AMCA and Ryan Crowder impress at Norley
By Anthony Sutton on 3rd May 18
The AMCA have gone all out with their British Championship this year to make it bigger and better than ever before. And to be fair theyve succeeded as theres no doubt that its way more professional than ever before.
And while that doesnt sit well with some old-school purists who insist that this should stay this and that should never be that, I think its only fair that we applaud the organisation for standing up and doing whats right for them and sticking up two fingers to anyone who doesnt agree with their ethos.
The first round of the 2018 series was held at Norley which for those not in the know is the nice part of Cheshire not a million miles away from Oulton Park I suppose. To be honest Im a little surprised that theyre able to run motocross there at all as its just that nice a place but for the past 30 years or so that has been the case.
I actually raced Norley for the first time in 1989 as a wee nipper and it was a regular stop on the Sutton world tour for the next eight years or so. In that decade the place changed hugely and its almost unrecognisable now although key features remain as does the amazing loamy/sandy soil that the place is built on.
I feel fortunate that the soil there is so soft as over the years I experienced some huge crashes and walked away pretty much unscathed from them all. My first biggie came in 1991 with the Dragon SSC. My dad had bought me a new Barum from Bryco and Id made the mental decision that I couldnt be beaten outta the gate ever again.
I was three for three on the first day of a two-dayer and leading the Senior class troops into the back end of the circuit nearest the church thats Sunday services meant we had a delayed start.
Anyhoo, I wheelied this bump underestimating the rebound potential of the rear suspension on that years RM125 and shot myself into space. I swear to god it was the longest unpowered flight Ive ever made and couldve probably read War and Peace before landing on the base of my back.
It hurt like hell and funnily enough there were no holeys forthcoming on day two. Three years on and I was an 18-year- old AMCA Expert armed with a year-old YZ250. I was paying for stuff myself by then so my back tyre was probably much less knobbly than the Barum Id run three years before.
A few different clubs ran the place then and I cant remember who it was that put this meeting on but theyd made a really cool little rhythm section that was basically a small tabletop into a bombhole with a single on the end.
I found that if I powered down the backside of the tabletop I could get big air off the single which was great fun until someone wobbled and crashed right in my landing zone. So I basically came down right on top of his CR250 that by this point was right on top of him stopped dead and went cart-wheeling headlong down Norleys gnarliest hill.
That was a biggie but everyone was basically okay. My final big crash at Norley came on my maiden outing in the AMCA Championship back in 1996. Id been drafted in as a reserve after finishing fourth in that years Repecharge and was pumped to be racing my home track right up until I got flu.
Still, it was too good an opportunity to miss and battled it out all day just missing out on a point in the first moto Mick Du-feu snatched 15th from me on the last lap. In the last race I got a terrible start and was headed to rebound bump deep in the pack when two guys tangled in front of me and I got caught up in their crash which wouldve been fine except for the fact I turned hard left and shot over an edge down a vertical slope into some trees where I somehow ended up underneath my bike.
I was totally trapped and way out of sight but fortunately a marshal had noticed me go off the edge and came to retrieve me. Eventually they chucked the red flags out and it took about five guys to pull me out of the hole I was in. Fun times.
So Norley and the AMCA will always have great memories for me and likewise, I would hope, Ryan Crowder who unlike many of the guys hes racing against in the MX1 division this year has been AMCA through and through since day one of his riding career so to see him overcome the odds and win round one of this years championship was pretty damn special.
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