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Report: British BMX Series Round 5/6

Photography: Richard Robotham | Report: Charlie Luckhurst

12-13 June, Braintree
Results:  Round 5 - Round 6 | 2010 British BMX Series Standings - Rider | Team | Club
2010 BMX Coverage Home | 2010 British BMX Series Home | Hawks Report

Marcus Bloomfield completed his return to racing away from the British Cycling team setup this weekend, winning both rounds of the Braintree weekender in rounds five and six of the British BMX Series. Now leading the overall ranking at the halfway stage of the season, Bloomfield holds a commanding position with races at Manchester, Gosport and Bournemouth remaining.

The wins were particularly important for Bloomfield who last month was released from the British Cycling Olympic BMX Programme, after failing to achieve predetermined performance targets set at the beginning of the 2010 season. But with this result, Bloomfield showed he was still capable of achieving results at a national level; something he will be hoping to reinforce internationally at the upcoming World Championships in South Africa.

Achieving world-class results will be the only way to catch the attention of the team selectors once more, and with consistent performances at the British BMX Series, Bloomfield's focus looks to be returned for future races.

Report: Braintree National rounds 5&6

On the 12th and 13th of June 479 riders came to Braintree where the weather was nice and dry, the track was great and the racing was fast. The tight spectator areas made for a great atmosphere with help from guest DJ Superfly Ryan Dick and commentary by Chris Mapp and Scott Dick. Over the weekend's racing, I'm sure there were many changes in the series rankings as there were a lot of great moves made on the second and last turn as well as the second straight.

In the Pocket Rockets that are the 6 and under class, Jack Hawkins didn't lose a lap all weekend, but my rider of the weekend in this class was Ryder Joyce, who made it round all weekend without falling over at all, which is something I'm sure his Dad will be pleased with as well.

The 7 year old boys was one of the biggest classes this weekend with 28 riders Kyle Hill was unlucky, missing out on semi finals by one place, but Ethan Craik from Gosport took the win both days followed by Alex Brookes and a very rad Travis Wilson.

Biggest class of the weekend was the 8 year old boys with an incredible 33 riders on Saturday making it the only class with quarters all weekend, as well as having a few national first timers, such as Billy Hayes (son of Simon Hayes). Somehow Koby Joyce missed out in the quarters on Saturday with a 5th but won the B on Sunday.

9 year olds; as well as being an interesting class to watch, there are some pretty outstanding names like Marmaduke Birt, Lochlan Dudley and Ethan Squibb, who came third on Saturday but Ross Cullen won both days including all of his Motos.

10 year old boys is one hell of a stacked class, with Ethan Vernon and Gideon Orena battling it out all weekend and taking a win each, but a consistent Shay Casey got third both days.

Day 1 in the 11 year old boys saw team Bunneys Louis Gray-Blest take the win with Eddie Moore getting second even though he scraped through to the Semi's with a 6th a 3rd and DNF so well done to Eddie. Harley "DrillBit" Taylor won Day 2.

The 12 year olds is when they start to get rad with riders like Kye Whyte, Tom Novis and Daigoro Fortune. Daigoro got second on Saturday with Kye Whyte winning every lap all weekend including both finals.

13 year old boys is probably my favourite class to watch as those two guys from the south coast, Jordan Hatcher and Jimmy Orena are always battling it out whilst jumping the biggest jumps on the track. Elliot Pateman was unlucky on day 1 crashing in his second Moto and getting a bit shook up. Owen Baxter pleasantly surprised many this weekend by making 2 A finals and getting 4th in both of them and doing Big Daddy and Haro Tibbs proud.

Dialled Bikes' Quillan Isidore has dominated male 14's all season but on Sunday Quillan took a fall in his semi resulting in a B-final win and giving Bardolph Kerr the chance to win his first ever national.

The little girls classes were looking quick with the unstoppable Emily Hutt winning 6 and under and Darcie Taylor (W4) winning the 7-8 year class. Kim Baptista won the 9-10 year olds both days representing Mid Lancs. Lauren Stack was looking quick on her Pure bike and kit as she won both days in 11-12 girls.

The 13-14 year old girls was looking close all weekend but a crash on day one denied Jenny Noble a win and took a couple others down with her, but Bethany Campbell came out on top both days.

Cruiser 17-29 saw the return of James Goodwin as he takes a break from 4X to win the class both days, although the biggest accomplishment was probably putting on his red jeans. 30-34 was won by Neil Harbour both days adding to his four wins at Cheddar and Derby. Roy Sutton raced day two with stitches in his arm from a nasty fall out in Holland the week before.

