| Chicksands
Duel Slalom & Dirt Jumping Comp day
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It was an early
start Sunday with it being comp day up at Chicksands,
we had to be up early as we said we would help
out with the setting up, normally these days generate
a good turn out. I was instantly on the phone
to Timmy to make sure he was up, he also had Ben
crashing over to save time… Josh was also
down our way staying at lil Dan's. First job was
to get us all up there which was no major drama
but I was gutted as I thought I was up first for
once! It seems I was wrong.
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| Heading up to the
sands I was checking the clouds, looked like we
was going to miss the rain today, it seemed quite
clear but the wind was cold. Chicksands at 8am was
pretty novel for us on a Sunday, already lots of
people un packing cars and putting bikes together,
this was going to be a busy day that’s for
sure. Once inside the inner sanctum we met up with
Tommy. Tim and myself had decided that today we
would help out with the running of the day as they
where going to need as much help as possible. Tim
had been thinking about racing but has had his fare
share of injuries this year! I had contemplated
the dirt comp after getting through the big set
the weekend before but thought there are only so
many x-ups I can do before you guys get bored to
tears…so we decided to help out and shoot
footage instead. |
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Once in the woods
we met up with our good friends Steve Dowie and
Darren (course managers and also Tom Dowie's dad,
Steve that is) to see what the plan of action was.
A large group of dirt jumpers sat at the top of
the hill looking down at the jumps visualising there
runs getting in last minute practice before the
flood gates open. Over on the duel slalom course
already a steady flow of bikers getting to grips
with the course, getting a feel of its running.
The day before hand Steve, Timmy and a group of
the lads put some serious work into the course and
had it looking sweet and running even sweeter. The
plan was that after a while the course would be
closed so that the maintenance crew could get back
on it, finish it off and give it a final sweep.
My job between having a few cheeky runs through
the big set (having a very funny stack) was to get
people into the inside car park, we were beginning
to run out of space, more people parking on the
roads, which meant Mr policeman would not be a happy
chappy if he passed! |
| While playing car
park attended (which I kinda enjoyed, some nice
women!) it gave me chance to speak to a few people.
After a while I was starting to realise that my
early morning start was not so early! People had
traveled from across the country to get here today,
some having to get up at 4am! As I continued to
talk to people I was blown away, people slept in
cars, tents, vans just to be here today! And it
was cold last night too, I mean like freezing! So
many people said that they had nothing like this
anywhere near them, so it was totally worth it for
them, it also made me think that maybe sometimes
we take this place a bit for grantage. |
As
I walked back down from the top car park the lads
had been busy the course now taped off and riders
where being issued with numbers. The race side
of things was to kick off first. 4categories youth
juniors masters seniors, the riders would first
have a timed solo run so that they can be gauged
and placed against suitable opponents to make
it a little more fare, then after that it was
knock out. I had a free hour before I started
my next job so I had chance to have a walk around
some more and chat. Now on the dirt side of things
it was hectic! So many riders had now turned up
you needed traffic lights between the three lines!
The bigger riders starting to arrive too! It was
not long before we had few well known faces sat
at the top of the hill, from Identitti Glen Coe,
Tom Dowie and Rory Backshell From Dmr Ollie Wilkins,
Mike Smith, Div and Sam Pilgrim, 24seven had Ricky
Crompton and Lance Macdurma, Static Bikes had
Luke Cullis and Josh Lane…to mention a few
of the faces at the top of the hill. This had
all the ingredients to go off big time! The Dirt
comp categories, under 17 and senior with a couple
of fun comps like best run and high jump comp.
At this point I just had time to grab a quick
burger before I had to head to the finish line
on the dual so we could start the knock out event,
just back to the burger van for a second…hmmm
burgers . . . Doh, they where nice too! Any chance
we can have a permanent burger van?? At this point
I can no longer comment on the dirt jumping as
I spent the rest of the day at the finish line
on the dual but the crowd was going wild. We only
had 1 camera man out there! Timmy was covering
the racing as we both thought the jumps would
run after the races… but the races went
on for a bit longer than expected so not as many
DJ photo’s as we’d of liked! but Timmy
“the legend” managed to get the best
trick section on video for you guys and it will
be with you very soon!
However, props go out to Roo from flowtography
got some sweet shots from the jump comp so check
them and the rest of the site out! www.flowtography.co.uk
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And here
are the results from the day for you:
Duel Slalom Racing.
Senior: 1st Ben
Fletcher, 2nd Nigel See, 3rd Dan Yeomans.
Master: 1st Greg
Bowles, 2nd Martin Newman, 3rd Gary May.
Junior: 1st Tom
Dowie, 2nd Nick Heron, 3rd Pat Campbell.
Youth: 1st Thomas
Knight, 2nd Steven Cooper, 3rd Suzanne Lacey.
Dirt jumping.
Under 17's: 1st
Pat Campbell, 2nd Tom Dowie, 3rd Sam Pilgrim.
Senior: 1st Lance
Macdurma, 2nd Matt Scott, 3rd Rory Backshell
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I would like to congratulate
everyone who took part in the events and to the
many people who helped run the day. I think we all
saw some serious sick riding in both dirt jumping
and racing. I would also like to big up Pat! No
way man “No handed flips” that’s
sick! 3rd in the Racing! And a place on the Identitti
team! Lance nearly getting his 720’s and 720
whips! Our boy Glen Coe with his barrel roles, the
boy Tom Dowie the speed machine and up and coming
jump star. Its good to see young riders like Tom,
Pat, Sam, Josh pushing there riding to new levels
and you can see they feed off the older riders like
Glen Coe. These young lads are riding like this
at the age of 16 some even younger, what are they
are going to be riding like in 4-5 years time? |
Peace - Smithy
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