What a weekend..! The teams first win of the season, and Olie’s first win in Elite only four races into his first year in the category! With a stacked elite field, including CRC Nuke Proof rider Joe Smith, Hope’s Tom Braithwaite and Morewood’s Dan Critchlow, the stakes were high. Olie not only raised his game in his first race since the teams 9 day trip to San Remo, he made sure everyone knew he was the fastest man down, with a full 1.5 second lead over second placed Joe Smith.
The weather wasn’t kind this weekend, again with frequent heavy rain showers making a lottery of the running order, sparing some, and punishing others throughout the day. Bringewood is well known for having one of the greasiest surfaces in the UK when it rains, thanks to an overwhelming amount of clay in the ground, and this weekend was no exception. Coming into first runs, there was an almighty shower that lasted about 40 minutes, meaning that Michael and the rest of the Junior category had some of the toughest conditions of the day. Along with many, Michael struggled to hold it together in his run, losing a lot of time, just trying to keep the bike in a straight line! By the time it got to Expert and Elite first runs however, the sun had been out for well over an hour, and riders were coming across the line pretty clean. John had a less than perfect run, with feet off the pedals moments causing more than one or two issues better off forgotten, but still came down into 8th place, which was pretty good for a bad run. With Olie up next, it was fingers crossed for a good run, and that’s exactly what was delivered, with 1st place all wrapped up, with a healthy margin.
Time for 2nd runs, and with the sun now having been out for 3 hours or so, the track was running fast. Michael put in a solid run, knocking over 7 seconds off his first time, but still with a less than ideal number of mistakes, which left him in 19th. With the weather looking good, and reports of dust on track from other riders, the question of whether to risk it and swap to dry tyres was the one on everyones minds. John decided to make the swap and go for a highroller on the front, leaving the spike on the back. However, no sooner had he made the swap (and with Olie seconds away from switching to dries as well), the heavens opened, and the BBC weather report rang true!! More rain, but only 15 minutes worth this time. What would the track be like?? Well the answer was damp, which left a tyre dilemma.. back to wets or stick with the change. Olie stuck with the spikes (a wise choice), while John stuck with his highroller cut spike combination. Once at the top of the track, things were looking good, the track was still dry in the woods, and the rain holding off…. or was it!! No was the answer, just after setting off, John hit the open section, and surprise, it was raining pretty hard. So after a lot of struggling to stay upright, it was a slightly slower run for John ,leaving him in 9th. Ten minutes later, and Olie would be up, and wow was the rain coming down now! None of the elites managed to better Olie’s first run time, although CRC’s Joe Smith got close, meaning that storming first run had done the business and Olie took the win!!
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