It was RND 1 of the Dirt Track Riders Flat Track Nationals at the Adrian Flux arena in Kings Lynn at the weekend and the Team from Greenfield Dirt Track, who are wearing 250LONDON Team Kit this year, had some great successes! Here's the lowdown with words by Leah Tokelove...
This was Team Greenfield’s debut performance and after two three-minute qualifiers Team Greenfield/Noyes Camp pro riders George Pickering and Gerard Bailo qualified 2nd and 4th respectably, with George completing a 16:303 second lap and Gerard a 16:598. On to the heat races both riders were able to secure wins, which enabled them to transfer straight to the semi-finals. From there George won his semi-final, securing him a position on the front row for the Pro final. Gerard finished 3rd in his semi, in a hard-fought heat won by Peter Boast and Toby Hales coming in a close second. With the top five automatically transferring into the final, Gerard secured his place in the final.
Thanks to his quick lap time in the semi-final George was rewarded with the first pick of the grid positions, choosing the outside gate. Gerard had the sixth gate pick, so had to settle for a middle row start, choosing the second gate. From there Gerard made an incredible start, racing past the front row to take the lead on lap one of fifteen. However, George wasn’t as fortunate. From the front row George was pushed out wide and had to hang on to the pack in sixth position. After a few laps George was able to pick off Peter Boast and Richard Mason, allowing him to get behind the podium positions. Toby Hales passed Gary Birtwistle, then began the chase for Gerard.
Meanwhile George chased Gary and with a few laps to go George was able to push up the inside of Gary to slip into third position. Gerard had been riding his own race, relatively unchallenged in first position, until the last corner of the race. Toby gained momentum on Gerard and coming out of the last corner was able to just creep up Gerard’s inside, leaving it a drag race to the line with Toby just edging his front wheel over before Gerard who finished second, followed by George in third. Both riders showed pure class and style, with some great racing and results.
Sunday’s racing saw Team Greenfield’s junior’s Fergus Bluff and Toby Johnson take to the track. The constant rain overnight left the track in undesirable conditions, with practice used as an opportunity to sight out the track. For the first Youth Intermediate race of the day Fergus Bluff lined up on the outside of the middle row. The slick outside gate wasn’t ideal, making it difficult for Fergus to get drive off the start. After two laps Ted Wilkinson, Luke Gardner, Thomas Hunt and Fergus broke away from the pack, with a considerable lead. Fergus was able to pick his way through to the front to take the lead.
Going into the last lap Thomas Hunt got some good drive out of turn two to take the lead, with Fergus finishing in second. Toby Johnson made his race debut in the Youth Junior class. In his four-lap race Toby made great progress building his confidence, racing and switching positions with Lincoln Forte, in very tricky conditions. Toby finished his first race in fourth place.
Unfortunately, with the persistent rain the track became un-raceable. The meeting had to be called off. With only one round of races completed there wasn’t enough results to declare positions, so Sunday’s round will not stand in the championship.
George Pickering had this to say...
“We’re very happy with how the weekend went! We’re pleased with how our Spanish rider Gerard Bailo fitted into the team so well. It was also great for the juniors to have a blast on their new bikes, despite it being cut short because of the weather. We’re looking forward to having Max Inman joining us on his KXF-250 for the next round and we’re aiming for that weekend to be as successful as Round 1.”
We’re looking forward to Round 2 at Peterborough Show-Ground for the MCN Festival Of Motorcycling! Max Inman will be joining us there on his KXF250 in the Youth Senior class!
We’d like to thank everyone at the DTRA for a great weekend, our mechanics and team members for all of their help, everyone that supported us and all of our sponsors for making it happen.
TEAM GREENFIELD
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