Phil Studley Wins An Awesome Battle at CTR Events WSC3 in Sunny Wales.
Phil Studley H2O Yamaha made the trip up from Cornwall to win CTR’s Awesome WSC3 Battle on a cold sunny November morning in Brecon Powys Wales, CTR and the team made a great little Cross Country Enduro race track of 3.5 miles that started just to the side of the fantastic Battle MX practise track with over a hundred riders line up and waiting to start and after a short briefing was CTR the flag dropped and released the pack of Expert riders with Gethin Francombe grabbing the holeshot closely chased by his bro, Studley, Mick Rees and the rest of the pack with CTR regular hard charging Derek Bawn left on the line and last away with the coast all clear and 30 seconds later the Vets were let loose with Ryan Leary again grabbing the holeshot with all the group of mature gentle men tussling along behind, Next to be let loose out of the traps was the clubman class and as CTR dropped the flag it was little Jordan Rusty Ridgeway set off like a whippet and leading the big group of hungry hounds chasing hard behind him, The last group let loose was the biggest group of Novice-Beginners with Paul Reid grabbing the holeshot from Brad Copeland.
As all the bikes and riders disappeared out of sight to negotiate the XC course and as everyone waited to see who would be first around and leading the race it was an awesome atmosphere in the pits, lap scoring area and with the great sound of revving 2 strokes now in the distance and popping over the hill first it was Mick Rees very closely chased by Gethin Francombe, Tommy Francombe, Phil Studley and James Paczynski with all the pack of Experts still close behind, As CTR and his quad was helping to start a Novice riders bike and with Rees and G Francombe chasing each other right in front of me on the MX track on a right hander Rees dropped it Francombe hit him shouted and pulled around him to take the lead.
The first none Expert around the lap was Vets Expert rider Sam Jones with Leary right behind him, Alex James was first Vet class rider through with Rhys Jones a few bikes later and class winner Richard Holland 8 bikes behind, First clubman through was Aaron Martin, Paul Clarke, Class winner Jonny Rodderick chasing the pack close behind, The first Novice-beginner racer through lap scoring was Graham Owens with eventual class winner Nathan Newman next through.
As the day progressed and with the race track now showing signs of drying up the Expert class was being lead by Gethin Francombe and with only 1 hour of the race gone Gethin Francombe rear mousse packed in on the far end of the MX track and he was forced to retire from the race with bro Tommy pulling out also with a broken rear tyre GF handed the lead battle between Studley, Paczynski and Derek Bawn and with race nearing the end the top 3 was Studley, Bawn, Paczynski.
The vets expert battle was won by Ryan Leary with Dave Wolfe nursing his bike over the line also with a broken rear tyre, Sam Jones had a well deserved 3rd after stopping and pinching a bottle of lucozade of CTR desperately needing a sugar boost, the vets class was won by Richard Holland 2nd went to Rhys Jones 3rd was Mike Crumb great result Mike because I was with an injured rider for over 30 minutes and after 20 or so minutes CTR told you and Liz Childley to carry on with your race after we knew Richard was OK,
The clubman class win went to CTR new comer Jonny Rodderick with Rhys Perkins taking 2nd and mark Copeland 3rd, Novice-Beginner class was won by soon to be promoted Nathan Newman with another new CTR rider Steve Price taking 2nd and Nathan’s bro Joe Newman 3rd.
Well done to all riders and congrats to all winners in very hard winter series conditions don’t think it gets much harder than that we at CTR try really hard to build safe exciting riderble race tracks this year has been hard to control the weather we are always looking for new venues thanks for supporting us thanks to all helpers spectators marshals lap scorers land owners medical team caterers sponsors and my dad Keith, See you all at our WSC4 16.12.12 we will have a Christmas dress up if you fancy it venue TBC.