Summer officially started last weekend with Round 1 of the North Region Summer Series at the excellent Shanaze Reade BMX Track at Tipkinder Park, Crewe.
There was a big turnout across all the age categories, which had been shaken up along the National Series lines. This meant that there were several new classes as old ones were realigned or divided. The always fiercely competitive 30-39 Cruiser is now 30-34 and 35-39, Masters has made a comeback (last year it was basically yours truly) and the 16+ class has gone, replaced by 16, 17-24 and 25-29.
There was some drama before the racing, as the decision was made on health & safety grounds to allow only the Payback (Elite) class to ride the pro-section on the second straight. This provoked controversy, as it has been an open option for all race classes in the past and prompted a couple of Masters riders to decide not to race.
What matters, as always, is the action on the track and at Crewe, there was plenty of it!
First up for Manchester were Oliver Cope and Harrison “Son of Andy” Drelincourt in 7 Boys. Oliver bagged an impressive 4th, whilst Harrison continues his improvement with 6th.
11 Boys saw three Manchester riders competing and shows the club is developing young riders nicely. Callum McDonald was first MCR rider with 5th, Haroun Al Jeddal 7th and Joe “Lil Factory” Saunders 10th.
Winter Series Champ Spence McLeod continued his impressive run of form and took the win in 12 Boys, ahead of two CGR riders on their home track! Brandan Nolan got an excellent 5th place, just reward for his consistent riding.
13 Boys saw Redline‘s Valerie Zebrokova finish 4th, a great result on its own as she was racing the boys, but given that she finished two places ahead of longtime rival Jenny Noble, it is a fantastic finish.
Matthew “Factory” Saunders took 4th in 14 Boys, a good start to the season that should give him confidence for the Nationals.
16+ may have gone, but the outcome was the same in the new 16 Boys class, as Redline‘s Jacob Roberts took the win. Ryan Cagney got 6th, a solid start to his Summer Series campaign.
In 17-24, there was a thrilling finish, as Andy Clucas and Adam Guest looked to be fighting for the win down to the line, but Rob Hawker passed both with an impressive display of manualling to claim the 50 points on the day. 16+ Winter Series Champ Josh “Peebz” Nicholas, riding for theridenation.com was 5th, with MCR clubmate Jonathan Dawson 6th.
25-29 saw MCR rider “Pistol” Pete Hosker take the win with fellow MCR rider Ross Gill 4th in his first race for new team Love Not Money.
Stuart Hanmer was our lone representative in Masters at Crewe and took 6th, but the race produced yet more drama as Daz Reidy and Chico Hooke were both riding well ahead of the chasers and decided to jump the pro-section. This resulted in a massive cheer form the spectators, but saw both riders disqualified.
16-29 Cruiser consisted of Matthewglynn.co.uk on his own, so he took the full 50 on the day. Fortunately he raced alongside 17-24 so he had some company round the track! He’s got a lot of sponsors, including 661 and Royal, so check his blog out for the full list!
30-34 Cruiser saw Bradford’s Nigel Smith in a Manchester sandwich, as he finished 3rd behind Dialled Bikes rider Neil “Hitman” Harbour and Roy Sutton but ahead of Mark Ferguson and myself.
35-39 sees the older half of the life begins at 30 club go at it on big rigs and it provided some tense racing. Roger Wilbraham was on form but a daring move in the second berm by Pete Butler in the final left Rog nowhere to go but on the grass to finish 7th. Andy “clips rock” Drelincourt is another rider peaking in time for the Nationals and finished an excellent 2nd, a place ahead of Mark Egan; both riders were awarded the Winter Series Title after finishing level on points, so belated congratulations Dreli!
Payback was more than stacked. Stacked, in fact, doesn’t do the Payback field who turned up to race at Crewe any justice whatsoever….
Ultimate Pro BMX turned up in force, meaning 2008 Olympian Liam Phillips was racing, along with fellow British Cycling Podium Programme rider Marcus Bloomfield. Tre Whyte and Curtis Manaton rounded out the team, which looks set for major success this year. Tre’s older brother Dan was racing for Intense, back after injury setbacks. Dan McBride and Hardknox’s Kyle Evans were also there, meaning most of the top male riders supported by BC were racing. Redline‘s Tom Palmer, local boys Ash Davey, Levi Ashley, Kieron McAvoy and Shaun Issit, Goldcoast’s Josh Hanlon, Adam Smith and Jack Hall (Free Agent/Route55) from North East and Fastlane‘s Cal Strickland finished off the best field seen in years.
Bloomy, Liam, Cal.
The racing, as expected, was superb. The crowd were treated to a display of riding that wouldn’t have looked out of place at the Nationals, or at a SuperCross race for that matter, as the competitors tore round the well groomed track and made the jumps look easy.
The final was tense, all the riders were on blistering form and anything can happen in a BMX race! The gate dropped and it was team-mates Liam and Bloomy who got the lead, just ahead of Cal. Liam capitalised on what looked like Marcus casing a jump slightly to take the win, with Cal third, Dan McBride 4th, Kyle 5th, Tre 6th, Shaun 7th and Dan Whyte 8th.
The Series certainly started with a bang! Now the races have the first round of the National Series at Cheddar before heading to the next Summer Series round, at Hartlepool on May 9th.
