Colwith two way- 8th May 2010

So it was off to watch another local event just a few miles up the road. Got picked up by Steve Jose and arrived at Colwith a few minutes later to see basically everybody that was at husytns a few weeks earlier! Adam Blake couldn’t ride to due his bike being totally wrote off at the front end after a tasty ‘off’ straight into a tree at speed the week before, so naturally what do you do when something like that happens? Of course you bring along your very own personalized trophy of a bit of the bike that people react to in the way of ‘f*ck me, how did you do that’? And sure enough everyone did when they saw the state of the exhaust that had come off the bike, TOTALLY FLATTENED! Luckily ‘Blakey’ was none the worse for wear, how he escaped that one god only knows.

A nice little crowd had gathered for a bit of banter beforehand, me, Steve, Adam, Rich and Steve Jay, Francis Banfield, Trevor vercoe, and a few others guys who names I never caught. Whilst ‘milling’ about I caught up with Colin George, Jed Treleaven (who was giving his new Gas Gas 250 it’s first outing), Arthur ‘evergreen’ Johnson, Hannes Tanzer, Jon hinkley, Andy Cundy and Mike Roose who was taking his old RM out for a spin today, which I think he should do more often!!!

A bit of dull greyish looking day with the threat of rain in the air, but not too chilly, so ideal conditions really. The Colwith two way is a bit different from the norm as you have two 1 hour races with observation sections thrown in (similar to a trials type course), and each competitor is given a certain number of laps to do within their allotted time without penalty marks being had in the trials sections. Then after race one, with a bit of a break in between, you do the course in reverse, simple!

So just before the start it was off for a trundle around the fields and the track to find a decent spot watch the riders come through. Me and Adam found a cracking steep little ditch filled with mud and ruts which had a few getting stuck. When we first arrived we had to pull out a bloody Honda XR 600 to be precise, how heavy was that? I’m telling you it seemed to weigh like a tank!
A few more bikes later and I happened to get splattered full frontal in mud (much to the amusent of everybody watching) as I stood directly in the firing line of a bike’s back wheel as it spun round like a out of control washing machine on full spin trying to free itself out of the mud, typical!!!

After the first race was over it was back off to where everyone was parked up to have a chat about how they got on and to wait for next race to start, but rumor had it that the course marshals had cut that ditch out, bloody spoilsports if you ask me! So it was off to find another tricky little part of the course that we could he a good look at and see some action. Sure enough we did, and with Francis Banfield in tow this time, it wasn’t long before we were helping riders to get up a steep little rooty climb. Nice to see Mike Roose enjoying himself going round and he didn’t have any problem with that bit of the track where we were stood at all, younger riders take note! Some guys chain came off and wrapped itself around the front sprocket 3 or 4 times, and try as we all did for about 15 mins to free it, it was hopeless and the poor guy had a long push back to the pits.

After the 2nd race had finished a little twist ensued when riders had the chance to compete in mini extreme slalom race which included a skip, tyres, and some logs, while going head to head with each other until it a winner was found. Good fun was had by both riders and spectators in this, and it was a nice little fun way to close the proceedings.

A good day out and it was made even better when I found out that my team Leeds United had finally got promoted back into the championship!