Dirt Wars UK FMB Bronze National Series Round 5 Radical Bike Park

With the run up to round 5 being rather wet and us seeming to get all of the worlds rain in one week we were rather sceptical on wether or not to postpone or cancel round 5 and concentrate on getting the course ready for the final. In true Dirt Wars style we braved the weather and headed for Radical Bike Park in Essex.

 

Radical is an awesome little bike park set on a few acres of land in the Chelmsford countryside of Essex owned and ran by Molly Southall and Tom Mitchell, Not only do they have the awesome Dirt Jumps but also a trials area, bmx ramps, foampit, Resiramp and an awesome little shop.

 

With the weather looking a bit shady and the chance of rain being rather high we started the day early and got the riders on course asap.

 

With mixed practice out the way we got our Open Class riders on course ready for their seeding run’s. We chose to do seeding runs instead of qualifications as the course at Radical is not what we are used to and slightly smaller than normal, When I say slightly smaller I mean the length of the course not the size of the jumps as they certainly are not small. Radical has two big jumps on the pro line in a quarter pipe with dirt landings either side as opposed to the 3 to 4 jump courses we normal hold Dirt Wars at.

 

The Open riders seemed to love this idea and took to the course happy throwing down fully stretched suicide no handers, 360’s and the odd downwhip from Callum Sherwood and front flips from Zac Rainbow.  

Once they were in their seeding positions it was over to the Pro class and a legend was gonna be the first up. Danny Pace (RAF) had made the journey over from Wales with Adam Williams (Judge) to ride the comp and boy was he hitting the amplitude button popping Flips and 360’s to Mars with no effort whatsoever then Tailwhips on the quater.  

Tom Isted pulled the super flips out the bag whilst Tom Reynolds learnt to 540 and pulled it off constantly allday. Freddy Pulman got his flipbar to tuck out and Cam Crozier and Harry Campbell were dropping F-Bombs (Frontys) all over the place.
With both lots of seeding wrapped up it was straight on to the Open final as the clouds were starting to darken and the wind started to pick up. Sam Wood hit out with his steezy whips, Rhys Griffiths stretched his suicides out too the next county, Aiden Mcmillan had traffic control complain about his boosted tables out the quarter pipe whilst Vitalious Zarikov hit out with one footed X-ups, Josh Venamores Tuck no handers were super clean as were Larn Baldwins Nothings. Callum Sherwood had everyone on edge with his attempt at a 3down whip on the first to oppo tailwhip on the second but none of it was good enough to take down the top 3
3rd Joe Simkins flip table to the moon, 360 X-up to Table the Straight air on quarter 2nd Jack Cardy Double Truck, 3 whip, Tuck no hander
1st Zac Rainbow Backflip Tuck no hander, Frontflip Tuck no hander with a barspin on the quarter
Open Riders done and dusted the Pros were up and the rain started to spit down and the wind really picked up. Tom Isted hit out with a double flip attempt on the first, Danny Pace hit out with the highest frontflip and of the judges had seen off a kicker that size, Tom Reynolds pulled the double tailwhip out of his vastly improving trick bag whilst Freddy Pulman slammed out the 3 double whip. Cam Croziers flip double bars were on point as were Harry Campbells Frontys.

After all the riders had their 3 runs the top 3 were as follows.

 

3rd Harry Campbell Frontflip, One footed X-up to one footed can, Oppo Flair

2nd Tom Reynolds 360 1 footed shoulder buzz table, Double Tailwhip, 540

1st Cam Crozier 360 Tailwhip, Flip Double Bar, Tailwhip

Thanks to all that attended (Riders and Spectators), Massive thanks to the Mitchell Family (Including Molly), The Radical Bike Park Crew, All The Dirt Wars Crew and our Sponsors.

 

Round 6 (2017 Final) is set for the 2nd of October in Schute Woods near Axminster East Devon but may get held back a few weeks due to the weather as we have had a lot of rain recently and the woods are a bit wet underfoot from all the machinery we have had in. Keep an eye on our Insta @DirtWarsUK and our facebook page for updates about the final and when it will happen.

 

Photos Chris Greenwood

Video Edit Henry Agger