The future for downhill racing in Wales is looking bleak after the news that Jason Carpenter and Dragon Downhill will probably not be running any more events on Forestry Commission Land.

I spoke to Jason this morning and he told me basically he was “over it”. After 10 years of running events on FC land and dealing with difficult officials, he said that “…I am disapointed by the actions of the South Wales FC towards downhill and was not worth the grief for the small profit margins…”

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This is what he posted on the Dragon Downhill site.

“I very much doubt I will be running any more events on FC land in South Wales as I don’t seem to be able to get along with the FC person I have to deal with. I’ve done my best to comply with all FC regs regarding uplift and event permissions etc etc, but whatever I do is never enough and I’ve decided I will be much happier not dealing with someone who I think is unreasonable. So, the Dragon DH series is over as we know it.
There are other factors like the difficulty providing effective/economic transport. I may run some other events in the future but they won’t be on FC land in South Wales until the person I cannot get on with is no longer there. I suggest a Welsh Downhill Association is formed, along the lines of the SDA. Lots of people who want the same thing getting together to provide DH events in South Wales.
There are a ton of benifits to an Association of interested people running DH events (VAT free is just one of them – only way to do this is to have a properly constituted club run by a genuine comittee). Don’t expect it to be an easy ride, but right now there is still plenty of time for people to get together to organise something for next year. “

Downhill mountain biking in Wales looks uncertain as the Dragon Downhill series finishes for good