TMX Says - Who’s climbing Hawkstone Hill?
By Team TMX on 3rd Feb 16
The old and beaten body is in for a bit of a shock this weekend as after a lengthy winter of discontent which mostly consisted of coughing at home and coughing at work Ill be taking my cough for a drive to Hawkstone Park where a walk up the hill its become a yearly tradition will either kill me or cure me.
The Hawkstone International is always a true indication of who's been working hard all winter in preparation for the season ahead and who's been sat on the couch eating pie. And I'm not just talking about the riders here but the photographers too who can normally be heard wheezing hard above the sound of the bikes as they drag their sorry arses and camera equipment around Shropshire's finest woods.
Topping the entry list of the world's #1 pre-season international will be Ray Archer (Canon). Ray's been working hard all winter, took a pre-season training trip to the States and is even spending part of this week at Lommel in Belgium so should be on top form at the weekend. Look out for Ray wearing a black jacket – or Alpinestars trench coat if it's raining – and woolly hat.
There's bad news for fans of Portuguese photo ninja Nuno Laranjeira as he's decided not to grace us with his presence this weekend. Fortunately other notable media folk you can expect to get in the way of paying spectators at Hawkstone include Digital Dick Law (Nikon), Hank Hill (Nikon) and Haggis Hartman (Canon) so be sure to check them out.
Okay, enough of that nonsense – let's get down to the real reason why everyone should be headed to Hawkstone Park this weekend.
First and foremost it's an awesome opportunity to see two of the world's greatest sand riders – I'm talking about Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings and Shaun Simpson here – ply their trade in the deep stuff.
Of course they're not the only guys to look out for as GP stars Max Anstie, Thomas Covington, Conrad Mewse, Jeremy Seewer, Davy Pootjes, Pauls Jonass, Ben Watson, Adam Sterry and Benoit Paturel all line up in MX2 along with British stars Liam Knight, James Dunn and Josh Gilbert.
The MX1 class is stacked with international talent too – Ben Townley, Marc De Reuver, Kevin Strijbos, Clement Desalle, Steven Lenoir, Nick Triest and Jordi Tixier will be battling it out with home-grown talent including Tommy Searle, Brad Anderson, Ashley Wilde, Lewis Gregory and Ryan Houghton.
Chuck in the cream of the UK's youth talent in an all-new MXY2 support class and you know it's gonna be a pretty ace day with three 15-minute motos for the nippers and a pair of 25-minute plus two lap motos as well as the mixed-capacity Super Final for the pro class riders. Makes the £25 ticket price (including free programme) seem like an absolute bargain...
