Twisted Concepts Race Report – Royston EA and Birmingham Midlands
Submitted by Team Manger Paul Hallett
Words by Miles Kirby
Sunday 17th April
With a busy race schedule across the country the team split in to two sections and concentrated on two of the main events, the 2nd round of the East Anglian Summer Series at Royston and the Midlands Regional at Birmingham. After dismal weather across the county with snow, sleet and high winds on the Saturday the weather reports were looking much better for Sunday and everyone was itching to get out and give it their best shot in the sunshine! So what went down?
ROYSTON
Representing the kids was Harry Kirby in the 9 year old boys. After some great results at Milton Keynes Harry was still disappointed at not finishing on the podium and was in a really determined mood going into Sunday’s race. He’s really starting to get the hang of his bike now and results are starting to show that. He’s loving the stiffness of his Epik carbon rims and the instant direct drive he’s getting from his Onyx hubs, and he thinks that’s one of the biggest reasons for his recent peek in form. First moto ‘The Rockstar’ got a 2nd behind the female European champion of his age, feeling good he then stormed his second, winning it from the drop of the gate to the crossing of the finish line. The 3rd moto didn’t go quite to plan, he was sitting in second going into the first berm pushing up the inside for a look at the lead and got shut down and stuck right on the apex of the corner, giving a couple of riders behind him who had drive out of the corner the chance to pass and he dropped back to 4th, he chased hard, but just couldn’t get the pass in and thats where he finished. At final time, Harry the 3rd pick, not ideal, but good enough to get an inside gate, going for lane 1 he got a great gate, slotting in onto the back wheel of Lucy Locket the Pocket Rocket into the first berm he came out in the 3rd, with a sensible clean lap that’s where he finished, on the podium where he had set out to finish, so it was job done for the hairy one. The result would raise him to 2nd in the regional ranking making it his best ever start to a season, so being on such a great team is already paying dividends.
17-29, Masters and Vets classes were all consolidated for racing into a massive 17+ class, which would be split down into categories at the end. This meant three of our big guys would have to race together, Ethan Cremin in 17-29, Rich Ayles in Masters and Big Spencer Cremin in Vets.
Ethan had a great great couple of opening moto’s, pulling second places and looking fast on the ‘Quality Street’ bike, but he had a bit of a moment in his third moto, the second the commentator (who will remain nameless….) mentioned his name he had a rival come across on him as he got a little out of shape, everything snowballed and it all started going very squirely sending down the infield. Luckily he didn’t crash, but it was enough to shove him to the back of the pack, but he’d done enough in his first two heats to see him safely through to the semis.
Rich Ayles got a couple of second’s in his first two moto’s, but he wasn’t happy, he’d been struggling for grip on the first asphalt corner, he’d nearly managed to roll his tyre off his Epik rim in practice, such was the ferocity of his cornering, so having had enough of two wheel slides he did an f1 style tyre change between the second and third moto and it paid off, with him winning his final moto and putting another team rider into the semi finals.
Big Spencer had some great rides in his moto’s too, coming fourth, third and fourth, with our Vets unit following his son round and successfully hanging with the young guns and managing to beat most of the other Vets in the process, so it was a good day at the office with all of our guys progressing to the semi finals. Rich Ayles was on fire now with his grip sorted and he took semi final victory, Ethan also made it through to the A final. Spencer got a great gate, but didn’t have the best of first straights, he ended up in 5th coming out of the first corner and despite fighting hard that’s where he would stay. Then unfortunately due to work commitments hundreds of miles way in Scotland that evening he would have to leave before he would challenge for B final victory, but his results had been good enough to see him claim a 5th place in Vets on the day and only dropping to 3rd in the regional rankings. One thing’s for sure, our Man Mountain will be back with a bang next weekend.
A final time saw Rich and Ethan line up together with all the fastest of the combined classes coming together for the final showdown. Ethan got shut down coming into the first berm, then got stuck in traffic in the final, finishing 7th, but to make it to the A final in such a large competitive field was a great confidence building result and would give him overall 2nd in the 17-29 category and keep him in 2nd overall in the regional rankings. Ayles got a great gate, slotting into third place through the first berm, he jostled with the second place as they chased the leader round, but neither rider made an error as the three pulled free of the pack and he would have to settle for third place and second on the day in Masters behind bmxtalk.com’s TM Matt Allen, one of the most experienced riders in the country. Rich is still leading the Masters category in the regional rankings and no one is taking it off him without a fight.
BIRMINGHAM
With a national there next weekend the Midlands regional was going to be the biggest race in the country held that day, so the standard was always going to be exceptionally high.
Ben Hallett was out in the 9 year old boys in one of the toughest classes there is, a real age group of death. His main aim was to get some constant results in racing and boost himself for the upcoming national next weekend, which will be his first of the year after not competing at Manchester Indoor. Ben didn’t get the best results, but he did manage to get through the first jump every time successfully riding it, with lots of other riders trying to jump the formidable step-up and crashing out, so from that respect it was a job complete. After a slow build up he got the bit between his teeth and won his final from the drop of the gate, gaining confidence in himself and the track with every turn of the pedal, so in the end it was a great day for him and just what the doctor ordered for the upcoming national. One little win can do a rider a world of good and can be a springboard for better results, so we’re hoping this victory is a sign and a catalyst of better things to come from little Ben.
After a few meetings racing in the rough and tumble of the 8 year old boys class Elizabeth Bown was back in with the girls. Which was still going to be no easy task in a big field of 17 girls, containing a good proportion of the strongest female riders in the national series all coming from the Midlands, including world ranked riders. Getting a second in her first moto Maggie was looking strong, going from strength to strength and taking victories in her next two qualifiers. Maggie’s final was a big showdown with a few of her main rivals she’ll be up against next weekend, could she show them all she’s a real contender for a podium at the national? Or course she could, she rode a magnificent race from start to finish pulling off a well deserved and emphatic victory, showing her rivals exactly what she’s capable of and what they’ve got to contend with when the stakes get raised. All the bar bashing with the boys is really starting to pay off now, Maggie’s not scared, she knows she can take on all comers.
In regional Superclass our guy Rhys Wood was out with the big guns, having to take on the really big jumps, the massive Birmingham Pro Section. In Rhys’s own words on Instagram, speaking Monday he said ‘Yesterday wasn’t the best race day I’ve ever had, but I know what I have to practice for the National’. Rhys’s gates were fine in racing pulling at front of the pack at the first jump, but he was loosing ground further down the first straight and getting blocked in the first berm, this meant he didn’t have the run in he needed to jump the pro section in racing, so he only managed sixths and sevenths in racing, which was disappointing. But the whole reason of competing at the regional the week before the national is to gauge where you need to improve your game for the big event, he knows what he needs to work on and where he’s going, so hopefully the disappointment will be short lived and come next week he can take care of business.
Twisted Concepts will be in full attendance at the Birmingham national, so please come by and say hi and check out our amazing bikes, awesome carbon and ti wheel sets laced onto the the best hubs in the game.
