It was the season finale of the 2017 Mini Downhill season last weekend and the sun decided to finally make an appearance.

It was run on the short but sweet Corkscrew track, a firm favourites with first timers and veterans alike.

Here’s the race report from 1Vision‘s Will Jones

Forest of Dean Mini Downhill Round 4 – Corkscrew

Report by Will Jones (race winner!)
Photos by Dave Price and Ollie Cox

Last weekend I headed down to the Forest of Dean for the last round of the Onza Tires Mini DH series. My race season had already started out in Portugal a few weeks before, so I was keen to get back on the clock again before the first BDS round this weekend. It was also a great opportunity to go and support local racing!

The event runs with a push up, one-day format and practice kicked off at 9am on the track called Corkscrew. It was really cool to see such a big turn out for a local race, and the weather had come out for us with warm temperatures and sunny skies for the whole day! 

The track was good fun and really short, which made it perfect for an entry-level downhill race. It started with a pedally top section consisting of loads of switch back corners that you needed to ensure you carried your speed out of. This lead you into fire road crossing before dropping into the bottom section which was more technical and rooty with a steeper gradient. The rooty sections of the track meant you needed to be more precise with line choice in order to maintain speed. As the track was dry the rolling speed was fast and meant that the track wasn’t getting cut up throughout the day. An all round good fun track!

The track was short and fairly easy which meant that it was suitable for the majority of downhill racers. Despite that you still needed to maintain a high level of concentration, focus and speed as the times were obviously going to be really tight. 

I had a good solid first run with a time of 46.72 seconds. I was happy with this time as this put me 2 seconds a head of 2nd place rider Will Soffe, riding his new Geometron. I knew my time wouldn’t be easy to beat but as a racer taking more time off was on the forefront of my mind. I pushed even harder in my 2nd run and was able to drop more time and achieve a winning time of 45.87 seconds. In the end I took first place, Will Soffe second and Kyle Hall third in elite. It was good to see that the overall fastest men’s results saw seniors Warren Field and Ralfs Bikernieks take 2nd and 3rd fastest times of the day.

Fastest female of the day was Sarah Crellin, riding for Team Mitchell Cycles. Franki Evans took second, followed by Rosy Monaghan. It was great to see Rosie taking 3rd fastest female time of the day overall – despite riding in the Youth category. She put some good time into the older racers. 

I’m really excited for the 2017 season and the MiniDH was a great warm up. It’s my first full world cup season after being rookie at the European rounds last year. This race was a great event to participate in the week for before heading to Nant G for the first BDS. The weather was brilliant and the track was crowded with spectators who made the riding and racing really exciting, so big thanks to everyone who turned out to watch and cheer us on!

This year I will be racing for One Vision Global Racing again and couldn’t be happier with the team, support from our fantastic sponsors, and a great family behind me. I’d like to thank all of the team’s great sponsors for making sure we’re so prepared with the best products and support going into the season. You can follow the team over at instagram.com/v1sion_global_racing.

Thanks to the Onza Tires Mini Downhill for a great winter of racing and to Chris and his team for making it happen. 

The Onza Tires Mini Downhill is supported by – of course – Onza Tires and Flowmtbapparel, Eatmydirtninja, Flyup417bikepark, Shredxs, Sprungsuspension and Envecomposites.

See you for more Mini Downhill racing in Winter 2017 or at Forest of Dean for the next Haibike Mini Enduro on the 30th April.