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2009
British Championships
The largest BMX race of the year, The British
Championships, took place last weekend at the international track in
Cheddar, Somerset. The weather was dry throughout the weekend with
occasional blustery winds but with over 700 riders the demanding
track rode well to provide a fast, action packed weekend for the
spectators who were lining the track.
The Royston Rockets BMX Racing Club had 14 riders
competing over the two days of competition with the youngest being
Ted Dalleywater and James King who both took 5th place in
their respective quarter finals – the worst position as only the top
four move on to the next round. A good start to the qualifying races
saw Daniel Blanche, Myles Fisher and Ethan Vernon move into the
finals of the 9yr class where Daniel took 6th in the semi
final just ahead of Myles in 8th and Ethan took a heavy fall in the
main final whilst challenging for the lead. In the 10yr class Aaron
Dalleywater and team mate Bradan Blanche had another good start to
the day although Bradan’s day finished with a 6th in the
quarter finals but Aaron went all the way to the main final where he
finished in 8th. The 13yr class saw James Handleigh
making his way through to the main final to finish in 5th
and in the 14yr class Aston Blanche was another to finish with 5th
in his quarter final and in his first major event Andrew Brooker
just failed to move out of the qualifying rounds in the 15yr
category. In the 19+ class Richard Townsend’s took a very heavy fall
in his first qualifying race but still managed to gain enough points
in his next two races to qualify for the semi finals where he
finished in 7th. In the Masters (30+) category Darren
Foreman finished his days racing at the qualifying stages but team
mate Lee Alexander looked set to move through the semi final stage
until he was judged to of contravened the rules of racing and was
placed last although his day was not over as he still had his
Cruiser class to come. The Cruiser 40-44 class saw Danny Ancell make
it into the class quarter finals although he was unable to progress
further but Royston’s highlight of the day was the return of Lee
Alexander to the track in the same class where he led the pack round
all day to take the title of British Champion and the right to race
with the coveted “01” number plate.
The final event on the 2009 summer race calendar is
the East Anglia Regional Championships at Norwich on September 27th,
an event that is open to all riders from across the region and the
Rockets will be out in force to chase the regional titles and gain
points for their club in the inter club challenge.
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