Midlands
Championship - Hopton |
18th
Sept 2005 |
 |
Craig Bromley's
first podium since 2003 |
To say it's been a long time coming is an understatement, but here is the Crash Master showing that he is still amongst the top Masters riders in the Midlands. With all the changes in the categories and the Masters becoming an old mans Elite division, podiums were always only going to be a pipe dream for Crash. |
| The Midlands Championships are really only any interest to Craig as he's the only member of the team that qualifies for a position, so it was off to Hopton to try and put to bed some historical recurrences that has haunted the Crash Master. Firstly he has spent most of his time coming in 4th place in Midlands Champs together with some of the 2004 Midland rounds too, so goal number one....NO 4TH PLACE! Secondly the little man from Birmingham (Si Paton) has a knack of continually beating him by only a fraction of a second sometimes off the podium into 4th....it's fair to say that Si is Craig's nemesis, goal number two is..... TO BEAT OR BE BEATEN BY SI PATON BY 1 OR MORE SECONDS. And finally the last 2 events he has destroyed his chances of a good result by catching up slower riders before the finish so goal number 3 is......EVERYONE TO STAY OUT OF MY WAY! |
| Practice didn't start well as he decided to pin it from the get go noticing that uplift delays were likely, it was important to get up to speed quickly so when he hit the new section of the course he kept the throttle open.....well until he suddenly saw a large log in the course which he then failed to bunny hop. Over the bars and head first into a dusty right hand bend, not a great start, still his pace seemed good for the rest of the course. |
| Practice was over and he nailed his first timed run crossing the line with credible 3:10 placing himself in a potential 3rd place. The run went well with no notable mistakes or crashes, the time was good although pedaling was not a big feature of the run. |
| So it was off up the hill to desperately hold on to a podium chance which hasn't happened for Craig since 2003 at Baskerville Hall. The run started off very well with him pinning most sections and keeping smooth through the stumpy and rooty middle section, he even managed a few pedal strokes too.....as he came up to the big step down there was another rider just in front of him....surely not again? He nailed the right hand berm and was held up behind the rider over the thin ledge section despite the crowds screaming "RIDER!!!!"....yes it happened again there was no chance to pass and very little he could have done to pull over, there was a chance to pass him in the final stretch towards the table top but it all went a bit wrong, Craig launched high to try and overtake him on the jump to the right, but failed to notice the other rider nose diving underneath him, millimeters separated them on landing and they crossed the line together. |
| So one of his haunts had come back but what about the others? Well fortunately the rest of the run was so good that he managed to come in 2nd place with 3:08, unfortunately that was AGAIN 0.9 of a second behind Si Paton in first place....with several seconds lost behind the slower rider, Craig was left gutted not to be crowned Midlands Champion, this made the amazing 2nd place result harder to enjoy....still there's always 2006! |
| ...and just to make things worse, if he gets a reasonably good result in the final round of the Midlands Series he is likely to come in 4th overall again....the same as he came in the 2004 Midlands Champs, 2004 Midlands Winter Series, and the 2003 Midlands Summer Series.....GREAT! |