The final round of the Thursday Night Thunder Summer Race Series saw some great action as riders battled for precious points.

With classes catering for all ages, the series had some cracking action over the summer with 92 riders competing in one or more rounds.

Club races are the ideal way for new riders to get valuable experience in BMX racing; with low entry fees and the benefits of using the same track, riders can build skills and confidence to enable them to be ready to face the next step up, which is Regional competition.

Manchester’s TNT series has seen many riders coming from our Youth Club to compete and performing well. Sabian Brown has been a real star this year, rising from newcomer to the sport to one to watch for the future, as he took the series win in 11-15 Boys, the largest class with 24 riders. Matthew Saunders did very well grabbing 2nd overall, as 5 results from the 6 races counted and he only rode 4 rounds! In third was another newcomer to the club, Nathan Slamon. He’s improving every week and is another who will hopefully step up to Regional racing. Spence McLeod and Riccardo Addymellor were 4th and 5th respectively, both are talented riders and have already got experience battling it out at Regionals. We hope to see them qualifying for the Brits next year.

With 12 riders doing at least one round in 8 and Unders, the grassroots level of racing is growing. The TNT series saw three friends taking each other on for the title; Harvey Howard took the overall, with Matthew Gilston and our own Harrison Drelincourt 2nd and 3rd. Look for these three amigos to be racing together for many years to come!

Elena Stafford took the honours in 11 and Under Girls, racing in with the boys and often beating them! Likewise Valerie Zebrokova had little company to challenge her in 11+ Girls, so she raced the boys and got some great experience throwing elbows with her clubmates.

9-10 Boys has seen more Youth Club riders step up, with Ellis Burgess displying power beyond what his years might suggest to take the overall title. Callum McDonald rode well to take 2nd, with Haroon Aljeddal an excellent 3rd despite riding just 3 rounds. Another rider to watch out for is Remy Culpepper, yet another newcomer who got 3rd in the final round. 16+ Novice welcomed Andrew Thornton and Josh Mayhew, who are both promising riders we hope to see doing more club races this winter.

25+ saw some fierce racing, with newcomers and experienced riders going elbow to elbow. Ross Gill, in his first year racing after honing his skills as a park rider, took the overall title and bought friends Rob Evans and Joe Davenport to the club, with Rob 6th overall and Joe taking a win in the final round to seal 4th overall. I got myself round enough times for 2nd overall, with Tim Williams demonstrating to the Youth Club riders he coaches that he actually knows what he’s talking about by getting 3rd overall.

In Cruiser, matthewglynn.co.uk took the overall win, with some great riding throughout the series. Mark Ferguson took an excellent 2nd overall, with Neil “Hitman” Harbour 3rd. John Hewitt looked in control as he stormed to a win aboard his MTB in the final round, let’s hope he sees the light and invests in a BMX!

16+ was graced with some of the best riders in the UK taking part this summer, who can complain when a club series attracts British Cycling Talent Team riders, National Champions and Elite riders? The final round saw Cal Strickland and Kyle Evans go head to head, with Kyle taking the glory, as he did in the overall series. In second was Michael Hawker, two spots higher than his older brother Rob in 4th. Between them was Adam Smith, who makes the trip from North of Durham to ride at Manchester.

A big thank you to;

Abi Taylor for her hard work registering all the riders and performing finish line duties

Nicky Hawker and Tina Strickland for finish line duties and bringing their sons to race!

Neil Saunders for start duties

Pete Taylor for pens and compiling results

Roger Wilbraham for commentary

All the parents who bring their riders to Manchester to take part!

The riders, we look forward to seeing you in the Saturday Slam Winter Series!

Hartelpool hosted the North Region Summer Series finale and Club Champs on Sunday, with many classes up for grabs plus the prestige of being named best club to fight for, the stage was set for some great action!

