NPS 4X Rnd 5 Report by: Aidan Bishop

Back where they belong....on the podium

8am the A team van pulled up out front of the house with Mr Gleed and Mr Lawrie onboard, we then set off for Gloucestershire for round 5 of the NPS 4X series at the Redhill extreme venue. This was a sad sad day as Stefan beat me fair and square….god damn it!!

The day before held Rd4 and apparently experienced variable weather, making the course very slippery. Sunday morning was glorious sunshine with clouds looming later on but holding back the rain. The course was much the same as I raced it last year for the national championships, a quick start straight, dipping left and you pick up some serious speed and a couple of line choices over table tops, berm left and more lane choices, one with a big step down to triple, the other small step down small double which is slightly slower. Left berm or cut tight then table top to a big table top then grassy flat left to finish line. Good fun to ride, providing some close racing, but still a little hard to make a pass on.

Aidan & Stef

Peter Lawrie stepped up this time to race in masters with us old boys, and put up a good fight for only his second race in several years. Motos came and went (fuelled by monster energy drums!), I had performed ok with a 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, my only loss to Steve Jones, the winner of the previous day and serious overall challenger. Stefan had mixed results as did Pete, Stefan even managed to get beaten by a vet!!!! (Ok, he is national champion and fast, but a vet all the same!). At this point I should point out that as there were only 7 masters entered they decide to mix masters and vets together to allow semi finals.

Stef

We had all made the semis comfortably. Stef was up first and made it through in 2nd place chasing Steve Jones down the track, giving him a bit of a fright on the final grass corner. Next semi and I lined up with Pete in my race, gate dropped and I went for it, getting the lead and not looking back, Pete not gating very well and pushed hard for that final place but couldn’t manage to pass anywhere and went into the B final, try harder next time mate!

Final time and it was a bit of a delay as a youth rider, I think, had a bad off and waited for his ambulance trip, I think he is ok now thankfully. Nerves rising as we wait for the gate to drop with Steve, myself, Stefan and Gary Gray (the vet!!). The gate drops and Steve to my left gets his usual quick start, I chase hard for the first double and down the table tops then bloody Gleed cuts infront of me to take the quicker outside line….bugger! All practice his gates have been suspect, then he pulls out a blinder in the final. From then on in it was a fast train of the three of us going for it, with no one making any mistakes that was the way it stayed, Steve taking the win, Stefan getting revenge for rd 1 and me ending 3rd.

It was good to get out racing in the sun again, a fun course and some close racing. Gleed has a battle on now for the overall with two rounds left at a new venue at the UK bikepark in Dorset. I can’t make it as I’m sunning it up in Florida then…shame!!

Hopefully will report in with some DH race results after that as I’m missing riding the Socom!