Harthill NPS and National Champs

The big news from last weekend was that Luke 'Limbo' Limbrick took home the Elite National Champs Jersey. This was a trully massive event, usually riding for in the Senior category he managed to step it big time and raced like a hero to beat the pro's at their game. In the final he had to fight hard with Pat Campbell Jenner as the lead swapped a number of times but Limbo wasnt having any of it at and held the lead at the finish taking the win. The crowd were on their feet screaming as the underdog thrashed it to the finish. Serious celebrations followed and a highly ecstatic looking Limbo was on the podium sending the Champagne corks flying.



Once again we had another very wet and windy weekend of 4X. This time up near Chester at Harthill. The track was an interesting one. It has the potential to be a really nice track but in my view it just falls short on the final touches. It is too narrow and encourages a single file procession and some of the lips and landings really aren't great at race pace. The short start straight lead into a 90 degree right hander which saw a serious number of collisions. One line leaving this corner and no room previously to separate the riders created a lot of four rider pileups and some heavy crashes. The track is very sandy and so the corners are super loose both in the dry and the wet which was a lot of fun to ride and livened up the racing with plenty of crashes. There was also a gusty cross wind to contend with down the pro line. A lot of riders were having their wheels blown out from under them over the second pro jump. It was clearly the quicker route but a heavy gamble due to the changeable weather conditions. The track and conditions came together for some real crash heavy racing. By far the most crashes of the season took place on this track which created some lively racing but not really for the right reasons.


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The national round went ok, in the motos I had a win two 2nds and 4th after Mop rudely took me down on the first corner. I was through to the quarters but this was it as I ate sand once again on the first corner taking me out of the comp. The national champs was a little more successful. I had a good qualifying run and made it through the first knockout round and then took 3rd place in my second knockout round leaving me in 20th place overall.


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The champs race was massively competitive and action packed. The Semis saw Will Evans take out both Nate Parsons and Jake Ward in the first turn. The finals followed and Scot Roberts and Scott Beaumont came together in the first turn leaving Luke Limbrick and Pat Campbell to fight it out for the top places. Somewhere through the proceedings Isaac was taken down on the first straight catapulted through the air using his head to smash through a marker post and bring him to a stop. Jono Jones held it all the way to the last rollers before choosing to throw himself over the bars and across the line. Dowie and a few of the other big guns were sent to the floor on the pro line along with many others during racing. There really was too much of this camera pleasing action to comment on, unfortunately most of the camera men were hiding this round. Duncan Philpott was out representing the togs and has put together a few awesome videos of both the racing and the shockingly sunny pumptrack challenge which went down on the Saturday night.

Another good weekends racing, with any luck the next round down in the south west will be a warm sunny event where we can stick on some fast tyres and see some rapid, dry racing, my fingers are crossed!

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Harthill NPS 4X RD2 and Euro

Photo by Dave Thomason


Ace weekend of racing at the new 4X track up near Chester. The track itself was a mix of tight and awkward features that were a little rough and ready compared to the usual track standards. This however made for some really interesting racing and tonnes of overtaking due to the awkward flow. The terrain was loose sand on top of a hard packed under layer making grip a struggle to find and there was the odd random sandpit ready to catch people off guard. The weather played its own part in livening up the racing, we had it all. Rain to further lubricate the track and when that started making sense the sun was out to dry out patches allowing a formula one style dry racing line to form. The wind built throughout the weekend and by sunday it was seriously hauling literally blowing off the competition at the gate.

Saturday was an epically fun day of racing. Every moto turned into a real battle with moves being made left right and centre. I managed one win and 3 seconds, unfortunately this run of luck was lost in quarters leaving me out of the competition. With the Euro the following day and the imminent Fort Bill World Cup there were some big names entered and a full Elite class which was great to watch. There is a definite step up in intensity in the Elite class and the speed that the top riders were taking on the track and each other made for some top notch spectating. Check out this great video coverage by Corine Walders to really see what was going down.

British 4X National Rnd 2. Harthill May 2010 from Corinne Walder on Vimeo.

The big day was the Euro round on the sunday. We were all in one class mixing it up with the Elites. A timed qualifying run set the order for the motos which were a straight knockout. Qualifying went ok, a few mistakes up top left me in 40th place and put me on a gate alongside Will Evans, a large gust of wind right before the gate dropped put the other 3 off their balance and leaving me with a brief foray out front but the deep sand on the inside line on the second corner got me and from there it was chase to the finish and giving a final ranking of 43rd. The atmosphere trackside was really good and everyone was getting right behind the racing. The finals were hottly contested and the places the top guys were able to pedal and get those few extra cranks in is really impressive. Prokop ended up taking the win but I think Dan Atherton was my favourite to watch making a number of seriously impressive passes at the bottom of the track.

All in all a great weekend, the UK 4X scene feels really strong at the moment with great turn out and a number of fresh tracks popping up, bring on the next round!!

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