You and your mates up the local woods with a stop watch and a walkie talkie is all you need to hold a “Mates Race” cheap and cheerful is the idea.
Nathan Smith and his pals organised one the other day, here’s his story:
(By the way, if you have a mates race story, then send some quailty street photos and video to BIlly)
Race Report-Round 1-winter series-19th dec
First of all id just like to thank all lads that turned up as i know it was short notice and very very cold, but im glad you managed to come through,with a special mention for the lads that came through from mexborough as it was a icy morning but hopefully you all had a good time and a good mornings racing.
Ritche o’rourke sporting some tinsel
So to get onto the racing, the track was in good condition with the early morning frost never really disappearing leaving the track surprisingly grippy through practice and in the early runs. Early favourite steve scott looked quick during practice, but he was not on his own as young adam dutch showed he was up for a scrap looking really quick in practice with Neil farmer,Daz jordan and Ian Binch not looking too shabby themselves.
Neil Farmer
After the talking had stopped (mainly scotty) it was time for the race runs, each rider had 4 runs each with there two quickest times counting and also there would be a trophy for single quickest time. The numbers were drawn and it called for SENIOR steve scott to descend the hill first, setting a blistering time of 24.6 which not to be known at the time, but would be the quickest time of the day.
Steve scott with his energy boosting haribos
After the runSteve quoted “if i could have made a mistake on that run..i just did it” maybe a bit of sportsmanship. the second man down was neil farmer, this being his first race, the pressure was really felt by the scawsby man (who had promised his partner not to get hurt) but putting the butterflys to one side,farmer came down the hill and set a solid 26.7 which he was happy with,after his glasses had de-misted.
Phil clarke on bottom section
Phil clarke was the next rider to descend, a local lad who was backing himself all the way with his new trick bits fitted to his bike especially the aerofin fitted to the rear over the tyre which he quoted “iv made myself,it acts as a air break whilst slowing,and a fin during speedy descents”. This was proven to be completly wrong as clarkes only sourse of braking on his first run…was a tree, and inturn setting a not so good time of 38.3 which was never going to trouble the leaders. Daz jordan was next down setting a good 27.4 on both his first and second runs and proved to be consistent all day and rode really well .
Ian Binch
Jordan was set for a blistering run on his third attempt but only to bin in on the penultimate berm which landed him on the deck and in the dumps as he quoted “that would have been a fucking 22 second’er” and to be fair, it would not have been far off the mark. Dutch was down 5th and set a really good time of 27 dead which was good enuff to land him near the top with five riders down.Ian binch had problems during practice with drifting on too many of the corners losing him mass time but a quick tyre pressure change, eased the problem and binch was rite on the pace setting a 26 dead only just over a second behind front man scott with 3 runs remaining.
Adam Dutch 3rd
Nick Jackson has not been riding dh long and rode very very well on a course he had never rode before, but tackled every challange in his way, and was the only one who could say he got through the day without an off in neither practice or the race runs. nick posted a time of 31.1 and run by run knocking his times down before completing his fastest run of the day on his last run with a 30.6.
Nath Smith and Steve Scott who took the win and quickest time.
Theres not alot you can say about Ritchie O’Rourke except tinsle on his bars and one brake on his bike…insane. In my own opinion, if he had two brakes he would have been challenging as he still managed to set a quick time of 27.1…with one brake as i said, and its not the fact it doesn’t work…its the fact he doesn’t even have a lever on the bars. after all riders had there 4 runs, the times were added up (wrongly by neil at first) and the results were in-
1st best two times added quickest single time
Steve scott 49.3sec 24.6sec
2nd place
Ian Binch 52.0sec 26.0sec
3rd place
Adam Dutch 53.8sec 26.8sec
4th place
Neil Farmer 53.9sec 26.7sec
5th place
Phil Clarke 54.3sec 26.9sec
6th place
Ritche o’rourke 54.8sec 27.1sec
7th place
Daz Jordan 54.8sec 27.4sec
8th place
Nick Jackson 61.7sec 30.6sec
Thanks again for everyone for coming, and for neil and chris davies for helping me with the timing of the day, cheers lads. I will inform all the lads that rode of when the next race will be, it will be sometime after new year, maybe the Saturday after, cheers again .
