September 13th 2009 saw the second race of the year at Aston Hill. This time round though the prize was the title of Southern Champion! 

The track started at the top of Aston Hills famous DH3 but descended down a completely new cut track.  A quick sprint up to a jump on hard pack, round a flat corner, up and over a bus stop then a drop into the fresh woods.  The next part of the track was drift central on all the loamy top soil which got more cut up over the weekend exposing more and more roots making corners trickier and separating the riders some more.  The track wound down the hill, across an off camber section and into some steep switch backs before a fly off into the finish.   The track was fast from the start and was all about holding the speed through the drifty corners and steep switch backs at towards the finish.  The bottom switchbacks needed quite a bit of work on the Saturday as they got dustier but after a bit of maintenance Saturday night you could hit them harder for race day speeding up the track.

Using a brand new track for a race is often very risky.  Will it hold up? Will it ride ok?  But this track held up well, produced some interesting lines and became more and more fun and challenging as the weekend progressed, a great race track. We have Swiss and Swallow's John Holbrook to thank for that! Well done John!!

Racing was set back half an hour as practice was extended until just before 11 letting people get a bit more practice in after a large que formed at the start of the track.  Most riders seemed to flow down the track well letting everyone get some good full runs in during practice.  With Aston being a short course it means that riders can easily walk to all parts of the track, no lines are secret now!  It makes a great vibe on the hill though as people compare and try out alternative lines. 

Aston Hill has always been a track that favours the hard tail riders and this track was no exception with the HT crew, which included riders entering both categories, putting down very challenging times against the DH bikes. Well Almost all the hard tails that is! The Swallow himself racing for the first time in 5 years and on a HT struggled to keep pace! Practice makes perfect...

When racing got underway Nathan Vials riding for Solid Bikes took the fastest time of the weekend with a 1.06.42 in his first run winning the Elite/Expert category by just over two seconds from our own John Holbrook. 

It didn't stop there though. With a string of great results behind him this season Sam Wakefield took the youth title by just over Half a second with a time of 1.12.01. Sam Wakefield Southern Champion! 

Role on the NPS Finals in Rheola This weekend! 

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