Bernard Kerr wins the first round of the DMR Pump Track Challenge series, held at Leamington Spa recently. 

Talk leading up to the race was about how would riders start, would it be chainless can you put pedal stokes in? One exit corner of the figure of 8 track had been effected by last week’s rain so with bit of early morning spade work on the track it changed to a short but fast lap to get the most of the track.

The Pump Track’s prime location on side of the hill next to the 4x track gave riders a roll in start but being racers, the chance to start higher up the hill was too much temptation to resist for many.

Pre-Qualifying two Lezyne high volume Dirt Floor Drive pumps were brought out for the first free-to-enter fun “Exploder” competition. Racing your mates in a forearm exploding effort to burst an inner tube the quickest proved a real crowd pleaser. After an adrenalin charged demo from Olly Wilkins & Grant Robinson the ever so slightly scared crowds jumped in for their chance of free Lezyne prizes.

Pump Track qualifying got underway with a great line up of riders in the Pro category, racing for the £400 cash prize pot and great prizes for the other categories. Fastest qualifier went to 4x/DH Rider Duncan Ferris DMR Bikes followed by DH Rider Bernard Kerr Pivot/Upgrade +0.24, 4x Scott Beaumont Rocky Mountain +0.94, 4X Dave Roberts Team Nakedracing +1.11. Close to not qualifying was Dirt Jumper & the hot favourite Olly Wilkins DMR Bikes, just in at +1.16seconds.

Close times from 4x Tom Gethin Team Nakedracing, 4x Pat Cambel Jenner Team Identity and 4x Tom Dowie Identiti meant they just missed out the finals by hundredth’s of a second.

To get the final off to a bang more of the crowd took up Lezyne Exploder. Eveyone agreed that next time downhill inner tubes would be even more fun just how big they can stretch before exploding!

The tight DMR track delivered intense racing as spectators crowded to get a good view of the action. Reverse order start put Olly Wilkins was the first rider off the start but lost it on a high berm going down hard. Dave Roberts who was flying but literally hit th rollers all wrong and flew himself over the handle bars and was out.

With just 3 riders to go next up was the smooth riding Scott Beaumont who’s time to beat of 14.10s turned out to be good enough for 3rd place. Bernard Kerr looked really fast in practice and made the corners look like they were straight crossed the line in 12.85 leaving just Duncan Ferris. Wanting revenge on Bernard for his defeat at the last mini downhill race in February, Dunk looked fired up enough to make the win…..but finished +0.66 on Bernard and in 2nd place.

In the Rippers classKaty Curd Rose Bikes took the win for the girls and Luke Cryer Team Nakedracing for the boys. In Open class Joe Walters took the number one spot and everyone got great prizes from Lezyne.

Fantastic close racing on a tough tight track, the riders & crowd loved it.

The next race moves onto a big stone figure of eight pump track at One Planet Adventure, Llangella, in North Wales which is also home to the Atherton training camps.