23rd – 24th July

Elizabeth ‘Maggie’ Bown | 7-8 Girls.

Maggie loved the long track, it suited her style and dogged determined attitude, if she couldn’t get past someone the first time there would be plenty of chances to try and try again until it happened. Saturday she set out in the motos with solid performances of second, second, third and tested herself on a new track against the usual World and European standard opposition, those results saw her through to the semi’s where she pulled a third and a place in the A final. Maggie gave it her all and managed a very satisfactory fourth place, a result which would give her confidence a real boost for Sunday’s racing. Day two saw even better moto results with our girl wonder smashing out a couple of moto victories and a third, this gave her an even better draw in the pick sequence and she came away with a storming second place. The A final gave us a great duel between our Maggie and Decade Europe’s Lucy Simpson, after the whole pack entered the first berm more, or less together Maggie came out just behind Lucy in fourth place, our Maggie just got level with Lucy into the second and third berms after some great spinning and pumping on the straights, getting extra cranks in where ever she could, but she just couldn’t get the moves in the corners. So it all came down to a last straight showdown, again Maggie got a great drive and pulled level for a photo finish, but Lucy just got the last podium place by no more than half a wheel. It’s easy to forget that this is the first season Elizabeth has raced at national level and is now fighting for podium positions at every round with some of the fastest girls in world of her age!

Harry ‘The Rockstar’ Kirby and Ben Hallett have struggled at national level this season in a super tough age group, where every moto is almost guaranteed to have a European ranked rider, former British, or national champion. They both have put in performances at smaller meetings, like regional races to show they can do it, they both just need to get confidence up on the larger stage. This weekend saw the change we all knew was coming. Both riders are loving their new CrankBros Stamp pedals and the extra grip seems to have done the job, I know Harry loves his and they feel great on his massive size 5 feet, they defiantly helped both boys put in their best performances of the year at national level so far! Harry rode out of his skin pulling in some mid pack moto finishes and made the quarter finals on both days, something he’s never managed before. Then Ben got in his first national quarter final on Sunday, something we’re really proud of him for doing and we’re sure it’s the first of many. Harry especially loved the track saying ‘it’s sort of mellow first two straights and massive mental jumps and rhythm sections in the last two’, the longer track suiting a boy who excels at triathlons and cross country running. The boys are both now really looking forward to Telford and trying to keep the momentum going now they’ve kick started their seasons.

Rhys Wood started off the weekend on great form in the motos with a couple of third places, Rhys loved the track, saying the long track and ‘small’ pro section just make for some tight and exciting racing and he was putting in some of his best laps of this years National Series. Billy Luckhurst was riding well in the pack too, getting similar results to Rhys and no catastrophes, so both our top guns were through to the Semi’s. Rhys unfortunately didn’t get any further coming in sixth in his semi, but the Butcher rolled across the line in third place securing himself a place in the main event. The class was stacked again, with some of the big names from the British national squad making the trip to Lancashire, as well as the Dutch rider Mark Link filling out the field. The main was stacked, Bill fought hard, but there was no way through the pack as most of the fastest riders in Britain battled it out . Saturday night on the camp site Billy did win, in style too. There was a flash back to the old school and a campsite hop off had been organised, Billy was itching to test out his new CranksBros flat pedals he’d just received and he’s loving his new Doublecross 23″ top tube frame, so he entered, winning in the dusk in front of tens if not hundreds of cheering kids (and adults)! With Sunday came the rain and tougher conditions for our fastest riders. Billy made a great early showing winning his opening moto from lane 7 and things were looking on the up for the Butcher, his second moto was stacked and he had to battle to finish mid pack, the third moto went pretty well with a photo finish for second, which would be enough to see him through to the final with 10 points. Rhys however didn’t get any luck at all, he got caught on the outside of the berm in his first two qualifying races, then after another rider hit the gate and some talk of gate movement Rhys blew his gate completely and it would be the end of his day, disappointing, but then BMX can be cruel. Rhys is one of the most popular and approachable top riders and the fans still love him, with all the kids still wanting to come up and chat with him regardless of his bad luck on the track. Semi time and Big Bill was feeling confident despite the tricky damp corners and rain storms that were hammering the track. He picked lane 8, hoping to get the big drive down the outside, he got a pretty good gate, but was back in the dreaded fifth as he exited berm one, driving on hard through the pro section he drew level with two other riders into the forth place and ran out of track crashing out just before the second corner. So his day was done too, not the result he and the team were look for, but nothing broken on himself, or his awesome new race machine, so we can be thankful for that. Both our top dogs will be back and fighting strong at the next and final rounds of the British series at Telford.

Photos: BMX Widow Photography | Twisted Concepts