Once again, Andy Drelincourt brought the Manchester BMX tent to the race, by the end of the day, it was the only one still standing and the adult racers ahd largely been evicted by Youth! With the North Sea visible and the wind whipping clouds of dust off the track, “epic” seemed like a suitable word to describe the setting.

Hartlepool is a fantastic track; downhill, with 6 straights and dirt berms. This made for cracking passing moves and a fair few crashes! Noteably our own Dreli, who ate dirt whislt in second in the 30-39 Cruiser B Final. He looked on for a great result after making a sweet move in the berm, but a clash of wheels ended his hopes of glory on the day.

Valerie Z, our own superstar in the making, won her race handily to make it a perfect sweep of every round. This is an incredible achievement in her first full year of BMX Racing. She is now 2009 North Region Champion in 10-12 Girls!

Our pocket rocket and future pro, Harrison “son of the track master” Drelincourt finished an excellent 7th overall in 6 and Under Boys. Well done Harrison!

In 10 Boys, Callum McDonlad finished 6th on the day, good enough for 7th overall, whilst Joe “Lil’ Factory” Saunders put the moves on in the berms to take 6th on the day and 9th overall.

Brandan Nolan took 5th on the day in 11 Boys, his best result of the series, which sees him finish in a fantastic 4th overall!  Riccardo Addymellor finished in 7th overall, with Spencer McLeod 10th.

Matthew “Factory” Saunders saved his best for last, with a fantastic win in 13 Boys! He took second spot overall, a well deserved place after a season of good results. His day started badly though, getting beaten by most fo the filed in his first moto, but he battled back and in the final, looked super smooth taking the victory comfortably.

In 15 Boys, Jake Roberts finished in 5th, but only raced 4 rounds. His placing highlights how impressive his results have been in the series, with 2 wins and 2 second places!

Josh “Peebz” Nicholas finished in 4th overall in 16+ which is an outstanding result given that winner Jack Hall is part of “The Firm” of Free Agent/Route 55 and runner up Adam Smith is on the Talent Team. On the day, Josh looked well dressed for the old school track in jeans and a check shirt. This may well spark a trend…..

The Masters field on the day was swollen with riders from other clubs looking to get points for the club champs. Goldcoast’s Dave Ives and Jay Sims were racing, as was a rather fast contingent of Scottish riders. All of this made it the best and most fun Masters race of the Series, with some crazy action in the berms and riders going off the track in each moto. Brett Archibald took the glory on the day, but I am now proud to say I’m 2009 North Region Masters Champion!

In Payback, our club’s adopted son, Cal Strickland was matching Peebz with a check shirt and jeans to go with the old school moves going down in the berms. Cal didn’t push too hard, which was a wise strategy with crashes galore in motos! On the day, Jordan Hayes took the win, with Luke Gamble second and Cal third. Overall, the title went to Cal, so he becomes 2009 North Region Champion

The big rigs

matthewglynn.co.uk went into the last round a handful of points behind Preston’s OJ Francis in 16-29 Cruiser, and was debuting his new Supercross steed after snapping his old bike at the Manchester Nationals!  Matty looked silky smooth on his new rig, racing to third on the day. Unfortunatley for Matty’s title ambitions, OJ did enough to take 5th and with it the overall title by 2 points!

In Elite Cruiser/30-39, The Hitman, Neil Harbour, was absent so couldn’t bag anymore points for the series. Hitman finished in 4th overall for his sponsor Dialled Bikes. Dreli was battling hard, but after making the A-Final in the last few rounds, could only make the B on the day. His crash wasn’t his fault, and looked very hard.  His sense in wearing body armour certainly paid off, with the track master limping off sore, but not seriously injured.  Andy finished a place behind Neil in 5th overall.

Neil “Big Factory” Saunders was unlucky to get a pinch flat in a moto, which lost him precious placings on the day, as 40+ Cruiser was Grand Prix. With 7th on the day, Neil secured 4th overall for the series, but as a proud father, he was more concerned with the excellent performances of his boys on the day.

