Round six and winter is coming. A definite chill in the air at Basingstoke and although the course wasn’t muddy, it was wet underfoot and made for some tentative racing in the technical sections. This year it seems to be an unwritten rule that every promoter changes the course from the previous season and it was no different at the War Memorial Park. Although most of the tricky bits: the big bank, the tight off-camber turns and the wooded section complete with bmx track still featured, the direction was switched round and there was more flat circuits round the football pitches with a couple of dismounts for boards and a mini spiral (we do love a spiral). Racing for Sotonia Vets were Phil Connell, Simon Guard and John Phillips. In the Seniors we had Darren Sell.
Another hundred plus starters in the vets with split start for the v40s first and chaos thanks to some pretty strange commissairing that led to the race start before most riders were even ready and resulted in both Phil and Simon slipping back in the opening sprint. However they worked well together to reduce the deficit and were looking good after two laps. All three of our vets finished well with Phil 23rd, Simon 34th and John 21st in the v50 category. There was a pretty large field of over 50 for the seniors too with Darren finishing in 47th place.
Next week we’re off to Reading – hope to see all you crossers there!
Full results are here
Jez Hart’s pics of the action are here
