A great day on Saturday for our V-Sprint Club day, a good blend of serious racing and fun events, fished off with a social meal.

Thanks to everyone who came along, especially the first timers who enjoyed the racing, laughs and unusual bikes used in the fun events. One of the best Championships we have held.

A well fought out competition with every rider having an event where they excelled. Dan Ashcroft sent out an early message by winning the scratch race, closely followed across the line by Chris Woods. The Stourport circuit with its tight corners suits Paul Mawhinney and he made an early statement with a 3rd place. Olivia Gardner made her impression in this first race as the first woman across the line, keeping up with the men and showing that she has progressed as a racer not just a rider.

The Marymoore challenge pits skill and speed in the same race. The first phase is a slow bike race, Olivia lost out being caught behind other riders forcing her to put her foot down and face elimination. As soon as the second phase – the sprint – started Lis was off followed by Chris, with Dan caught in traffic, but as they came around the last bend Dan was just edging in front of Chris to take this race by just a wheel length.

In the Time Trial Chris pulled back on Dan’s championship lead with a lap time on 2:02. The Points race was split into 2 races with Dan recovering his top spot winning each of the points laps in race one. In his first championships Gary Patterson scored in the points race but the race 2 win went to Lis Gardner who won 2 of the 3 points laps, the other going to Phil Davies who made a break on the first lap to lead by 10 metres across the line.

The Italian Pursuit split all riders into two teams for an eight-lap race. The race ebbed and flowed throughout with just a couple of seconds either way, the last lap would pit Dan against Chris with Dan having a lead of 15 meters. Chris put his time trial skills to work and pulled back the 15 meters and a few more to take the win along with Lis in the women’s Championship.

Despite fantastic rides by Chris and Lis in the last race it was in vain, the championships were already settled.

2024 Women’s Champion – Olivia Gardner
2024 Men’s Champion – Dan Ashcroft

Kids Championship
Far more interesting during the day was our kid’s championship. Not only did they want to race, but they wanted to race full laps, off road and on the minibikes, every other question that came from them all day was “When can we race again?”. Urged on by everyone trackside, determination was the winner, giving up was not an option and each race was competitively fought.

The future of V-Sprint is in good hands with our final podium of…

1st Thomas Elis
2nd Finley Meeson
3rd Louis Cairns-Smith

Special Mentions
Thanks go out to Lee who arranged the track, Loz for the photography on the day and Jenny for the ‘Sporty Bakes’.
The committee would like to extend special thanks to Matt Ashcroft, Matt brought along several special bikes to test skills, they made the day what it is meant to be, a fun day out, socialising and having a bit of fun whilst we have some competitive races to decide our club champions. Minibikes, a BMX with reverse steering and a bike with offset wheel spindles created much amusement as everyone showed a lack of experience in riding anything other than a road bike. Not only that, but Matt also turned in to race organiser, Commissaire and timekeeper making it a day that everyone enjoyed.