PORC Winter 4X
04 Dec 09 / Posted By Andrew
Gareth Parr has sent us a rport from PORCs
winter series. In his usual unique style. Not dissing him but his thoughts are his own. Sounds like pure grass roots racing to me.
Last Sunday was the second round of the winter 4x race series at P.O.R.C. I only found out about the first race because I turned up on the day to do some riding but I got there a little late. Apparently the only place this has been advertised is on southerndownhill.com and I was lucky enough to be looking at that website the night before the second round. Now as easy as it would be to slate the organisers I wont, well not right now, because the two young lads that have organised it have to take some credit for getting up of their arses and organising the events in the first place.
There was only one change to the track since the NPS event in the summer and that was the weather, it chucked it down over night. But with the track being on the side of the hill and a few shovels about the place there were no puddles come race time but the track was still slick in the corners and my new favourite bit of the track was the last flat turn where it dropped down into an off camber turn. Thanks to the rain there was no grip and a complete lottery to weather you would stay up right. The rest of the track rode well and all the jumps were still jumpable.
Practice went well but because of the corners being wet I opted for flat pedals just to have a little more fun on the last two corners seeing how sideways I could get. The gate was a manual start with the timing being a little different every time and I think they had got it from a dual race because with four riders up there we were all touching bars.
Racing started and instead of a computer picking random people to race it was done by a young lad shouting "who's in 16 and over" and the four riders to race where the four that put their hands up first. So I lined up on the gate with Mike Wong of dialled bikes, Jake Ward a national junior rider and another chappy. And as you might of guessed there was no lane order it was just who ever go up there first got first pick. The gate dropped and despite being on flats I still got into the lead and started to ride a real sketchy lap. I bounced around over the first couple of little doubles, over the bridge jump fine, over the first big table but nosed in way to much and thought I was going over the bars pedalled hard and over shot the first triple to bouncing through the next triple. Round the berm only to be overtaken in the next berm by Jake Ward who took the inside line. I followed him down feeling I could over take him only to get over excited and come into that flat corner before the drop way to fast and took a swift journey south right into the only puddle on the track, I probably looked like stingray. I got up cold and wet to finish the race in second. The next race was who ever got up to the start first which meant exactly the same riders went again except this time I rode smooth and took a win. My last moto I ended up racing against different people who where doing there first proper race so good on them but I showed them who's boss and took the win. The last race, because we knew we would all go through we had a pump race which. that was won by Harry Malloy, World cup junior downhill racer with my self in second and Jake Ward in third and mike Wong bringing up the rear. so the final consisted of myself Harry Malloy Jake Ward and another kiddie on a big bouncy bike. Harry fell of the gate but passed me in the corner and over took Jake on the straight as we followed each other down the rest of the track fast and fluid.
So third for me and some nice brand new red grips courtesy of DMR.
Yes the organisation was bad and they do need to advertise it more and thankfully the organisation will be taken over by some fellow called bling, I don't think he was christened that but that's what they call him. The next race is on the 13 of December which is the same day as the race at Leamington spa which Chris Roberts will be attending with his air ram gate so I know which one I will be attending.
I also hope you all appreciate me writing this because my fingers on my left hand are strapped together after I dislocated them the day after doing Teakwondo. See you next time.
Not the winter but vdo of the NPS4X race at PORC
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