After visiting Harthill a few weeks back, I was pleased to turn up and find that the dodgy take offs had been tweaked a little since then. The split lines weren't ideal as they were still too small... but they were much better thankfully.

It looked like it was going to be a washout of a weekend, the forcast was bad. As we drove up from Telford saturday morning it absolutley hammered down. Luckily though, that was pretty much the last of the rain for the day, we just had to contend with some gusty cross winds in practice. For that reason, I decided to leave the pro line alone in practice, it wasn't worth the risk.

I was racing in the Masters men class on saturday, I had a good first moto winning from start to finish. In the second race I wasn't so lucky, getting a move put on me in the 2nd last turn which left me winded and trying to catch my breath at the side of the track and a DNF. I had a tough 3rd moto and wasn't feeling too bright after crashing which resulted in another 4th so I had it all to do in the last moto. I had a good start and and went into the 2nd turn in 2nd, only to slip and see Dave Richardson zoom past me... I kept on his tail and the wind felt like it had dropped, so when the guy in 1st went the long way round I thought I may as well follow Dave through the Pro line! I jumped them no problem, it was only the wind that made it a little worrying before... you could roll into them without pedalling and clear them both. It was so much faster, Dave and me ended up 1st and 2nd and that salvaged my day and put me in the next round.



I thought I was going to have a semi-final and a chance to make the A main, but as it turns out there is some funny rule that means you need a few more riders go to semi finals. So instead of semi-finals, the top 4 moto qualifiers went straight to the A main and the bottom 4 to the B main. This was even more evident in the Elite class, where there were 22 riders entered but they cut straight to 8 riders and the semi finals. That seems a pretty harsh cut, meaning you have to get better than 4 2nds in your motos to get through I think?! This hit Scott Beaumont hard this weekend as he had a crash in a moto and went out. I can't help but think it would be better to run with 3 motos and go the closest next round instead (eg. the 22 elite riders drop to 16 for quarters and 10 riders drop to 8 for semi's). I would have thought most riders would rather have a better of a chance of achieving a place in the next round rather than an extra guarunteed moto and getting knocked out every week? For some riders they are so far off ever making such a harsh cut they may decide it's not worth it somewhere down the line? Just my thoughts though.

Anyway. So I went straight to the B final unfortunately, and had 1 more chance at a shot on the podium! I got a really good gate, but was in gate 3 and got taken on the inside going into the first turn. I was ready to hit the pro line again, and the guy leading rode the pro line too... only he did exactly that, he rode through it! With it just being one line I couldn't jump as there was no where to pass. He told me at the end of the race that he did it on purpose to stop me jumping past! They should have dug a hole out the middle of the first jump at least, cause I think this was happening a lot! Heading out of the penultimate turn, I was right on his tail, and he took a sharp left to avoid the little berm take off... I jumped it and passed him on the inside to take 5th place on the podium after all. Justice was done, haha! ;o)

Sunday morning I woke up pretty beaten up from crashing the day before but I was still up for it whatever the weather. The track was pretty wet as I went up for practice and I probably should have had a cruise down the outside lines to warm up and check it out...but instead I went straight for the inside 2nd turn, washed out over the top of it, over the bars, foot still clipped in and my shin trying to bend itself around the bike. I tried to ride again, but I was hurting, battered and bruised. On top of yesterday, that was the last straw, my weekend was over.

I stayed and watched the rest of the racing, Tricker was unlucky to go down in the first turn after a good snap in the Quarters. My travel buddy Jordan Lunn rode a stormer to pick up the silver medal in Juniors. Katy Curd blitzed the women, Nichola Anderson tried to shut her down after out snapping her but Katy squeezed through the inside and just pulled away. The men's was a bit of a surprise, or was it? Bates called it early in the day that a senior rider could take the win over the Elite riders in the wet conditions. When the final was on the gate I asked Oggy who his money was on... he said it's gotta be one of the Scott's... I said that they would crash out and the senior dude would win! So guess what happened! The Scott's went down in the first turn, leaving Luke Limbrick just about fighting off Identiti's Pat CJ for an amazing win. Due to the weather, most riders who got knocked out had gone home. The crowd was pretty depleted for the finals. But I tell ya, the people who were watching went nuts for Luke! A great finish to the day and something he won't forget for a while. Congrats!



........................................................................................................................