Round 3 of the Parentini Wessex CX league gave us a new course on the Foxhill motocross circuit at Swindon, hosted by ASE Racing and Hargroves Cycles and our 39 Sotonia racers knew they could expect one thing – hills! Overnight rain also added the extra potential for mud which dogged the morning action.
In the early races, our top finishers were Tilly Wilks – first U8 girl, William Dyer 3rd U8 boy, Eva Mar-Molinero 2nd U10 girl, Tom Wilks 5th u10 boy, Skye Martingale 5th U12 girl, Monty Flavell and Stanley Phillips 3rd and 4th U12 boys. George Connell 13th U14 boy, Max Darnton 5th U16 and a win for Lucy Phillips in the U14 girls. Gemma Wilks finished 7th senior woman, Ben Darnton 13th v40 and Jon Hall 5th V50.
By the time of the last race, however, sunshine and strong winds and dried the course for some fast, exciting racing on the rolling grassland course that featured short, punchy climbs, off camber ‘Koppenberg’ style switchback descents and fast straights.
The senior men started at a high pace as Tom Budden made the lead group of four that forged clear of the field, Tom leading the group for much of the race as they pushed on in the high winds. In the penultimate lap, a strong attack from the Palmer Park rider into the headwind on the back straight detonated the group. Behind, the battle for third was settled in a super close sprint finish, Tom just edging it, having put himself in a good position out of the final corner in what turned out to be a thrilling race.
The cross season is starting to fly by already and it’s just three weeks to round 6, hosted by us at Southampton Sports Centre on Sunday 27th October! Enter online here