Old Skool

By Far the biggest category in the North Region, Old Skool has produced some of the most memorable sights from the series this year – with gleaming chrome bikes, original 80′s kit and moves from the same era, the class has delighted everyone watching and has brought many older racers back into the sport. With MCR Old Skoolers Daz Bovill and Ady Brookes in civvies for the final, it was left to Sandro Sammarco to fight for glory for the club. with foot down action a theme of every class on the day, the Old Skool guys showed the rest of us how to do it properly!

Goldcoast’s Darren “Speedy” Reidy made a visit to the class to earn club points and took the win by some margin. Sandro took 6th on the day, good enough for a well earned 8th overall. Daz finished 21st, with Ady 24th. fifty riders (yes, 50…5-0) competed in at least one Old Skool round this series, making the MCR boy’s achievemnets even better.

With the Summer Series done and dusted (literally after Hartlepool) the focus shifts for some to the last rounds of the National Series in Bournemouth, but for most the big one is the British Championships at Cheddar on 19th and 20th of September.

Preview coming soon!

Click here for a cracking video of Round 7′s action by Jools Allen and the Braintree boys

What a weekend!

The National BMX Series came to Platt Fields for rounds 7 and 8, the first time Manchester BMX has hosted an event of this size. 350 riders made the trip to Manchester to compete for the National title and the glory of being the first to win at the Platt Fields track.

The Nationals are the premier race series in the UK, staged at five tracks in a doubleheader format over a weekend, with one track in each of the five BMX Regions (North, Midlands, East Anglia, South and South West) playing host. This year’s Nationals have been to Derby (M), Peterborough (EA),Burnham (SW), Manchester (N) and will finish in Bournemouth (S).

After months of planning, days of hard work and a few sleepless nights, the Manchester BMX crew were ready to welcome the BMX Community and show them that a young club can succeed in staging a major event.

Manchester City Council were instrumental in getting the track built in the first place, and their support was invaluable come National time. Banners bearing their logo along with those of Manchester BMX and British Cycling adorned the newly installed railings along the track and the gantry’s erected by volunteers at the start and finish. These added to the race atmosphere and gave spectators vital vantage points along the track. One large banner, along the Parc Ferme, read “Manchester – The Home Of British Cycling” which highlights our city’s place at the hub of UK cycle sport.

The North Region rallied around their newest member and provided much needed advice and support, with everything from marshalls for practice sessions to catering for the officials.

Event sponsors Carhartt delighted many of the riders and spectators alike with their stickers and other giveaways, including bottled water which proved vital in the heat we experienced over the weekend.

Yes, you read it correctly….

The heat we experienced! Manchester, often nicknamed “The Rainy City” basked in glorious sunshine for Nationals weekend, drying out the camping field and baking the track so that all the Club’s meticulous effort’s in prepping it were made good. Many spectators went away looking rather pink after neglecting to bring sunscreen….

The atmosphere was fantastic, with excellent commentary from Rich Eames and Scott Dick, and great tunes blasting out courtesy of Terry Green, the stage was set for some exciting racing….

20″

6 and Under Boys was dominated both days by North riders, with the Preston Pirates posse the best represented (watch out for Preston, could they be building the Olympic squad of 2022?) Alex Brookes and Keon Smith-McDermott were 1st and 2nd on both days, with Morgan Childley (CGR), Matthew Gilston and Matthew Baptista (ML) close behind (broken up by Owen Camm in 5th on Sat.)

7 Boys saw another Pirate plunder the trophy table, with Ryan Brookes scoring a win on Saturday, but he was denied the double on Sunday by Matthew Hutt from Hayes Hawks with Burnham’s Kobi Joyce in 2nd.

In 7 and Under Girls, Trinity Camm took the win on Sat, followed by Goldcoast pair Imogen Hill and Niamh “Daughter of the World Number 2″ Cary, with North East’s Ellie Featherstone 4th. Trinity took the win on Sunday as well, with Darcie Taylor splitting Imogen and Niamh and Ellie 5th.

