Press Office

Summer Regional Series Round 7- July 13th  2008

The seventh round of the East Anglia BMX Summer Series was held last Sunday at the track of the Royston Rockets BMX Racing club. The flash floods during the week has washed much of the race surface away from the slopes and deposited it on the insides of the corners which made them loose and slippery but otherwise the fine weather made the conditions good for racing and with over 120 riders from around the region competing in the various classes, the spectators saw some very competitive racing in all the classes.  

The Rockets had 27 riders competing with the newest rider being Zak Blanche-Drammeh who was competing in his first regional level race in the 7 and Under Novice class where he finished in 3^rd whilst also taking part in his first race was another new club member, AJ Taitt who took 2^nd in the Novice 11-14yr class. 

Moving onto the more experienced riders in the Under 6 yr class Alfie Salmon took 4th place in the A final ahead of team mate Louis Forman who took 7^th overall. In the 7yr class Royston riders again packed A final with Josh Peters taking the win, James King in 2^nd, Ted Dalleywater taking 3^rd and Archie York finished in 7th. The 8yr class A final saw Ethan Vernon taking the win just ahead of team mate Daniel Blanche in 2^nd. The 9yr class saw Aaron Dalleywater take another win in the A final with Bradan Blanche taking the 6^th place slot and in the 10 year class Ethan Lewis was just beaten on the line to finish in 3^rd with Zak Forman flowing up with 5^th and Matthew Harris took 8^th. More success looked likely in the 12yr class with Louis Burton but a heavy fall in practice meant a trip to hospital which also took his Dad, Phil Burton, out of the 40+ cruiser class.  

Back to the action on track with the 13yr. category where Aston Blanche took another win to boost his ranking points and James Handleigh took 2nd. In the 14’s Ben Gutteridge took 4^th in the class even after a heavy fall just before the line and in the 15 yr category Anthony Taylor finished in 2^nd overall whilst in the 16yr class Wayne Gutteridge was another to slid out on the last corner whilst challenging for a top spot although he still managed 3^rd in the class on overall points. In the 16-29 Cruiser class, James Dalleywater took another 3^rd place as did  Danny Ancell in the 30-39 Cruiser class and 3^rd place also went to Darren Forman in the Masters (30+) class. The final race on the day was the final of the combined 17+ and Superclass categories where after splitting out the results, Lee Alexander finished in 8^th in the 17+ class and Laurence Mapp took the over win to finish in 1^st place of the Superclass riders.---- 

The next event on the race calendar is the eighth round of the Regional Summer Series at Ipswich on July 20th. The clubs own Summer Series has started with their regular Tuesday night sessions at the clubs track in Burns Road, Royston. 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.-----