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Round 1 at Abbeycwmhir
The Fast Eddy Winter Series kicked off last Sunday at Abbeycvvmhir, Mid Wales. Patchy snow still covered the ground and hill tops as more than a hundred riders lined up to battle the conditions.
The weather was fine, cold but sunny, belying conditions that were out on the seemingly dry-ish track. As can be expected in this part of Wales, there was a large hill involved plus two excellent wooded areas and some low lying rutted areas. The land is used as a 4x4 training ground and the ruts left by vehicles posed some of the biggest challenges as the race wore on.
Four brackets of riders lines up for the two and a half hour race, Experts, Clubmen 2 stroke and 4 stroke and by far the largest class, Novice. The Experts led off with Jason Fraser taking the lead just ahead of Jack Twentyman and Ian Barnett. It only took these guys a couple of laps to start catching the Novice backmarkers but the track allowed plenty of room for overtaking.
Clubmen were off next followed by the Novice riders and gradually the steep hill near the start began to claim its first victims and the grass cut up to slippery mud underneath. Once past this initial obstacle it was fairly easy going through the woods until riders hit the ruts near the finish of the lap, if they had remained dry until this point they were thoroughly soaked after the deep ice covered ruts.
Outside of the Expert class, Dennis Harrison and Gareth Davies started stacking up laps in the Clubman class, just ahead of Paul Davies and Alan Reese in the Clubman 4 stroke class. It was difficult to decide who was going well in the Novice section but gradually Nigel Walker and Paul Davies gained a gap on the rest of the Novice field.
After a few laps only the electronic timing system could distinguish between the riders, Experts were clocking 8-9 minute laps, Clubmen 10-11 minutes and Novice 13-15 minutes. It really was a tough course as the race wore on, pit stops became longer and a few riders took time to grab a burger and cup of tea, before venturing back out into the fray.
As tough as this course became it was good to see that very few riders fell by the wayside. In the Expert class Jason Fraser never relinquished his lead and racked up 16 laps to take first place just a lap ahead of the chasing Jack Twentyman is second spot. Ian Barnett was a lap down in third just four seconds ahead of Hywel Silvester in fourth.
This really was a testing time for all riders and a cracking start to the Fast Eddy Winter Series. It was always going to be tough, the clue is in the title, Winter. Weather conditions certainly helped but at this time of year there is no such thing as an easy ride.
