Flattrackin - GNC at Silverstone

This post is more than a week late... but been busy... more to come...

The second round of the GNC Flatgtrack Championship was held at a new track at Silverstone during the MotoGP last weekend.

 Promising weather in the morning...

The new track was tight and rough as a badgers arse - only the Junior and Pro classes were being run. There were 56 entrants and only 36 heat places so we had qualifying on Saturday afternoon. 20 riders wouldn't make the cut. Qualifying is a timed lap with the riders going out in numerical order from #99 (Pete Wilky) to #1 Ade Collins.

 About 10 laps free practice is all we got before the timed qualification

#40 - I was somwhere in the middle. 10 minutes before I got out it started pissing down... bollocks! It stopped raining as I sauntered out for my timed lap... stalling twice (buying time for to track to dry ;-)

A slippin, a slidin and wheels a spinnin!

Braaaaaaaap! Braaaaaaaap! The bike just spins up on the slick surface and slithers through the bumpy, inconsistent turns. I completely forgot about the 'hand-up-try-again-at-the end-rule' and gave it my best shot. 

Furious action during the heats...

I didn't make it. Looking at the riders that didn't make the final 36... most were numbers in the 40s and 50s. The gods were not smiling on us.

Good crowds being ooohed and aaahed by the action on the dirt - there were twice as many peeps on the embankment this shot was taken from

The track improved as it was ridden and the racing was fast and close... but becasue of the rough track, it was not as spectacular as it could have been for the big crowd... but still great with Dougie Lampkin on his trials bike and a freestyle outfit entertaining the crowd between heats. 

 With the MotoGP in the rain, the flattrackin was the best racing all weekend! Awsome ride by the Texas Tornado (Colin Edwards) to bag a podium with a broken collar-bone.

An entertaining weekend... thanks Steve and Alex for the help and support!