Last Weekend took the DMR Pump Track Challenge to Harthill in Cheshire for round 2 of the 2011 Series. It was a very wet start to the day at Harthill, and it was touch and go if the race would take place.
Luckily the race was not until the evening and with the weather improving by the start of official practice, the track dried out and was riding perfectly. The track at Harthill was built by Lee of MTB Pursuits who runs his mountain bike park at Hales Supebole, which is also a mountain board centre (they have a pump track for mountain boards, not quite sure how that one works!) The track has about a zillion different lines and combinations of going round it, even a wall ride at the bottom of the three big berms. During practice the Pro riders decided that they wanted they wanted the wall ride included, so a 20 second loop was created and the scene was set for racing. With the route around the pump track decided it was time for official practice. The crowd started to increase around the pump track and the atmosphere was starting to build. Between the end of practice and the start of the knockout heats the Lezyne Exploder competition was run.
Lezyne Exploder:
The Lezyne Exploder consists of two people, competing head to head, trying to explode a Schwalbe inner tube, before the other person using Lezyne pumps. Tim from Schwalbe provided us with big downhill inner tubes. Of course they get very big and when they explode, they are loud and go with a bang! A lot of fun and perfect entertainment at every round of the DMR Pump Track Challenge.
DMR Pump Track Challenge:
The format for the DMR Pump Track Challenge is quite simple. Riders can't pedal, but they can push from the start. Everyone gets two timed laps of the track to seed all the riders in each of the categories, Rippers, Senior and Pro. Then the riders start in reverse order with the slowest from seeding going first. It is knockout from here as riders are whittled down to the final 4, where the finalists will then battle it out to see who will be on the podium.
The knock rounds passed and after some very tight times it was Luke Cryer Team Nakedracing who took the ripper win with a time of 21.4s, beating James Thompson and James Patrich. In the open class, Sam Jonson set an amazing time of 20.3s to finish a second ahead of John Lee and Shame Klucklow. All these guys won some top of the range Lezyne Pumps, bags and goodies.
Rippers:
1st: Luke Cryer (00:21.4)
2nd: James Thompson (00:22.2)
3rd: James Patrich (00:22.5)
Open:
1st: Sam Johnson (00:20.3)
2nd: John Lee (00:21.2)
3rd: Shane Kluckow (00:25.2)
The Pro race was stacked with 4X riders, dirt jump riders and pump track kings, all in there trying to win money and show they can really pump. After the heats and some really close laps, it came down to the final four with the two young guns of Jono Jones and Alfie Stevens going up against the older guys - Rich Lane & Scott Beaumont.
The final started with Alfie posting a great 20.1 second lap. Next up it was Scott Beaumont. He had a good lap, but the some of the crowd deemed, after a slip on his lap, that he put a ¼ crank in. All of the crowd cheered for him to have a re run. Tired from his first lap, Scott agreed and he posted a sub 19 second time of 18.7 seconds with a perfect lap and definitely no cranks. Next up was Jono Jones who was pushing hard to beat Scott, but he went down hard in the third corner. With the crowd now wanting riders to go faster and faster, the crowd wanted Jono to have another lap. Unfortunately this lap wasn't good enough for him to challenge the top 3, so it was down to the final rider, Rich Lane. Using some sweet lines, he gave it his all and did a perfect lap to record 19.4 and take 2nd place. So on the podium picking up the super cool DMR Cheques sharing the £400 cash prize money was Beaumont, Lane, Stephens.
Pro:
1st: Scott Beaumont (00:18.7)
2nd: Rich Lane (00:19.4)
3rd: Alfie Stephens (00:20.1)
This was the 2nd DMR Bike Pump Track Challenge and a tremendous success. It's really starting to get a great buzz with riders bringing out there custom hardtail pump track bikes.
DMR Pump Track Challenge
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DMR Pump Track Challenge:
The format for the DMR Pump Track Challenge is quite simple. Riders can't pedal, but they can push from the start. Everyone gets two timed laps of the track to seed all the riders in each of the categories, Rippers, Senior and Pro. Then the riders start in reverse order with the slowest from seeding going first. It is knockout from here as riders are whittled down to the final 4, where the finalists will then battle it out to see who will be on the podium.
The knock rounds passed and after some very tight times it was Luke Cryer Team Nakedracing who took the ripper win with a time of 21.4s, beating James Thompson and James Patrich. In the open class, Sam Jonson set an amazing time of 20.3s to finish a second ahead of John Lee and Shame Klucklow. All these guys won some top of the range Lezyne Pumps, bags and goodies.
Rippers:
1st: Luke Cryer (00:21.4)
2nd: James Thompson (00:22.2)
3rd: James Patrich (00:22.5)
Open:
1st: Sam Johnson (00:20.3)
2nd: John Lee (00:21.2)
3rd: Shane Kluckow (00:25.2)
The Pro race was stacked with 4X riders, dirt jump riders and pump track kings, all in there trying to win money and show they can really pump. After the heats and some really close laps, it came down to the final four with the two young guns of Jono Jones and Alfie Stevens going up against the older guys - Rich Lane & Scott Beaumont.
The final started with Alfie posting a great 20.1 second lap. Next up it was Scott Beaumont. He had a good lap, but the some of the crowd deemed, after a slip on his lap, that he put a ¼ crank in. All of the crowd cheered for him to have a re run. Tired from his first lap, Scott agreed and he posted a sub 19 second time of 18.7 seconds with a perfect lap and definitely no cranks. Next up was Jono Jones who was pushing hard to beat Scott, but he went down hard in the third corner. With the crowd now wanting riders to go faster and faster, the crowd wanted Jono to have another lap. Unfortunately this lap wasn't good enough for him to challenge the top 3, so it was down to the final rider, Rich Lane. Using some sweet lines, he gave it his all and did a perfect lap to record 19.4 and take 2nd place. So on the podium picking up the super cool DMR Cheques sharing the £400 cash prize money was Beaumont, Lane, Stephens.
Pro:
1st: Scott Beaumont (00:18.7)
2nd: Rich Lane (00:19.4)
3rd: Alfie Stephens (00:20.1)
This was the 2nd DMR Bike Pump Track Challenge and a tremendous success. It's really starting to get a great buzz with riders bringing out there custom hardtail pump track bikes.
DMR Pump Track Challenge
