Luke “Limbo” Limbrick aboard his Dartmoor Phantom 4X bike
stole the glory from the UK’s best pro riders to take the UK National 4X title
at Harthill, in Cheshire.
The weekend of 16th-17th of July saw the 4th round of the Schwalbe British 4X series along with the 2011 National Championships take place at the Cheshire based venue at Harthill.
The Slam69/Dartmoor bikes team supported by Mojo Suspension, Fox Racing Shox and ONeal turned out to take part and take part they did.
The Saturday saw clear sunny skies arrive after an early morning downpour, but with a very fast drying track the racing was set to be fast and furious for this, round 4 of the UK 4X series.
The youth team riders are Alex Ruther and Alfie “Dirt Jumper” Stephens; who is co-sponsored by Keith Allen the actor and father of Lily. Alex unfortunately took a tumble early on and had to sit things out leaving Alfie to take on the rest of the youth riders culminating in a win and a top spot on the podium.
Then it was the Juniors and Tom “DP” Denholme Parker and Joe Gamlin to strut their stuff, unfortunately both were not to qualify for the finals and sat it out until the next day.
So it was left to the terrible two, Luke “Limbo” Limbrick, the shy boy and his sidekick Rich “Laner” Lane to see how they’d stand up in Seniors, both showed how to do it taking wins in the motto’s and qualifying for the knockout rounds but it was Rich Lane who made it to the podium taking a well
deserved second place and some valuable points in the overall series and Limbocoming home 6th.
With the 4X over for the day, the riders turned their attention to the newly introduced DMR PumpTrack Challenge, after a few hour practice things got going, with each round everyone got quicker and quicker. Quite a few of the slam69 crew took part in this event for the first time so non had any idea how they would do but we had high hopes for a couple of them. First there were 2
timed runs then it was down to the elimination rounds and slowly the guys got whittled down. With one run left to go Slam69/Dartmoor bikes had two riders still in with a shout, Rich Lane and Alfie Stephens, along with Scott Beaumont and Jono Jones. In the end it turned into a slightly confusing mess when Jono crashed out and Scott Beaumont was deemed to have put in a pedal stroke or two, which is not allowed, this should have resulted in Rich Lane and Alfie taking 1 and 2 but for some reason both Scott and Jono were allowed re-runs and in so doing pushing Rich to 2ndand Alfie to share 3rd with Jono.
With a good nights sleep for some the following day saw the guys line up for the 2011 UK National 4X Championships and medals to fight for.
The Slam69/Dartmoor crew had just 4 riders taking part.
Unlike Saturday, Sunday saw the rain return and prove to throw a spanner in many a riders spokes, the course is very all-weather as it’s basically built from sand but some parts were pretty slippery to say the least, plus the first corner had a massive sandpit in the middle with lines either side.
The Juniors ran through their motto’s and both Tom DP and Joe Gamlin made it through to the finals but it was to be Tom’s chance to fight for the national jersey and that gold medal as he lined up for the A final. Tom had been winning all the races so far so we had high hopes but as with several races this day he was to be taken out early on and unable to recover so coming home 4th, which is still a great result. Joe also did well in the demanding conditions and took a well deserved 7th overall.
Then it was the big guns, with all National Champs races the senior and elite and grouped into one category so both Slam69/Dartmoor riders Rich Lane and Luke Limbrick would be mixing it with the cream of UK 4X.
Rich looked well on fire with easy wins and he progressed through the rounds but it wasn’t to be, after taking a massive stack off the track, it was left to Limbo to stand up and represent the team and boy did he bring home the bacon, the final saw Luke join 12th ranked in the world Scott Beaumont, Pat Campbell Jenner and 13th ranked in the world Scott Roberts in the gate for the final run of the day.
Beaumont and Roberts were to be first out of the gate but for once this course made it more than a first-out-the-gate to win type of event. With different lines to choose from and a steady head it was
anyone’s race and so it was to be as both Scotts chose the same square foot of track to squeeze into and took each other out leaving Luke chasing Pat Campbell Jenner into the second turn and coming out in front. They both battle bar to bar into the next left hander but a move on the outside by Pat, proved to be his downfall as Limbo held his line and went on to take a well deserved win and
a Gold Medals to boot.
A great result in some of the toughest conditions against the best the UK has to offer right now. Big Congratulations to Luke on his Win.
Big thanks to Chris Roberts for running the event along with all his crew.
Also thanks to the series sponsors, Schwalbe, Trixter, Dartmoor Bikes,
FOX and Startgate Pro