One of the fastest classes in my opinion is the 35-39 cruisers. It has Alan Hill, TJ Baldwin, Paul Eccles, Clive Hawkins and Keith Bryceland, all who are all capable of getting the top spot, but it was Alan Hill came out on top both days.

40-44 cruisers were won both days by Richard Green coming out of Bristol. The always factory Bernie Schaale had a good weekend getting a 2nd on Saturday and a 6th on Sunday with his Bournemouth team mate Jon Moore getting a 3rd on Saturday but getting beaten to the 3 spot on Sunday by The Fed aka Roger Wilbraham.

Male 15s is where it gets fast with the likes of Dan Pullen, Ryan Stack and Cam Howard. Pullen took the win on Sunday followed by Gosport's radster Cemil Sabri. George Warner got an impressive 5th on his brand new bling Redman/Bombshell bike. Day two had an exciting final with Dan Pullen and Ryan Stack battling it out until the last turn where they both went down giving Cam Howard the win and George Higley an honest second for UCR Fine lines.

Jacob Roberts and Jordan Perry dominated all weekend and only racing each other once on the Saturday. Jacob took the win both days and seems to be pretty much unstoppable right now and should have the title wrapped up in no time. Jack Smallpeice was pretty consistent with a 5th and a 6th and unlucky Joe Stupple taking a bad crash in his semi on Sunday, which left him unable to do his B final.

25-29 had some close racing with 9 riders on Saturday which meant 1 rider was dropped, unfortunately this 1 rider was Lewis "coach" Robinson who had a run off with Michael Pinnock, which resulted in a bit of elbow and a knocked over speaker. Gareth Bates took the win both days and Robert Reed had a great 2nd on Sunday.

Now onto the incredible class that is Masters. At least 8 of these riders have been in a World or European final some even becoming World champion. Both days were won by Mr. Consistent, Alan Hill. Marco "stay strong" Dell'Isola took a second on Saturday, but Sunday's 2nd place was taken by Daz Reidy.

Another stacked class is 17-24, which is currently led by Billy Luckhurst. Ash Davey was away from Braintree, which gave Billy the win on Saturday but was closely followed by Love not Money's Andy Clucas and Josh Cheetham. Day two came and it was Robbie Goodman's time to shine. Billy and Robbie didn't meet on the track all day until the final whereby Billy got a bit of a bad gate and ended up chasing Robbie but he just couldn't do it and settled for the second with Nathan "nate-dogg" Routledge in third. Billy's younger and radder brother Charlie made the A final and got a 5th. (just thought I'd mention it).

The veterans were next up and Lee Alexander had been riding the track great on Friday evening, which paid off and gave him the win both days. Local guy John Stockwell used his home track knowledge and had a consistent second and third. Braintree also saw the return of old school hero Simon Hayes who eared himself 2 respectable 4ths.

Championship Girls was made quite interesting to watch this weekend due to the challenging second straight. A couple of the girls like Charlotte Green, Ayesha Mclelland and Emily James jumped it with no problem, but because of this, it mixed up the racing and gave Ayesha (redline) her first ever national win on the Sunday. Ria Goodman (Pure Bicycles) took a hard slam in the main on Saturday but it didn't phase her as she got a second on Sunday.

Junior men had the most exciting finals on day one by having a different leader on every straight, but Grant Hill (intense/route 55) managed to squeeze (and by squeeze I mean ride on about half an inch off track) and get inside Jordan Hayes on the last turn where Grant pimped him and took the win as well as his rollapaluza win on Friday night where he beat Scott Waterhouse in a 1000 metre sprint. Jack Hall won day two representing Route55/Intense with his team mate Grant Hill getting the two spot and "Jumping" Jordan Hayes coming third.

Elite Men: Only consisting of 11 riders meant there were no semis so every lap counted, unfortunately Kyle Evans missed out on the main in day one but day two he got a pretty good 5th. Marcus was looking super quick all weekend especially after his unlucky results out in Holland the week before. Marcus and Kelvin were close the whole way round in both finals, but Marcus came out on top both days. Calum Strickland had an excellent result on day two getting a second, which is one of his best results to date. The young elite riders seem to be getting quicker and quicker with Tre Whyte getting a third on day one and Dan Mcbride keeping it consistent with a 5th and a 4th.

And that brings us to the end of a brilliant national held by Braintree, as I'm sitting at home writing this its reminding me of how much of a great weekend it was and is making me look forward to Manchester so much more.