In 8 Boys, the Preston Racer Engineering Programme (PREP) produced yet more success, with Finn Hall 1st, Ross Cullen 2nd and Jacob Watkinson 3rd in Round 7, and the same in Round 8 bar Jacob dropping to 4th behind Josh Coppin of Burnham (another club with strength in depth.)

If Preston own the Boys classes, the Girls is all Mid Lancs, with Kim Baptista 1st in 8/9 Girls, Keavi Taylor 3rd and Ellie Chappell 4th. On Sun, Kim dropped to 2nd, with Keavi and Ellie 4th and 5th respectively.

Euan Hunt from that club with all the really fast boys (alright I’ll say it…Preston) Got 2nd on Sat in 9 Boys, behind the lightning quick Gideon Orena. Jamie Norris-Still of Mid Lancs lead home Pirate Shay Casey in 5th and 6th. On Sunday, Gideon again took the honours, with Jamie 3rd, Shay 4th and sadly Euan not finishing.

Ben Turner, of Harworth, doubled up with two wins in 10 Boys, with Manchester’s Joe Saunders (lil Factory) and Callum McDonald both making the B final Joe taking a 6th on Sat and 7th on Sun, Callum 7th and 8th respectively)

10-12 Girls is all about the North, with North East’s Jenny Noble and Manchester’s own Valerie Zebrokova finishing in that order on both days. These girls are fast!

11/12 Boys saw another Orena, this time Jimmy, dominate with wins both days, with the super smooth Paddy Sharrock of Mid Lancs in 3rd, clubmate Jack Clarke 5th, Dan Butterfield of North East 8th and Pirate George Hawker 4th in the B Final on Sat. Sunday’s placings behind the SE sponsored Jimmy were Paddy in 5th, Dan in 7th and Jack in 8th, with George 8th in the B. This is a stacked class, with a massive 38 riders competing each day. Spencer McLeod, Riccardo Addymellor, Chris Worral, Brandan Nolan, Jake Jones, Jordan Mullock and Peter Syson were all Northern riders moto’d in this tough boys class.

13/14 Boys is another tough class, but Manchester’s Jacob Roberts looks very comfortable in it, winning on Sat, ahead of Mike Hawker. Our own Matthew “Factory” Saunders just missed out on the B Final. On Sun, Mike tried a “physical” style of passing on Jacob but didn’t benefit ending up 7th, Jacob dropped to 2nd behine Ryan Stack. Factory got an excellent 7th in the B.

13-15 Girls saw Ayesha McLelland on Redline finish ahead of Izzy Ferrada and Amelia Silvestre both days.

In 15/16 Boys, the emergence of Free Agent/Route 55 is apparent, with Dom Skidmore and North East’s Jack Hall getting a win and a second each over the weekend.  Rob “Hurricane” Hawker got 8th on Sat and 5th on Sun.

Junior Male sees the speed go up even more, and it was Adam Brazil who proved quickest, winning on Saturday, closely followed by Kyle Evans and Jordan Hayes in 2nd and 3rd and Ash Davey and Levi Ashley making it a good A-Final for the Northern clubs in 7th and 8th. Sunday saw Brazil relegated to 2nd behind Tre Whtye, with Kyle in 3rd.

Junior Female was dominated by Charlotte Green, winning ahead of Lauren Smith and Ria Goodman both days.

19+ was hottly contested, with Marco Dell’Isola recently returned from winning a World Title in Oz representing CGR, but he collided with Gareth Bates on Sat leaving James Chadwick to take the win, just ahead of Tony “Flemdog” Fleming of Preston (rumours that the Preston kids are all genetically engineered from DNA obtained from one of Tony’s eyelashes are unconfirmed) Sunday saw Marco make up for his disappointment and take the win. CGR’s Shaun Issit got a win in the B Final on Sat, with Pete Hosker from Manchester 5th (only back riding recently after tearing his achilles) and clubmate Josh “Peebz” Nicholas 7th. Manchester’s Ross Gill, riding his first National missed out on the B by one moto place. Shaun took 8th on Sun, Flemdog took 3rd in the B, with Josh 6th.

