Fearnville Leisure Centre in Leeds provided a great setting for the first North Regional race of 2011. Whilst 420 riders were checking out the national track in Peterborough, the North held their own with just under 200 riders. Blessed with beautiful weather and a healthy turn out of Manchester riders, here’s a brief overview of how we did:
Ethan Duffy blew the competition away with 4 races and 4 wins….time to move him up dad!
In the 8’s we were represented by Oliver Cope, Zack Harrop and Harrison Drelincourt. All 3 pulled off their best results to date with Oliver 1st, Zack 4th and Harrison 6th.
Haz Fishwick committed himself very well in the 10’s by taking 7th place in the final. Haz has great potential, expect bigger things as the season progresses.
Jordan Gavin took 4th place in the 11’s. Not bad for his 1st ever regional race and if there had been just 1 more race, Jordan would have finish 3rd as he was improving with every race.
In the 12’s Calvin Blackman was looking good all day, but a fall in the final left him in 8th. Joe Saunders took the honours in the B-final and Harrison Stanley took 6th in the A-final.
Manchester riders were all over the 13-14 category. Ricardo Addeymellor was on the come back trail and looking stylish taking 5th in the A-final. Valerie Zebrokova was mixing it with the boys and took 3rd in the final despite getting caught up with Jake Power who crashed going for 2nd place. Not bad considering Jake was in last down the first straight. Spencer McLeod took the honours in the final leading from the start. Shame we didn’t get the Jake/Spencer battle in the final, but still great for Manchester with 4 from 8 finalists.
In the 15-16’s, Nathan Slamon just missed out on a final spot, but Matthew Saunders was looking like a potential winner. A bad gate in the final kept Matthew back in 5th spot, but a win won’t be too far away.
In 17-29, Ryan Thompstone made his first step into regional racing and committed himself very well. Manchester had 3 riders in the final: Matthew Glynn, Sabian Brown and Ross Gill. Matthew took 5th and Sabian took 3rd from Ross Gill who slipped back to 4th after Sabian pulled a great high low in the last corner.
Biggest class of the day was Masters with 4 Motos so straight to semi finals. Roger Wilbraham forgot 24 years of racing experience and slipped out in the Motos stage and so did Dylan Jackson. Andy Drelincourt fell to sleep in his semi final but still won despite occupying 6th spot in the first corner. In the final Goldcoast rider overtook Manchester’s Pete Power down the 3rd straight to take a close win with Andy taking a well deserved 4th spot.
In 30-39 Cruiser, Manchester was represented by James “Rooster” Tresman, Jamie Duffy and Roy Sutton. Despite looking the business in the Motos, Jamie could only manage 4th, but hard training clean living Roy stormed the final to take the win.
The big race of the day was payback, which is a mix of elite riders, Junior men and 17-24 category riders. Manchester had Josh Nicholas, Andy Clucas and Cal Strickland representing. Josh just missed out on the final, Andy took 6th and Cal Strickland had a titanic battle with Marcus Bloomfield with Cal just taking it on the line.
A fitting end to a great day out……thanks to Leeds BMX Club and the regional race team who kept things running smooth.
Pic: Ethan, Harrison, Haz, Zack and Oliver posing with their Inter club series trophies
Inter Club Series Presentation
