When the people of Cornwall BMX Club get to host their round of the Summer Series they put on a show. And what a show it was, with just over 200 riders from the region including an amazing 51 Novice riders which necessitated semi-finals in the 7 - 9 years group! And the Club fielded 47 of the total entries too. The catering was up to the high standard the Club sets itself and included home-made cakes, clotted cream and jam scones and, of course, hot pastys. Despite persistent and sometimes torrential rain in the preceding week the track was in excellent condition and the only fault from the day had to be the brisk crosswind which prevented some of the jumping action but challenged riders in their manualling skills and bike control.
First of the Novice finals for 6 and Unders saw local rider Zac Hudson, unbeaten all day, win despite a pedal-slip during the race just ahead of Jack Nation and Rhys Fraser. Making the most of home track advantage in the Novice 7 - 9's was Fintan Jones ahead of club mates Finlay Keogh and Ewan George who were having their own battle behind trading places throughout the race. Fintan had earlier dominated his motos and semi-final with some superb riding. Novice 10 - 12 was a victory for Burnham's Curtis Pickard from Bristol's Tom Green and Exeter's Jake Lawry. Despite there being only three riders in Novice 13 - 15 they certainly gave it their all, with Nicky Stevens and Josh Kranat battling all day and on at least one occasion they took each other down. Novice 16+ was a frenzied group of six riders ranging in age up to 41 year old Martin Smith in full Old Skool race kit on an OS cruiser. Bideford's Alan Johns took the final honours from Cornwall's Dan Lord and Tim Faulding.
The turn of the girls in Female 7 - 9 was run as a Grand Prix and Louise Penfold and Megan Wherry, both from the home club, were in constant battle all day with Megan winning the fourth race but Louise gaining overall victory. Decoy's Emily Green remained unbeaten all day grabbing honours in the A Final from Burnham's Rebecca Duckering in Female 10 -12 after seeing motos winner Shannon Blake from Tiverton take a tumble on the third straight. The Female 13 - 15 years were mixed in with the Female 16+ riders and in the younger group local riders Katie Kemp and Becky Davis rode home in that order in each race but out in front in the older group was recent European placed 6th Charlotte Green riding for Alan's BMX. Duchy Pirate Michelle Rickett dominated the Ladies 20 & Over from Tiverton's Paula Hallett.
Cruisers suffered a bit in numbers but what they lacked numerically they made up for with some excellent racing with place trading a feature with berm swoops and drag races to the Finish Line. Duchy rider Ben Clarkson was riding two classes and won three of the four 16 - 24 motos despite being in the 15 & Under category from Bideford's Brian Jury. The 25 -39 group had fifteen riders and Paul Eccles from Decoy and Burnham's Clive Hawkins shared the moto wins with the A Final result in Paul's favour from Clive with Damian Mead in 3rd. Only seven riders for 40+ and a convincing set of wins for Duchy's Dave Herman powering away, but never threatened, by Cornwall's Stuart Long and Exeter's Brian Shell. The separate MTB class saw Sean Herman jumping his way to victory in all the races.
Exeter's Freddie Cole won the 6 and Under Experts from Cornwall's Ashley England after an exciting battle in the A Final. Ryan O'Loughlin from Exeter was unbeaten in Expert 7's leading home from Duchy's Harry Fernihough. Burnham's Joshua Coppin led home club mate James Duckering in the Expert 8's whilst in the Expert 9's local lads Daniel Commons-Lomax and Alex Diment romped home in their races, as carnage in the fourth moto saw three riders have a huge coming together to scatter the field. Decoy's Katie Yeates showed the boys how to ride in Expert 10 with Burnham's CJ Tye following her home. The Expert 11's was looking set to be a battle beaten between Burnham's Eddie Moore and Cornwall's Josh Caddy and they didn't disappoint with a close tussle to the line with Duchy's Scott Dominguez hot on their heels. Expert 12's belonged to Duchy's Tyler Caddy from Burnham's Todd Rattue after Burnham's Roy Jones lead the field but was out-manoeuvred in the closing stages. Tim Jones from Decoy took the win in Expert 13 after a close tussle with Cornwall's Bobby Long. All eyes were on local lad Dan Davis, Duchy's Matt Roddis and Decoy's Oliver Fay in the Expert 14's but Dan took advantage of his home track to win the A Final, even after unclipping, and taking a clean sweep of wins through the day. Bristol's James Trevascus took overall honours in the Expert 15's from Bideford's Daniel Jury.
The big boys of Expert 17+ took their places for the A Final and moto honours had been shared by four riders so it was anyone's guess who would take the win. Exeter's Daniel Thorne proved a worthy winner from Duchy's Ben Clarkson and Bideford's Brian Jury after they despatched Martyn Green wide in the first berm. And so to the last race of the day, with the 25+ers on the gate with David Brooks tumbling exiting the first berm and, luckily, being narrowly missed by half the field, whilst out front Bideford's Michael Smart led home from Richard Green.
An excellent days' racing concluded in record time at 16:20hrs and all credit must go to the Cornwall BMX Club team for pulling it all together and getting their track prepared to such a high standard despite the previous weeks' weather.
The St John Ambulance team were on hand to assist the fallers but thankfully there were no serious injuries. Ian Wheeler brought his sound system along to the meeting and commentator Kelly Davis kept everyone advised of events on the mic. The South West Summer Series moves to Tiverton on 16th August to try out track-builder Steve Jenk's new masterpiece . Details of the Cornwall BMX Club's local events and opening times can be found at www.cornwallbmx.co.uk
