Well here we go again with the start of another new season, this time it was at Nantmawr
Quarry near Oswestry.

There was a full entry of about 250 riders, all of whom were riding the new stuff
they had bought over Winter months. Practice went really well so I was confident
going in to the 1st race.

Gareth Hopkins went off early in the elites and set a scorching time of 2.08.4. I
started near the end of the elite field. My run was going really well for the first
half of the course. But then disaster struck as I hit a rock hard with my chain device
which made the chain come off. I basically free-wheeled for the rest of the course
down to the finish, where to my amazement I had posted the 3rd fastest time, only
2 seconds behind the lead.

Obviously I was pretty happy with that and felt good going into the second race (your
fastest run out of two counts at pedalhounds). So the second run started and to be
honest it just didn’t happen like the first run. My time at the finish was only 1
second quicker than the first run which only put me 5th overall for the day, and
wondering what might have been in the first run.

Gareth Hopkins went on to win with Matt Farmer in second and Nigel Page in third.
Saturday night basically consisted of a meal and then havoc at the local fair on
the bumper cars, but that’s another story.

So onto Sunday. The weather was fantastic. Blue skies and lots of sun. The course
was actually dusty and the riding was super fast. Again, like Saturday, practice
went really well, nailing all of my lines and making no mistakes. I seemed too feel
a lot more relaxed at the start for my 1st run; and it showed in the result, 1st
place with a time of 2.04.6, a full 5 seconds quicker than Saturday!! It really was
a perfect run. Stoked!!

Going up for the 2nd run I felt even more relaxed. I had a full 3 seconds lead over
Matt Farmer and Nige Page. It was a good job too as I screwed up a couple of sections
on my 2nd run coming down 2 seconds slower than the 1st run. But my 1st run was quick
enough giving me the win. Second went to Matt and third went to Nige. Fourth was
Neil Donoghue and fifth was Saturdays winner Gareth Hopkins. Crawford Carrick Anderson
was there but didn’t really perform, only finishing 6th on both days about 5 seconds
behind each day. Team mate Ross Tricker had a terrible weekend with problems in every
run.

Well that’s it for now, it’s the first midlands series race next weekend at Ribbesford,
near Bewdley, my local trails; and then it’s on to the first national. Wish me luck,
I’ll post another report like this in a couple of weeks.

See ya, Scott.