Manchester BMX Club has gone from strength to strength in the short time it has existed.

With the Best National award under our belts from last year, and the chance to put on another great weekend of National racing this July, the club has proved we can host good events. This was the case with the latest round of the North Region Winter Series, which still attracted a good crowd after being rescheduled from the previous week.

The club’s growing strength goes deeper than event management, as riders are rising through the ranks and earning good results in races. With riders in a range if age classes, the Summer Series should see the club sending a lot of riders to the Brits at the end of the year.

On to the racing; We’ll start with the ladies, and 8-9 Girls, which was won by Ellie Jo Chappell, ahead of Eleana Stafford, Imogen Hill and Ellie Featherstone. With 5 Rounds done (the Goldcoast round was cancelled) Eleana leads the class, Ellie Featherstone is in 2nd and Ellie Jo Chappell is 3rd.

10-12 Girls saw Kim Bapista take her third win of the winter, series leader Leah Clinch took 2nd with Ghostrider club-mates Melissa Guest, Lauren Dean and Josie McFall in 3rd, 4th and 5th. Yvonne Plumb took 16+ Ladies and has a commanding lead overall.

In 6 & Under Boys, Ethan Duffy scored a win in the first race he’s done of the series, challking it up for the home club in the bargain. Derby’s Ben Perry took 2nd, Harry Ives from Goldcoast took 3rd, with Noel Reade and Tyler Stevenson sharing 4th.

What can you say about Keon Smith-McDermot’s performance this winter in 7 Boys? How about one word; Perfect. He has won every round so far but has Matthew Baptista hot on his heels. Matthew got 3rd this time, with Manchester rider Oliver Cope bagging an excellent 2nd in his first race of the series. 4th was Matthew Gilston, with Tyler Barnes 5th and Harrison Drelincourt 6th.

Anthing Keon can do, Kieran Bolton can do to in 8 Boys. Another round, another win to keep him perfect for the winter too. Alex Brookes took 2nd, Joel Clarke 3rd, Harvey Howard 4th, 5th was Matthew Hadfield, 6th was Nathan Stanley, Finley Moss took 7th and Ryan Tracey took 8th. The top 6 riders overall in this class all hail from Preston…now that’s saying something about the Pirate’s success!

If you’ve been following the 9 Boys class at major races, you’ll be familiar with the duel between friends and club-mates Finn Hall and Ross Cullen. I’ve reported on their battles for Fastlane and am running out of ways of describing just how close these two are! On the Manchester track, it was the usual hard fought racing, with Ross beating Finn to the line in the last race, but Finn having finished ahead enough earleir to take the 1st place points for the day. Ross has competed in more rounds this winter so has the overall lead, albeit a slim one over yet another club-mate at Preston, Stephen Hadfield 2nd overall but 7th on the day. 3rd was Nathan Wood, Joe Parr was 4th, Ollie Rowe 5th, and Ryan Brookes 6th.

Shay Casey took the top spot ahead of Lewis Locker in 10 Boys, in 11 Boys it was Ben Featherstone’s day as he took his 4th win from 4 races this winter. Manchester’s Callum McDonald took 2nd in his first race of the winter, with William Greaves 3rd, Jake Freeman 4th, Louis Donlan 5th and Joe Saunders doing it for Manc in 6th.

12 Boys saw home rider Spencer McLeod take his best result of the series with a win. Club-mate Riccardo Addymellor also took his best result of the winter with 2nd. Jamie Norris-Still took 3rd, series leader Jack Crithlow took 4th with Manchester rider Brandan Nolan 5th.

Paddy Sharrock took the win in 13 Boys, not leading out of the gate but using his superior skill to get ahead and stay there to the finish. Jack Clarke took 2nd with Valerie Zebrokova holding her own against the boys with 3rd. George Hawker took 4th, Ashley Walker 5th with Skye Beagley 6th.

Arron Skow won 14 Boys ahead of Jordan Taylor Griffiths, good enough to give him a 1 point lead over Jordan overall. This class finished very neatly; 3rd place overall Morgan Woolley took 3rd on the day, 4th overall Matthew Saunders got 4th on the day and yes, you guessed it, 5th overall Daniel Billington took 5th on the day.

Shane Dean was all alone in 15 Boys with the win and a very comfortable lead overall.

16+ was it’s usual barnstorming battle, Manchester was well represented in this class with the underaged but more than talented Jacob Roberts winning in style. Club-mate Joe Davenport showed his continued improvement by taking an excellent 2nd. Mike Hawker battled with Joe for 2nd all day but lost out in the A Final with 3rd. Bradley Minns took 4th with Josh Nicholas 5th. Michael Cummins took 6th ahead of Sabian Brown who recovered to take 7th after a nasty clash with club-mate Matty Glynn who took 8th. That made 5 Manchester riders in the A Final. Ross Gill took even more glory for the host club with a great win in the B Final, with Spencer Beagley 2nd, Mark Barlow 3rd, Thomas Jeffries 4th, Mario Boreman an excellent 5th, Ryan Cagney 6th, Liam Snazel 7th and Louise Abbot 8th.

The big rigs provided some very fast action, with British Champ and National Series Champ Mark Maddox in town to race 16-29 Cruiser. Mark has serious skills and took the win, with home rider John Hewitt taking second on his MTB as he looks to get in form for a season of 4X. Ricky Crompton took 3rd, Bradley Minns wasn’t content with riding one bike and took 4th, OJ Francis was 5th, Andy Johnson took 6th and Matt Carr took 7th.

With the series lead in 30-39 Cruiser heading into the race, Andy Drelincourt felt the pressure to keep it. Keep it he did with a great ride, followed by Darren O’Brien, Mark Egan in 3rd, Ben Rafferty 4th, Nigel Smith 5th and Jamie Duffy 6th. Jamie had a nasty crash and needed treatment but I’m happy to report left the track under his own steam.

40+ Cruiser was Andy Hill’s race, but he was pushed hard by our own Gav Foster who took 2nd. Dave Morton was 3rd, Tim Williams 4th on his 20″, Brent Featherstone 5th, Fred Barlow 6th and Mark Wraith 7th.

Series leader Simon Turner took the win in Old Skool, in another neat order of finish the top 4 overall took the top 4 placings on the day in that order, so Simon 1st, Christian Hunter 2nd, Dave Hall 3rd and Andy Wilson 4th. Lea Pendleton took 5th, John Lister 6th and Simon Parker 7th.

The main event as always is Payback, home rider Cal Strickland had dead legs after a week of constant riding in France but as is the norm with him, gave it everything. Cal took 4th after a cracking final saw Kyle Evans doing it for sponsors Hardknox and taking the win. Grant Hill took 2nd after a grat move took him past Cal on the final berm. Cal crashed into the fencing allowing Tony Fleming to get by for 3rd but recovered to take 4th. Rob Hawker was 5th, with Levi Ashley 6th, Andy Clucas riding with an injured thumb to 7th and Dave Ives 8th.

Thanks to the volunteer race marshals, the North Region (especially our registration ladies and finish line bunny Tina Strickland) and of course to the spectators for cheering on the racers.

Sorry guys, the track is closed from Thursday the 4th of March through to and including Sunday the 7th of March. Track opening hours will resume as per normal from Monday the 8th.