Two sides to the weekend
By TMX Archives on 11th Mar 10
Last weekend saw International motocross at Hawkstone and British Trials Champs at Scarborough events that showed both sides of the off-road coin...
ALTHOUGH to me it's still a tad on the early side of the year for motocross I've always really enjoyed the Hawkstone International MX and last Sunday, as I headed south to Shropshire, I was looking forward and, along with a whole lot of you who had similar ideas, was rewarded with a crisp, sunny day and some really good racing. I know this year the ACU British Championship sneaked in a week ahead, the previous weekend in Devon, but to me Hawkstone always heralds the beginning of each new season's motocross calendar.
Of course, many MX clubs run winter series these days and I'm certainly not knocking the practise. Equally, many clubs simply can't as their tracks simply aren't of the all-weather (sandy) variety and to subject them to winter use would simply ruin them, perhaps for ever.
Hawkstone most definitely falls into the all-weather category and older readers will probably remember the old New Year's Day meetings at the Shropshire track. Actually, all-weather isn't strictly true, it certainly isn't impervious to frost and several riders discovered that a bone-hard, icy Hawkstone is bad for your limbs should you crash. Which is why there's no New Year's Day MX any more!
But there is a Hawkstone International and I'm a big fan of the event. Not sure about the modern mania for turning MX tracks into road-race circuits though with over-enthusiastic use of the dozer. Before the first race, some of the track was a lot smoother than the tarmac at Oulton Park when I watched British Superbikes late last year! I can see the point of flattening the start ‘straight' in the interests of safety but after that, isn't it supposed to be rough? Unless there's an element of danger why not leave the track alone. It's why bikes sport long-travel suspension. One of the major draws of Hawkstone is that it always was a totally natural track. It doesn't need turning into a supercross circuit.
Whatever, it was a brilliant day's sport with Leok, Roczen and Nicholls to name just three not holding back on the throttle. Some of the guys were clearly pacing themselves but this early in the season who can blame them. The low points of the day were obviously Shaun Simpson's crash, after proving blindingly fast in qualifying, and British champ Brad Anderson's self-inflicted injury.
Shaun is giving himself a really hard time at the moment with early-season crashes but here's hoping that he is getting all the bad stuff out of the way before the GP season starts. He is a really genuine person who is doing his absolute best to do everything in his life right in order to be the best at his sport. Brad of course was just being Brad and is quite rightly a huge fans' favourite. You get 100 per cent effort every gate and it was during a typical charge in the opening MX1 moto that he managed to run over his own foot with the PAR Honda's rear wheel which unfortunately put him out for the day. In Brad's world, "It was nothing, it'll be all right by next week – I've done it before!”
* MEANWHILE, over the other side of the country the opening round of the British Trials Championship was being staged at Low North Park, Harwood Dale, with the Scarborough club in charge of the event on the huge chunk of former MoD land that they bought over 50-years ago. What foresight someone had!
The event proved to be one of the hardest British Championship rounds in recent years with only winner, reigning British Champ James Dabill, keeping his score under three figures. Unlike at Hawkstone, the conditions did not go in the organisers' favour and grip was at a premium with freezing water and mud being dragged onto the rocks and banking sides.
All classes suffered equally but it says everything about trials riders that there were very few retirements outside of the Non-championship Youth class.
Take Craig Robinson, a good standard National trials rider who gives it his best shot in the Championship class. Craig made it through just a single section, the opener on his second lap which he did for just a dab. He dropped the maximum five marks in the remaining 35 sections. How easy it would have been for Craig to ride back to the paddock, load up and go home. The same goes for the vast majority of the riders. Sam Haslam finished fifth – yet clocked-up 25 maximums out of 36 sections with just three cleans.
Ditto Experts A and Experts B. The B guys are the ones which, in theory, we are trying to encourage to greater things and it ought to be a relatively easy course. Yet Darren Brice, a National trial winner, dropped a mighty 108 – and he won! Yet out of 28 starters only two failed to reach the finish. To which I say – well done all!