Benn Thombs - (Club Chairman)Well, what a weekend!! Our open day, on Saturday, proved to be a massive hit with everyone who turned up. The car park was full in an hour, meaning we had to use the overflow parking around the track! People were streaming into the compound eager to find a place to sit and watch the afternoon's riding unfold. There was a great feeling to the day. The sun was shining, (the wind was blowing) and ice creams were being consumed by the dozen. It brought back memories of previous meetings, at the old Redditch track, from over 25 years ago. There were lots of familiar faces from the past, most notably, David Duffield, the man responsible for putting BMX on the UK map. The Deputy Mayoress made a wonderful speech, highlighting the hard work Steve Rooke, Benn Thombs, Council officials and all the Premiers had put in. Nick Harworth, from British Cycling, was present and seemed happy with how the day progressed too.
The track soon became a steady stream of riders, circling around and around. It was great to see new novices and established riders making good use of the facility. Martin and Mark from the UCR/Finelines BMX team were making mincemeat of the jumps on the second straight, even in the high wind they were clearing everuthing with style, (an impressive spectacle) At one point, a young lad named Luke, fell and hurt himself pretty badly; first aid swooped in and threw all their technical knowledge at him to ease his discomfort. Paramedics were called and he was whisked away to A&E. He was a brave little boy and we were all frightened that he might done some real damage....(The good news, there though, is that Luke returned the next day unscathed and ready to go again!!)
Racing on Sunday went better than we could have hoped for. We had nearly 200 riders attend. Riders and spectators travelled great distances to be with us, (thank-you again!). Motos went without a hitch. Not too many fallers during racing and feedback was generally positive about the track. It was a sight to see the team tents and vans sitting in the club compound, it really felt like a top venue, a bona fide bmx bonanza! As I stood on the top of the steep start hill I looked over to the skatepark; it was buzzing with activty too...What a facility!
Firning down the first straight (35-39 Cruisers)Rich Eames did a cracking job of commentating on the races and it was looking like we might all get home for a very early tea, until we had a couple of gate hitches, ie, we needed to actually plug the thing in to the mains :-S All soon sorted and the finals commenced. They were an exciting spectacle, concluding with the 17-24 riders putting on a superbly competitve show.
It couldn't have gone better. Thankyou to all involved.
BMX TALK FORUM - Rider feedback
Rhodospin Photography - Race day images
British Cycling - Event Report
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