NAMBS Regional Champs

As some of you may know, the last NPS of 2001 was at Hammsterley Forest and the track was dire, no, SHIT. It would have been alright if they didn't wind it on for as long as my large rod and the rain didn't help either, but thats racing. So with a lot of aprehension about, the NAMBS boys under the strong guidance of Brian Whitfield (Chris and Jeds Dad) put rumours to bed and declared a worthy new track was being prepared!

Watch the banner mate!	Hardtail heaven

Talking of the Whitfields where have they been? Chris has just got himself a new Orange 222 from his old sponsors Orange, unfortunately it wasn't built up in time so a Marshalls bib was donned. Jed has been riding Enduros and managed to drag out his old dusty Santa Cruz Super 8 for a spin in Seniors.

BMX Bandit

Big Doubles

Jumpin' Junior!

Big Hitter!

Any way back to the real deal..
Entries where cheap, around £15.00 on average which was cool, except once there, we were told the uplift was one dollar each run. Now thats fine if we had been told on the entry form, it's not like we all have several nuggets stashed in our pockets and once the burger van sussed out the deal, no more change was given! With two runs promised and the good chance of getting 4-5 runs in, thats seven bucks all in, so not that bad after all, just tell us in advance!

As you can imagine, with those poor Northerners having no Regional series all year, they really came out of the woodwork here, how many 250+, now don't forget the incentive of double points as well,. So if you could ride a bike and could prove that your Grandad did work down a pit then the chance of a Northerners Regional Medal could be yours!

Practice started just after 09:00 with many opting to walk the short way up, no more than 15mins up a gentle fire road. Good job too as it was so cold this gave most the chance to warm up and save some pennies. Once on course, we swpet down some lovely flowing corners with small berms in just the right places, a couple of drops and then.. Bang, a 7ft high wall! Well not quite but it might as well have been. A huge 25ft long table top with an extra lump on the top off the take off that threw you up, up and away. Loads jumped this, though it wasn't as easy as you might think, plenty of gas down and a good pump and pull up on the transition and you were safely over.

Then came the middle section which was super gnarly, loads of rocks and ruts down a wide straight that had multiple lines, put it this way, in practice, you could and did every rock and got bumped off line to your desired route, lets have more of these wide open rock sections please, theres so more options and much more os a challenge!

Once off the drop, nice banners scattered everywhere, FOX, DMR etc.. Into another gnarly stumped and rutted section which whipped you into a tacky right hander. Not far to go now and into the best finish of a DH that I have ever been to or seen! Two short open straights with steep 180 corners with crash netting to catch the weary and tired followed by two super steep and tight switchbacks which caught so many out. You had to try and bump your front wheel high and wide to just to get around these bitches that were tighter than nun's crutch. Just how the lad on the SantaCruz V10 with the 12" Super Monsters on managed to get around both of them i'll never know!

Not finished yet, once safely around those corners, jump the step down, kick out to the right and launch the 16ft doubles, not the biggest but a proper set, almost trails like that threw you up in the air. In all the track was short and very sweet, any good rider completed it in under 2mins. Once at teh bottom, a 2min flat ride back to the pits. Summed up the track is very acesible to section or do full runs, if I lived locally I know for sure we would be up there, yes it's short and so is the 15mins walk to the top so get your arses up there kids.

So who rocked and who rolled?

We there was one idiot on a 20" BMX who made it down in one piece, what was on his mind or in it, nothing I guess! Thene there were a cople of guys riding those 12" Marzocchi Super Monsters and they are outragous!y huge. A few people mentioned that they didn't move too much because of the angle they were set at, sooo relaxed. Definately ace for super steep gnarly tracks or big drops onto banks, you just didn't want to land flat off anything. I guess if you did your headtube would of popped off like a champagne cork!

So who was there? Martin "Oggy" Ogden was on a new Cortina which he rode well to a thrid in seniors. Royals Stu Thomson and Marc Beaumont arrived and entertained the crowd with their bunny hop antics. The Atherton clan arrived, no Dad, well I didn't see him. Gaskell was there, winning as usual with Rachel Atherton and Jules Coventry following it up. Daniel Hume and Dad Adrian both landed top spots, what a great father and son combo! Konas Darren Howarth ripped the Masters apart again and telling everyone about the previous weeks MBUK photoshooot at Garway where Cunny jumped 92ft of a wooden launch, bucked it and broke a finger and was lucky to walk away with his life!

Why is this report so late you ask, well I am still trying to find out the results. When we left at 18:00 they only announced the top 3 that day. Nobody knows, even now who won the regional titles in each category, remember the yocal rule and I can't even match any riders numbers on the photos, perhaps I should have made them up! Not the best really so here it is, in not so full glory. I guess the results will be published someday, just checkout www.nambs.co.uk.

All in all it was a great day, if a little cold but you better get used to it. The track was ace as were the lifts and the friendly atmosphere and Marc Beaumonts guest commentary. I hope he is not trying to nick my job!

Keep an eye open for a one off Winter race at Nightmare Freeway (Nantmawr Quarry) for a race in November. As for the Midlands Winter races, they start in January.

Keep Warm and your ride lubed.

Super Fly Si....