Has to be said it was probably the best day weather wise for a race at Bideford that I have ever attended!!!! Yes the wind was blowing a bit but it was dry and the sun made an appearance at times. It was a shame that original plans to hold presentation and camping on site had to be changed but I believe this was completely out of the clubs hands and I think they did amazingly well to re organise given the circumstances. Unfortunately due to Henry picking up a knock in his second moto, our evening resulted in us ordering a pizza delivery to Barnstable A&E instead of attending the presentation, and I will take this opportunity to apologise to the all in the hospital that evening who then had to endure the mini wave of food deliveries which we seemed to instigate!!! I’ve seen a few videos and pictures on the social media rounds and it looks like everyone had a good time. I will throw out huge credit to whoever came up with this years regional trophies, they are MINT and the Champs trophies again were great, those laser cut designs are brilliant. Congratulations to all those who took home the SW1 titles.

As has been the case for pretty much the whole regional series racing ran super smoothly which has to be attributed to the transponder system and all its associated race software. The new gate is a massive improvement, the revised first straight looked to ride well, another huge plus for the region with tracks evolving to meet the needs of our riders. The legend that is Scott Dick made the journey along the M4 to help Neil out and give the day a national vibe. Cal, Eddie, Josh, Haydon, Emily, Leo and Harrison battled it out for the very nice elite purse that was put up by Burrington Estates and Connected Electricals, along with 4 Holeshot prizes donated by Clarity Copiers. It was just a shame that it didn’t attract a few more riders so it wasn’t grand prix but still it didn’t stop the show piece race being just that, and if you’ve ever watched Eddie Moore at any race meet you know that like The Artful Dodger he’ll always be there to pick a pocket or two!!!.

SW Champs always throws up the issue of race categories, where often you find that riders who have raced up age groups all year in the regional series come back into their age appropriate race category for the Champs. Personally I have always said I don’t agree with it. We have always been fortunate enough that Henry’s age group has always been a good competitive group, but, I do understand why it makes sense for certain riders to race up age groups for the competition. When anyone comes back into their age group though for the Champs I always think its a case of “my class doesn’t provide enough competition for me all year but I’ll race it just this once to win the SW title” Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying it’s right or its wrong and I don’t think it’s something that will ever please everyone, but what I will say is I don’t like hearing when parents/ riders kick off about it with each other. These are the rules and those that do drop back are perfectly entitled to, if you have a problem with the rules then please take it up with those who put the rules in place and not those who are simply playing by them. Interestingly enough though I noted that at The Brits, those who rode the National series out of their natural class had to race The Brits out of their natural class and were not able to drop back into their natural class!!!!!!!!! It would be interesting to know how other regions approach this.

So that is officially it for another year, although as we all know there’s always a race going on somewhere. True to form the first round of racing under the roof booked up in next to no time and caused many a heart attack moment for parents desperate to get booked in. If you haven’t already done so the vast majority of SW riders transponder chips will need their subscriptions renewing here’s a guide as to how you can do this

So that’s about it for another episode. I have also produced a small edit from the Champs which is available to view on our YouTube channel now if you’ve not seen it already, CLICK HERE to view now. For those of you who voted on our last post regarding next years Brits rumour mill it was a landslide victory for Leicester to host next year. Our best wishes go out to DT who is having a short spell in hospital at the moment, I think I can comfortably speak for the BMX community in wishing you a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing that cheeky little smile back at a track very soon. Lastly I forgot to add on my last blog post how camp life at times can be educational. In Derby I learnt the Welsh word for 100. I was also then taught that if you recite said word three times in quick succession it comes out as something quite different, Google it and you’ll see what I mean!!!!!!!! Answers on a postcard as to which child was the teacher that day……………………. Cheers all