Heywood BMX club

Joshua Townsend

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Heywood BMX club (aka Roch Valley Raiders) attended the 8th round of the North Region Summer Series BMX race, hosted by Goldcoast BMX club (Lytham St Anne’s) and held at the newly opened BMX centre at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.

The club had 15 riders entered for the event, which was the first major event to be held at the BMX centre, 3 riders in the novice category and 12 riders in the expert category.

For Thomas Hartley and William Miles both aged 6 years, this was the first competitive BMX race they had competed in and they both put on a spectacular performance for the many spectators who had paid to watch the event. Thomas had to compete in a race off to earn him a place in the A final.

Joshua Townsend aged 12, one of the newer members of the club showed that all his hard work during training paid off, when he came from behind to achieve 2nd place in his A final.

Olivia Mather was the only female rider to compete from the club and came 5th in the A final Female 8-9 years. Olivia’s final ranking is now 5th place overall ranking for the 2011 North Region Summer Series and she will receive a trophy for her achievements at the upcoming Club Championships BMX race which is being held at Crewe in October. Olivia started this season racing at novice level before moving into the expert category and Olivia is now also competing at national BMX events.

Taylor Snape raced in the Male aged 10 years expert category and came 5th in the A final. Taylor has achieved 5th place overall ranking for the 2011 North Region Summer Series and the club have a few potential sponsors to help him progress further for 2012 and beyond.

Liam Swales raced in the Male aged 10 years expert category and achieved 2nd place in the B final. Liam started this year’s series in the novice category and quickly moved into the expert category. Liam has achieved 12th place ranking for the overall North region Summer Series 2011, which is a fantastic achievement.

Callum Mullen, Kieran Armstead, Will Powell and Sam Mills all raced in the Male aged 12 years expert category. Callum came 1st in the B final, which has resulted in his overall 2011 North Regional ranking as 5th, Kieran came 3rd in the B final, which has resulted in his overall 2011 North Regional ranking as 10th, Will came 4th in the B final giving him the 11th place ranking and Sam came 5th in the B final giving him the 9th place overall ranking for the 2011 North Regional Summer series.

Lee Thompson raced in the 13 years expert category, coming 2nd in the C final race. Although Lee has not qualified for an end of year trophy due to an injury in the earlier rounds, he has qualifies along with 11 other RVR riders to compete at the British Cycling BMX Championships in September.

The master’s race is always the race to watch, as this is where the clubs adult rivalry comes in, with 4 RVR riders competing for much needed points. The club currently has 4 members competing in the master’s category; Adie Mather, Stuart Hanmer, Craig Mills and James Leadon. .Adie came 4th in the B final, Craig came 7th in the B final, Stuart came 4th in the C final and James came 5th in the C final. The end of series results shown Adie as being the no 1 master at RVR, closely followed by Stuart 2nd, who was only 6 points behind him and Craig 3rd who was only 4 points behind Stuart.

The other North Region BMX clubs have commented that the RVR youngsters will be the ones to watch next year if they continue their training over winter and progress as well as they have done this series.

This was the last race for the North Region Summer series, the next event is the British BMX Championships held at Cheddar between 23-25 September. The club has 10 riders who will be competing at this event to represent Heywood and the North Region.

They are currently fundraising so that the track in Queen’s Park can be resurfaced ready for the members to practice for the winter BMX races.