spikes and were getting some good reviews from other riders. Once changed the sun came back out and everything was rapidly drying up, it felt like an F1 race with riders struggling to decide on tyres and tactics.

First knockout round I was up against AJ and Will Evans, this didn't help my chances. I was kind of hoping Will would get a bit excited and fall over in the grass which I saw him do a couple of times earlier in practice. I had a good gate up with them into the first corner but was on the outside and got pushed out and was then behind for the rest of the run. No one fell over so that was my chances of getting through gone.


The weather caused a few major upsets allowing some of the senior riders to break through into the quarters and semis, they were representing the underdogs in this comp and put up a really good fight. Both Gareth and Scruby went through making it to the B finals, Mop Head just missed out on his chance slipping a pedal right at the finish.

As the A final lined up on the gate a massively aggressive shower came through thoroughly lubricating the track. This did not slow down the pace, the guys were absolutely hauling, Beaumont was in the lead, Will was flying up behind everyone and looking like he was ready to fly past on the left hander but wiped out leaving Duncan Ferris and Lee White left to battle it out. Beaumont took the win followed by Ferris and then White.

It was a great weekend and great to see the scene in such great form, hopefully 4X is on the way up and next year will be bigger and better. The quality of the track this weekend was absolutely first class so props have to go to Neil and the FoD boys for putting so much work into this place.

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Forest of Dean - MiniDH

I was a bit sceptical about this event before hand, £20 to push your bike up the hill and a couple of hundred riders on a short track just seemed like a bit of a raw deal to be honest. It turned out to be seriously good fun. The event reminded me a lot of the old Cheddar Challenge races, really chilled out and lots of new younger faces about which is exactly what the sport needs at the moment. The atmosphere was far more social than a Dragon and the short track was littered with spectators the whole way, loads of banter, cheering, jeering, Rob even coercing a cheeky smile from a few of the ladies coming down!

Short track racing is a totally different concept to your standard DH. I reckon its actually really good training. To do well you need to nail the perfect run as messing up a corner will knock you down a good 10 places in the standings. There is no cruising or having a rest its all about being flat out to the finish.

From the Swansea boys Will Soffe was on it taking 3rd in the Pro-Am. Rob Hinds made one hell of an impression in his first DH race on a proper bike coming in 7th in the Seniors. Manon Carpenter was seriously impressive in the ladies Pro-Am category coming in quicker than Fion Griffiths to take the win.

My weekend was less impressive, a comfortable 1st run came in at just over 57s, got my race head back in gear for the 2nd run which was proper hairy up until a crash halfway down leaving me in 50th overall but importantly a 100th of a second faster than FoD local Leeroy, a real character on the hill and not at all impressed that I sneaked in front of him!

It was a really good weekend, I recommend it especially to those new to DH, its a great way of getting a taster for what racings about. Chris Roberts is running a series as well as the 4x and Caersws Cup. Check out future events here MiniDH

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Redhill Extreme 4X National Champs

Sorry bit of a late report! but here goes....

Having only ridden the new bike twice the idea of my first race being the National Champs was a bit daunting. Turning up at Redhill in the Forest of Dean was definately reassuring the atmosphere was very relaxed considering it was the champs. The track looks over the severn estuary a hay bailer was collecting Hay, a load of old V-Dubs were driving about and plenty of bottles of cider could be seen. The scene was a rural timewarp intruded on by the 4X race scene.

The track itself was fun and reminded me a lot of the Hornton Hill setup. The guys running the centre really are sound and have big plans for the place. Everything originally was built to cater for mountainboards but now they are planning to move in the bike direction and along with the track have started work on some trails and rumours of even a slopestyle setup. The mountainboard jumps are big and slack and well worth a visit if your new to jumping and want to try some bigger jumps without having to worry about trails and steep landings.

Racing saw all the action happen at the start. the first double was tight as everyone pushed for a good line into the first corner making it very easy to get squeezed out. This consisted of a loose drifty set of steps into a rhythem section or a sketchy big triple that only Will Evans and Yeomans were jumping come the race. A lot of good riders come down hard attempting it though! By this point everyone was fairly strung out and not much overtaking went on. The second straight lead onto a big berm with a sneaky inside line that was easy to over shoot. More doubles and into a tight right hander with a hip on the inside, down over a pair of tables the second definately being on the large side which charged you into a flat grass corner to the finnish. Overall the track is really good fun and its good to see some proper Pro lines but it definately needs some work to try tighten up the racing and allow more overtaking.

The Champs race was one of the scariest things ive done, the Elites and Experts all race in the Senior category so I was directly racing against the fastest riders in the country. The format is based on the world cup format where you get a timed seeding run and then straight knock out. The timed run was incredibly nerve wracking. Im used to timed runs but this felf a lot more pressurised not being up in the woods on your own. Wasnt my best run to say the least! I got knocked out in the first round and came 3rd in the moto. It was a good race up against fellow Swansea rider Will Evans which was cool though he left me chasing his tracks! I ended up coming in 3rd in the moto which I was stoked with. This put me 22nd overall.

Racing on Sunday was back to the usual format of 4 motos plus semis and finals, so plenty of racing went down. Motos was a bit of a mixed performance on my front. First moto was awesome got a good start charging in second and managed to cut in on the inside on the second corner to take the win. 2nd moto I lined up on the start gate and looked down to see my cranking hanging off, with no 8mm allen keys about I had to ride one legged (more challenging than it looks!) and came in in 4th, 3rd moto came 3rd. Last moto I won only to find they had called the wrong person and so it had to be re-run only to finnish in 3rd, I guess thats racing for you. Again quarters didnt go my way I got squeezed on the first jump which left me at the back of the pack and took 3rd in the moto getting knocked out in the process.

All in all it was a quality weekends racing. Id highly recomend checking out Redhill, Niel and the guys have done an excellent job creating an official centre which has both planning permission and insurance. The potential for the place is huge it just needs us to all turn out to get money to develop.

Check them out at www.redhillextreme.co.uk

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