Now then, after stating in my last column that a top ten in season points was unrealistic, I only went and ended up seventh overall!
Thanks to a good run of race results, a tweaked knee for a fellow competitor, and a little bit of a mud race for the final round – I kept my head down (mostly cause of the roost) and now get to run the big #7 next year!
I might even run some of that Seven gear as well, just to go completely overboard.
The final round was chaos! Held at Landrake, the track was looking so sweet until 8:15 on race day. Then a big ol’ rain storm, eerily similar to the one from the film “The Day After Tomorrow” rolled in and drowned the track! Followed by another heavy shower before my first race – we were in for a day of mud races.
I got out the gate pretty well in moto one, only to go down in the slop in the second corner. Somehow I managed to be avoided and keep my hands and grips mud free in the fall. And after what felt like 100 kicks I was going again.
If you know Landrake, the finish line is shortly after the start and as I crossed the line for the first time the clock had less than 13 minutes to go, and it was a 15 minute race! I just kept plugging away and ended up with a 15th which was solid after being half a lap down at the start. 37 started that moto and only 22 finished…
By now the sun was shining and the racing line on the track was drying out pretty quick but off line was so deep that riders were getting stuck in all races – all over the track.
My second and third races resulted in two eighth-places, which are by far my best race results in the South West Premier Series. However, only 13 of us lined up for the last race, but every moto counts as I found out with my championship result.
The guy that was one place ahead in the series going into the last round passed me on lap one of the last moto, followed by a big mistake by me on lap two, so I then thought that I’d cruise round to ensure a finish. Then I thought, the points could be close, so promptly put the hammer down and my lap times looked like this after the race:
Lap 1 3:38
Lap 2 3:46
Lap 3 3:33
Lap 4 3:26
Lap 5 3:14
Lap 6 3:13
I made the pass on the last lap but it made no difference anyway!
So, that’s that for another year and I’ll be taking a couple of months off the bike now before getting after it again before Christmas…
Now we’re in to the off season, which is usually as boring as watching Emmerdale with your parents, however there is the International Dirt Bike Show and some Euro Supercrosses to watch which will pass the time in the build up to A1, cause every motocross fan gets excited about that, don’t they?
Here comes my AMCA bit – hand shakes/high fives to Ben Saunders and Luke Mellows on winning the titles, especially Ben, going out on his trusty 150 two-stroke KTM before he’d even wrapped up the title! I should also mention here that out of 21 motos, he won only one race! ONE!
These championships, at all levels not just AMCA, are rarely about who is the fastest. It’s about who can put a season together. Any hacker can throw a fast lap down but there aren’t many that can put a solid season together and rack up some decent points. Look in any championship standings and there are DNFs and low scores from some guys which you just can’t overcome, no matter how many races you win.
That’s it for me online this month but you can find a little piece I’ve written for Dirt Bike Rider magazine – which will be hitting the shops as you read this – that covers my thoughts on the state of the National MX championships.
In return for their help this year which has helped massively in keeping me racing, I’ll be working on the www.dirthut.co.uk stand this week at the International Dirt Bike Show so make sure you pop over and say hello, and we’ll talk all things motocross… But if you can’t make it, just hit me up on Twitter: @theDanielGrove