Masters is getting more competitive and quicker this year, and the Manchester action showed the best the 30 plus lot could offer. Ex Manchester resident Paul Cope showed off his explosive snap, looking like a sure thing for the win on Sat, but Goldcoast’s Dave Ives had other ideas and put the moves on in the final berm taking the win with Copey in 2nd.  Sunday was similar, with Copey again getting the pull and looking on it for the win, when Ivesy tried the same move as the previous day. Paul tried to shut the door, but Ivesy had nowhere to go and both went down, leaving an agile Matt Barnard to dodge the carnage and extend his lead in the Series overall with a win.Yours truly got thoroughly beaten, but what the hell, it was great to race the best on my own track!

Elite Men had Marcus Bloomfield, recently returned from a good outing in the Worlds down under going head to head with Kelvin Batey,the Pride of the North Cal Strickland (Mid Lancs) and future Men’s Health cover model Luke Gamble (Bradford.) Bloomy looked class taking the win both days, with Cal a very impressive 2nd (on flats!) on Sat, with Luke 5th. Sunday saw Luke get 4th with Cal 8th. These guys showed the crowd just how fast and exciting BMX is!

Cruisers

12 and Under saw Tom Novis on Kuwahara take the win both days ahead of Owen Baxter and Scott Dominguez.

In 13-15, Ben Clarkson, another Ku-waa-waa rider, doubled with wins on both days, with Preston’s Scott Casey 4th and Mid Lancs rider Chris Boyle 5th.

16-29 had Mark Maddox and Daniel Pole split the wins and 2nds, with our own matthewglynn.co.uk crashing on Sat but recovering to win the B Final. Prestons John “OJ” Francis took 8th in the A on Sat. Matty who can be seen repping Red Bull (even though they don’t sponsor him) got an excellent 6th in the A Final on Sunday, then realised he’d been riding on a cracked frame since his crash.

30-39 is proof that when a rider gets to 30, something strange happens. Contrary to what happens to the non-BMXing world, speed and fitness doesn’t seem to drop….common sense does…. so, like their 30+ counterparts on 20″ this class was all about speed and risky moves. Alan Hill showed why he has the #1 plate with impressive wins both days, closely followed by Goldcoast’s Darren “Speedy” Reidy. Martin Ogden of Bradford piloted his Ku waa ha waa ha ha to 6th on Sat, one place ahead of Manchester’s Andy Drelincourt. Manchester’s Neil “Hitman” Harbour on Dialled Bikes was 4th in the B, with clubmate Mark Ferguson taking a break from organising the team area and trackside to get 7th in the B Final in his first ever National! Sunday saw Hitman 7th and Dreli 8th in the A Final with Mark 5th in the B.

40-44 was won by Dialled Bikes rider Jon Moore both days, with Preston’s Anthony Fisher 4th, North East’s Steve Noble 6th and Goldcoast’s Russ Hanlon 7th. On Sun, Russ got 4th, Brent Featherstone took 6th with Steve in 8th.

45+ is all about Groove Fastlane’s Ade Warden, with victories both days.

There was a Novice race during the break on Sunday, featuring our youth club riders, organised by coach Sam Foakes. To get 3 gates of riders was a major success and shows the club is growing. The kids, many of whom have only been riding for a number of weeks, took to the track with all the seriousness of an A-Final, cheered on by the crowd. It won’t be too long before these riders progress to more club races and the Regionals.

