Report by Gwynne Turner.
Photos by Aspect Event Photography.


RHEINALLT TAKES LAST ROUND WIN.

With freezing conditions under foot and a very chilly wind blowing through this awesome venue, the WOR Events team staged a superb 3 hour Hare Scramble to round off their MOTUL winter series.

The flowing fields were frozen solid and set the riders a superb challenge of ability and ice skating skills, just to stay upright was no mean feat.
The woodland sections which are usually the hardest part of events at this venue were a welcome relief as the frost had not affected them as much and they were offering dusty berms in places!!! Unbelievable really as the Welsh Winter Weather was biting hard.
The event started at 10 am and was to run for 3 hours for some classes and 2 hours for the others, this is a format that works so well and defiantly causes less impact for all concerned.
With over 250 riders enjoying a great weekends sport it was a great way to end the series.

THE 3 HOUR RACE:
Rheinallt Davies (pictured right) was out on his new Husky 125 and took the overall honours with a fine controlled ride. Setting faster and faster laps as the event went on; the mid Wales youngster was really impressive through the woodland sections as he clawed back at race leader Andrew Edwards.
Edwards had a 5th gear high-side at the midway point which he put down to bad luck rather than anything else as he tried to swerve a slower rider, but unfortunately this crash ended the former British Enduro Champion’s race leaving Davies to sweep the spoils, Davies being the only rider to manage 15 laps.

Lincoln “PODIUM” Brewster had bike problems that put him out of contention early on as the cold played havoc with rider’s machines. However the KBR rider got his head down and battled on to take a well-deserved runner-up spot from 3rd placed Andrew Cripps.
Cripps once again entertaining the crowd with his “stunts” rather than concentrating on his race but still taking a trophy… awesome stuff.

Jamie Robinson was on stunning form and put in a superb ride to take the Clubman overall with a very good ride indeed proving that he has real ability in all conditions.
2nd place in the Clubman went to Dan Atherton (downhill MTB star!!) with another very good ride that sees him adjusting to this sport with ease from the pedal power he is so good at.

The final podium position went to trials rider Mike Evans who was the class leader for much of the 3 hours till a few offs put him back slightly.

CF Racing Gas GAS dealer Gareth Lloyd was a man on mission as he led the over 45’s away from the start on his new steed. Lloyd was trying the new 2008 125 ec machine from the Spanish factory and boy was he going well.
The bike sounded awesome and Lloyd used all his old school riding knowledge to try and take the class win but in the end it was his old foe Colin Jones that managed to take top spot with another spirited ride on the Yam 250, as the race was drawing near an end the 250 was just managing to get more power down with the slowly thawing ground.
With Jones taking the win and Lloyd settling in 19 seconds down for the runner up place it left Dave Smith to fill the podium in 3rd. Smith went for a swim in the icy lake at one point and must have been absolutely freezing for the rest of the day. Well done for carrying on Dave.

Jack Twentyman dominated the over 35 group with a very determined ride and finished the event in 4th place overall as well.
Gary Benniman rode the whole race with a big smile on his face and fully deserved his runner up award behind Twentyman.
Chris Roberts took 3rd place with a steady 13 laps from the top twos 14.

THE 2 HOUR RACE:
The 2 hour race catered for 4 classes and was very well supported.
Topping the over 40’s class and the 2 hour race overall was Allan Hopwood with 9 laps to his credit and a big smile to go with it as he simply lapped up the conditions and atmosphere.
Hopwood took the class win from Gareth Jones in 2nd and Dai Lewis in 3rd, both Jones and Lewis riding well in the ice.

The Sportsman class was once again won by Barnaby Moore, who will be moving up to Clubman now after dominating the sportsman throughout this winter series.
Kev Freeman took 2nd place and some more valuable series points and Paul Engelen was a solid 3rd place.

One of the rides of the day was little Joe Wootton (pictured right), out on his KTM 85 small wheel, the little fella put in a fantastic display of riding and blitzed the rest of the youth class and was cutting his way through the bigger riders with ease, through the woods, across the fields, everywhere he could. Put simply Joe had a fantastic ride.
2nd placed youth was Owain Humphries and third went to Joe Deakin.
Although Wootton was 8 minutes clear of Owain and 12 minutes clear of Deakin.

The Novice group was topped by Lee Carpenter from Phillip Foster and Darren Heyes in 2nd and 3rd position respectively.

Another great days racing then for all concerned and WOR raised the bar again with a defeat for the good old British Weather
.
Full motor sport Paramedics were in attendance with a view to being at all the WOR races working alongside the St Johns thus offering the riders yet more peace of mind and quality safety cover for the 2008 season that lies ahead.

The next WOR Event is the Christmas special, “THE HANGOVER HARE SCRAMBLE” ON Saturday 29th December - a 4 hour team or Ironman event.
More details at www.worevents.com.

From all at WOR we wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!.