So this was my fifth outing to ‘The Brits’ and I can safely say without any doubt ‘The Best’ I have been to yet, it wasn’t perfect, but it was a good way towards it, so a huge thank you from myself and my family, to Derby BMX club for all their efforts in making it so. As with most events they are always better when the weather is on your side and my personal classic flip flop tan lines provide confirmation that it was a belter, the only downside I experienced with the warmer weather was the delicate odour it generated in the gents track side portable urinal, and that was on Friday!!!!!!!

Standard operating procedures resumed in the trades area with all the usual suspects, Green Machine, Crucial, Pure, B73, DC Cycles with their pump track, Staystrong, and Sorted, all displaying their latest gear and end of season bargains. The massage chair gizmo guy was on point, he knew all about his product and how it compared to all others, and he had the gift. I sat there and 100% enjoyed my lower back being gently warmed and massaged but whilst feeling more and more relaxed that little bit of Yorkshire in me knew that he was cleverly never mentioning price, so exited whilst I was still feeling relaxed. Interestingly if anyone did hang on to find out the price please comment below.

Just short of 1300 riders were registered across the two days of racing which I heard was one of the best turn outs in recent years. Part of this has to be location. It makes sense to me to have The Brits somewhere in the middle third of the country making it more accessible from the farthest ends of motorway networks. I’m not sure I’d subscribe into having it at the same venue year on year, one I don’t think that’s its fair to pressure a club into that responsibility, and two, it to a lesser extent creates a bias towards members of that track. On that subject, the rumour mill was in full flow as to where next years event will be. The three venues that were brought to my attention were Leicester, Bournemouth and Peckham. Now I like all three of these but you can’t have The Brits without camping right???

Camping, like at Bournemouth was perfectly located, but as has already been highlighted on social media had it’s issues, the number of toilets did seem a little on the lean side, and not most ideal locating them at one end of probably the biggest camp site of the year, especially for people like me who have set up at the other end and then have to trudge down there to empty my waste, always a special journey!!! Security have also been questioned which I understand, but at least there was some, I’m sure a couple this year have had nothing and honestly when did you, ever, get asked to show your wrist band on a campsite, mine I know for a fact was ‘The Brits’ 2015 at Plattfields!! Not sure I remember seeing any fire extinguishers around the camp this weekend though…………..As mentioned before, part of the whole Brits weekend is camping. People in tents at night really do need to remember when using a light it projects your silhouette out to the camp!!!! A certain lady was seen to be sporting a new fashion by utilising the SW buff as, well, not sure what it turned into really ( those who know who this was, ask her to see the photos!!!) but it was soon being copied by a few adults and good few more of the kids. Night times involved the nippy little mozzies taking up Scott Dicks advice of “ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK”. Saturday night some South West skulduggery took place, commando styling it into The North gazebo and giving their skeleton the SW treatment (images and videos are on FB). Disappointing that my lad was woken at 1:55 am Sunday before racing and I had to have a word with the perpetrators. That sort of partying is for Sunday night, where a few of us from SW and a certain photographer (who has a wicked drink mix, music taste I can now tell you) gathered, drank , chatted, built a human pyramid, whittled down the numbers and followed the sounds over to the Midlands party. We strolled in took over the control of the music, eventually got it all jumping once phones re charged then played it out until the generator ran out. Layton thank you for your hospitality, red is the new blue!!!

Sunday as you all know is parade day, yes I’m going to be biased but we in the SW smashed that out of the park, best we’ve shown. The North win best supported region!?!? You what??? You’ve got to be mugging us off, how did that happen??? Later speculation suggested that the winners are picked from a hat!! Honestly……….. is that what happens, surely not. Great to hear a couple of new voices on the commentary, both doing an amazing job ( just who is this Neil Forsyth?), although I bet it was a little odd to be at a national race meeting and not call out Alan Hills name, hope you’re back racing soon Alan. Great to see Stephen Murray and Ed Pole, and then for a £2K cheque to be handed over, BMX family you are the best, just a shame to then hear of a few bikes being stolen. I hope these turned out to be just misplaced and not stolen. The two SW shop teams Green Machine who go out on a high and Crucial both took their respective Brits team competition titles which I think you all will agree is bloody brilliant and the trophies were to match unlike the national series ones which at first glance look good, get closer and the edges are rough finished and the two stickers that were applied weren’t straight, a little disappointing to be given that in recognition of a years worth of racing.

Hugh Copping posted an in depth FB post regarding the future of the sport, I won’t go into it all, read it for yourselves. It’s about moving with the times and utilising current tech specifically transponders on the national circuit. Many analogies were made, one particular was an old Nokia Vs a modern day smart phone. Last week there was a program I caught on TV, ‘ The Rise and Fall of Nokia’ they were leading the mobile market for years, approximately 2 years before the iPhone came out a smaller telecoms company approached Nokia several times with a new touch screen, augmented phone technology, but they were never interested and believed they were still top of the game. The day the iPhone was released and the Nokia bosses got their hands on it they instantly knew they were in trouble.

Let’s keep pushing the sport forward as a family that it always shows it is and let’s see what changes the next few years will bring.