Click Below to Check Out The Action;

Channel M Coverage

The penultimate round of the series visited Manchester, with rider numbers boosted by competitors from other regions looking to get experience on the Platt Fields track ahead of the National Series. Despite the rain the atmosphere was good, with the No Limits guys brightening the day for several novice racers with lots of free stickers. Monster Energy Drinks were on hand to dispense much needed fuel and with raffle prizes kindly donated by The Northwest Mountain Bike Centre there was plenty of off the track fun for spectators and riders alike.

A real highlight of the day was the novice category, featuring several riders stepping up from the youth club. Sabian Brown, who has enormous potential, took the win ahead of Ryan Cagney.

Results

7 and Under Girls; Imogen Hill Goldcoast 1^st Ellie Featherstone North East 2^nd

8-9 Girls; Ellie Jo Chappell Mid Lancs 1^st, Elena Stafford Preston Pirates 2^nd

10-12 Girls Manchester’s Valerie Zebrokova took 1^st again, to keep a perfect record for the series.

13-15 Girls; Alice Law from Derby took the win in her only outing in the North Region, The Ghostrider’s Emma Myers took 2^nd cementing her 2^nd place in the series.

16+ Girls saw Alice’s sister Katie take the win ahead of Mid Lancs rider Hannah Boyle.

6 and Under Boys; Alex Brookes was perfect again, taking the win for Preston.

7 Boys Ryan Brookes won and leads ahead of 3 other Pirates in the overall.

8 Boys saw Finn Hall 1^st (and overall) ahead of clubmate Ross Cullen.

9 Boys Euan Hunt pipped clubmate Shay Casey surprise surprise, both Preston!

10 Boys North East’s Ben Featherstone took the win ahead of Jamie Norris-Still from Mid-Lancs but there’s no room for relaxing with one round to go.

In 11 Boys Jake Jones won ahead of Chris Worrall, but Chris retain his lead in the series.

In 12 Boys, Mid Lancs clubmates Paddy Sharrock and Jack Clarke continued their series long ding dong battle, with Paddy taking the win on the day. They now have 3 wins and 3 seconds each and stand tied with 291 points each! Jenny Noble got 5^th on the day, which is also where she sits in the overall standings.

In 13 Boys, Manchester rider Matthew Saunders took 2^nd ahead of Cameron Jeffers, which brings him to within 3 points of the Mid Lancs rider. Taking the win though was Izzy Ferrada, doing it for Alan’s BMX and Girlracer. Izzy looked in control all day and will get a big boost in confidence with the win just before the Nationals on the same track.

Shane Dean from the Ghostriders took the win in 14 Boys and has an unassailable lead in the overall.

Jacob Roberts took the glory in 15 Boys, but Michael Hawker still leads the overall series

16+ is stacked, but North East seem to have it sewn up, with Jack Hall winning on the day ahead of clubmates Adam Smith and Rob Hawker. Jack leads the series ahead of Rob.

Cal Strickland has all but tied up the series in Payback, but was bumped to 4^th on the day in a race full of heavy hitters, with Luke Gamble scoring his third win in a row, Dan Whyte in second and Grant Hill taking third.

Masters was a dramatic race but for all the wrong reasons. With three riders the “Life Begins At 30” boys were in a race of their own for the first time in the series, but Stephen Fereday’s nightmare crash in the second moto saw him hospitalised. Chris Wilkins took the win on the day, with yours truly chugging along like a knackered diesel in 2^nd.

Scott Casey won 13-15 Cruiser and will get the 1 plate for the Brits.

In 16-29 Cruiser, the 24” wheelers were joined by MTB riders with the suspension and multiple gears bunch taking victory in the shape of Mark Maddox.

In Elite Cruiser…sorry, 30-39, Dialled Bikes rider Neil Harbour was on fine form and was leading the A-Final until the last 3 metres, until a stunning ride on the edge by Anthony Fisher.

Brent Featherstone took the honours in 40+ Cruiser with his closest competition for the series, Neil Saunders, taking on Marshalling duties on his home track.