Press Office

National Summer Series Rounds 3&4 - Peterborough

June 16/17

Following the loss of two rounds of the BMX National series due to the awful weather over the Bank Holiday at the end of May the next planned event at Peterborough held last weekend saw a new format tested with practice on Saturday morning and Racing in round 3 during the afternoon and evening and Round 4 on Sunday. It was an action packed weekend with approaching 400 riders taking part and no less than 18 of them from the Royston BMX Club. The weather was very wet and miserable for Saturday but the track held up well to the heavy storms as they travelled through and Sunday but the rains kept away on Sunday and the day ended in very warm sunshine.

 The Royston Rockets BMX Racing Club involvement started with the youngest member, Ted Dalleywater, competing in the Under 6 yr class where he was rewarded with 7^th place on Saturday and 8^th on the Sunday after the conditions slowed his progress. In the 7yr class Royston’s three riders took home some good results with Daniel Blanche taking a 6^th and a 4^th with team mates Aaron Threader claiming 4^th and 8^th and Ethan Vernon taking well deserved 2^nd and 3^rd places. In the 8yr class, Bradan Blanche made it through to the B finals where he took 2^nd and 7^th Aaron Dalleywater made the A final on Saturday with a well earned 5^th and 2^nd in Sundays B final.  The 11-12 yr. class James Handleigh finished in 7^th in Saturdays A final and 2^nd in the Sunday B finals Louis Burton took 6^th in the B finals on both days with Aston Blanche unable to qualify from the opening rounds and the same fate befell both of the Gutteridge brothers, Ben (13-14yr) and Wayne (15-16yr).  The 15/16 class also saw Antony Taylor have a very good weekend with 6^th in Saturdays B final followed by qualification to his first A final where he finished in 5^th after briefly leading the early stages.

In the 19+ men’s class, Ben Godfrey was only able to race on Sunday where he finished in 5th and in the same class Jonathan Roberts took 5^th in the main final on Saturday and on Sunday took 4th in the B final. In the Junior Female, Katie Roberts showed that hard work does pay off as she took home a 5^th and a 3^rd in the A finals and in the Elite class more success came Royston’s way with Laurence Mapp taking 3^rd on Saturday but after a very heavy fall had to settle for 8^th on Sunday whilst Richard Townsend took 6^th and 7^th in the class B finals and Chris Mapp taking two 8^th as concentrated on his new career as commentator.

 The next event on the race calendar is the sixth round of the Regional Summer Series being hosted by the Braintree BMX Club on June 24th and the Rockets will be out in force for this event to gain points towards their Regional ranking and counting towards qualification to the British Championships later in the year.

 The Rockets own Summer Series continues with their regular Tuesday night sessions at the clubs track in Burns Road. Full details of forthcoming club and regional events are published on the club web site at www.roystonrockets.co.uk, or ring 01763 260959 for more information on BMX racing.