661 Mini Downhill February 2013
After understandably being postponed by a week because of a track that was under a foot of snow, the Mini DH came to the Forest of Dean on the 3rd of February. Now its 5th year in the Forest of Dean, the races started out small and have grown to be one of the most popular winter series’ in the UK.
The first race of the year is always a strange one; some people have new bikes, others haven’t received them yet, some people have been cracking on with the training whilst others have been on the mince pies and booze!
The fact that this Mini DH race had BCF points drew many fast racers out of the woodwork and away from winter training to gain an early lead in the UK standings…
Due to good weather and the excellent reputation the Mini DH series has gained, the atmosphere was excellent, with a huge number of competitors and spectators turning up. The FOD cycle centre was doing a roaring trade in hot food and drinks as well as bike parts.
The track chosen for this event was the Corkscrew which is up the fire road to the right of the cycle centre. It began with a flat and reasonably muddy pedal into some great jumps and berms which had the 4X riders grinning. Then the course crossed the fire road (which was manned by some extremely enthusiastic marshals and spectators) and the speeds shot up as riders weaved through technical roots and stumps and over some large drops. The finishing section consisted of some great berms into three lines, which were slippery and rooty and then led onto a flat clearing and over the finish line. Some riders were debating the merits of running little bikes because of the flattish top section but most opted for full-on DH rigs due to the scary bottom section!
Practice was the usual hectic affair with many shouts of “RIDER!” echoing round the woods, but the main limiting factor was whether you were fit enough to keep pushing back up to the top! Unless you enlisted the help of the team at Flyup Downhill who would take you to the top in style for a bargain price.
The FOD format is two runs starting with the Juveniles and finishing with the Pro-Am category.
Racing was fast and furious with riders setting off through the World Cup style start-gate at 20 second intervals.
Some riders became casualties of the tricky and super-fast track and there were a few red flags and re-runs but thanks to some top marshalling and good organisation by Chris and the Naked Racing team, the day went very smoothly.
The tiny Rippers riders go first; despite the fact that the minimum age for DH in the UK is 13 years old, Mini Downhill’s are the only races approved by British Cycling to have 10 – 12 year olds racing DH. Considering the speed and slippery roots, these riders did really well to even get down and posted surprisingly fast times! Jamie Emmett came out on top of the podium ahead of Sebastian Revell and Drew Whatley.
In the Masters category, former World King of Dirt Champion and Red Bull team rider Kye Forte set a cracking time but was beaten by Ricky Dorrington for second and ex World Cup DH racer Andrew Titley who took the win with a blistering time of 53.84 seconds.
World cup racer Phillip Atwill took the Junior category win on his second run, narrowly beating Sam Marzetti from Dorset who finished second ahead of Leigh Johnson.
In Senior the fastest rider Brian Anderson set scorching time coming in at 52.07 and taking the fastest time of the day away from Jono Jones in the process. Jono has started 2013 looking strong and took the win in the Pro-Am category ahead of myself and Ben Deakin.
The guys from One Industries were on hand providing some excellent 661 and One Industries goodies to those fast enough to get a podium spot. The value of the prizes was up to nearly £100 for the winners! Final results were:
Women
1st Barnes, Beverley
2nd Williams, Louise
3rd Page, Jo
Rippers
1st Emmett, Jamie
2nd Revell, Sebastian
3rd Whatley, Drew
Juvenile
1st Nott, Nat
2nd Francis, Charlie
3rd Crosdil, Ollie
Youth
1st Warrell, Alistair
2nd Hatton,
3rd Oxley, Nial
Junior
1st Atwill,
2nd Marzetti, Sam
3rd Johnson, Leigh
Senior
1st Anderson, Brian
2nd Evans, Darren
3rd Gillett, Ben
Veterans
1st Little, Peter
2nd Sadler, Andy
3rd Ayling, Graham
Masters
1st Titley, Andrew
2nd Dorrington, Ricky
3rd Forte, Kye
Pro-Am
1st Jones, Jono
2nd Soffe, Will
3rd Deakin, Ben
Forest of dean 661 mini downhill round 2 a Mountain Biking video by willsandersproductions
So that wraps up, be sure to check out the next round! See nakedracing.com for more info.
Words – Will Soffe (Ride.io)
Images – Jamies Whitmarsh (FOD Fotos)