Farmer Johns DH Race North West Champions
2011
Fantastic result for Team NCA! Two North West Champions after a weekend of DH racing at Marple Congratulations go out to NCA rider Aarron Hilton, now the North West Youth DH Champion. Putting in a fantastic run in a time of 1.37 at the Marple track. Aarron is quickly making his mark on the Youth category and shows huge potential for next season.
Big shout goes out to Jenna Woodruff, who is now the North West Ladies DH Champion. Returning to the DH racing scene after being out because of injury, Jenna put in a time of 1.54. Building up to race fitness ready for the Caerws Cup round 2 on the 18/19th June
Here is Jenna's write up
2011 North West Champs
Venue: Farmer John’s, Marple Bridge
Sunday 29th May 2011
This was the very first North West Champs event, hopefully,
It was a full NCA team turn out this weekend; this was the first time the whole team had raced together. It gave all the team riders a huge boost having support from each other and also gave the riders a chance to get to know each other a little better.
So, we rocked up at Farmer Johns bright and early on Saturday morning and pitched up our tents. It was still early in the day but Farmer Johns was buzzing, as it was a local event there were a lot of familiar faces which made for a very friendly atmosphere, riders were signing on, fitting number boards, catching up with each other from previous races and generally enjoying the banter.
After a quick track walk and inspection, it was time to kit up and go and practice. The track was easily sub 1min 50sec for most riders, the top section was relatively straightforward, pedally with a few jumps and some north shore thrown in for good measure.
Out of the open section and into the trees was where it got interesting. Out of a steep shoot into a set of 3 jumps, this is where you had to carry speed into the rather controversial, uphill ‘heltaskelta’, It caught a few riders out over the weekend. The rest of the track was a rather rooty affair, some very tight corners which were hard to carry flow through but if you got it right you were onto a winner. A wooden drop onto a sketchy, loose, root strewn corner and you were down to the last few berms into the finish arena.
Most riders decided to leave the pedally section at the top and concentrate their efforts in practice on the lower section. This is where most of Team NCA were seen throughout Saturday practice. This is also where Greg snapped his brake lever leaving him without a bike for the rest of the day. Jenna spent most of the day on the floor and tree hugging after not getting to grips with the rooty sections, and AJ got very frustrated with a very narrow gap between 2 trees. On a more positive note Mark and Arron were flying through this section and looked to have every corner and root section dialled.
After Saturday practice it was time chill out with a session on the air bag, a big inflatable with a ramp. Mark and AJ were in their element, back flipping downhill rigs, mental!
Then it was time for Daddy Pugz to get the apron on and get the BBQ going. And just to top off the evening, a few beers around the campfire.
Sadly,the heavens opened and most decided to call it a night and hit the hay.
Nice early start again on the Sunday and up to the top of the track at 9am to fit a few more practice runs in. Racing began at 12 with the youngest member of the team, Arron, setting down a time of 1:37 with a storming run! This saw him take the lead and keep it. Next up was Greg, after a disappointing time in practice and a bit of a crash in his race run he set a time of 1:53.
AJ was looking pinned all weekend and aiming for podium, unfortunately, disaster struck and he was hit with a major mechanical in his race run, leaving him unable to pedal and having to roll the track, he was gutted to say the least.
Next up was Mark, known for enjoying his race runs a little too much and putting on a show over the jumps, surprisingly he kept this run pretty low key and got down with a respectable time 1:43.
Riding in the ladies category was Jenna, first race back after another period of injury, this race was more a case of gaining back confidence than going for glory, a nice steady race run left her in 4th with a time of 1:53.
Representing all the veterans out there was Daddy Pugs, he took a very relaxed approach to the racing and had a nice steady run with a time 2:03.
After the huge success of the weekend lets hope many more local events will be popping up in the near future. Thanks to everybody that helped organise the event, Team NCA are looking forward to the next one!
Results
Arron – Youth 1st 1:37.66
Jenna – Ladies 4th 1:53.69 (North West DH Champion)
Pugs – Veterans 9th 2:03.98
Greg – Junior 11th 1:55.46
Mark – Masters 18th 1:43.11
AJ - Senior 20th 1:40.92
