With the additional Open category round at NASS festival this year it meant that the two categories at Dirt Wars became out of sync with each other. This became a little confusing for some but last weekend’s round at Radical Bikes in Essex saw the final round of the Open category take place alongside the penultimate round for the Pros.
It also became a little stressful when we found out that one of our favourite venues, Wisley, wasn’t going to be available for this round but with the help of the local Essex riders we were pointed in the direction of Radical Bikes. And on arrival we were pleasantly surprised!
Radical started 5 years ago and has grown considerably over the years. Its now home to an extensive trials course, a mini-ramp, street setup, foam pit and a selection of dirt jumps of all different shapes & sizes. The comp line consisted of a nice big roll-in followed by two straight doubles, a right-hand hip & the final double which had a mulch landing. The line finished with a quarterpipe/vert wall and after some discussion it was decided that it would also be judged, giving the riders an extra feature to impress the judges on.
The Open category saw a large Northern contingent making the trip down to Essex along with a few of the other regular faces to the series. There was a handful of locals keen to grab the podium places and it became clear during practice who had the feel of the jumps and who hadn’t yet.
Open qualifiers started with 13 riders that need to be reduced down to 8 for the finals. With the overall 2014 series coming down to where Andy Crawford & Jack Ambler placed in the event, they were both riding their socks off and laying down their smoothest moves in their usual styles. NASS winner and local to Radical, Cameron Crozier, was also making big moves and looking like he wanted a shot at the top spot as was the main trail maintenance guy, Darren Eastall. #teamcornwall were also there representing with both Danny Selkirk & Ollie Davison doing their best to get to the finals. In the end the qualifying finalists were –
1- Jack Ambler
2- Darren Eastall
3- Jack Cardy
4- Andy Crawford
5- Cameron Crozier
6- Callum Sherwood
7- Harry Campbell
8- Joash Clarkson
The Pro qualifying soon got underway and of the 11 riders we need to lose 5 leaving 6 to duke it out in the final. With an injured Pro rider, an injured Open rider & Dirt Wars main man, Cliff Barbeary, on judging duties it was clear that they were being quite tight on what scored well. And it was clearly the riders who had big amplitude, clean execution, big tricks and didn’t rely on bitch cranking everywhere that made it in to the finals. The finalists were –
1- Tom Cardy
2- Freddy Pulman
3- Scott Merrell
4- Daryl Brown
5- Ray Samson
6- Tom Reynolds
Moving back to the Open riders, and after a bit of time to let the finalists get warmed back up it was time to see who would be crowned 2014 DMR Dirt Wars Open champion. Again the judges were being strict with their scoring and a few riders who kept trying moves that they weren’t certain to land fell foul to this. Riding well enough to take 5th place was Harry Campbell, who despite trying to frontflip the last jump & crashing on two of his runs, had obviously put enough into hit first 360 packed run. Making 4th place was the NASS winner Cameron Crozier who’s large flips, clean whips & slick 360s had clearly impressed the judges. In 3rd place was another local lad, Jack Cardy. Jack’s runs included some sweet suicide no-handers on the first and super smooth truckdrivers on the last jump. It was Jack Ambler who took the 2nd place spot, unfortunately for him not the place he wanted to finish, but his trademark huge superman’s, flip no handers, barspins & flip whips were all there but not all quite together in the perfect run that he wanted. This meant that taking 1st place, and only by half a point, was Andy Crawford. The judges seemed to love Andy’s smoothness and consistency throughout the line as he sent truckdrivers, 360 tables and tailwhips with great amplitude & execution.
1 – Andy Crawford – 47.0
2 – Jack Ambler – 46.5
3 – Jack Cardy – 46.0
4 – Cameron Crozier – 44.0
5 – Harry Campbell – 43.0
6 – Darren Eastall – 39.5
7 – Callum Sherwood – 37.5
8 – Joash Clarkson – 34.5
It was then time for the Pros to get themselves warmed up again for their final. Riders knew that to get onto the podium they would not only need to step up their runs from qualifiers but execute every move perfectly with as much amplitude as possible to win the favour of the judges. It was odd how things panned out and a lot of people were surprised at the end results as those who qualified in the top three didn’t end up back there in the final. However taking 3rd place was Bulls Bike’s Daryl Brown with his usual technical wizardry and huge airtime. Making 2nd place was Specialized UK’s Tom Reynolds; Tom rode through the line with consistently good flips, 360 tables and 360 whips whilst at the same time being so smooth and clean. But it was DMR Bike’s Ray Samson who rode well enough for the win. A barrage of 360 tables, flips superman’s and flipwhips did it for the judges who said it was Ray’s effortlessness and amplitude that made him the clear winner.
1 – Ray Samson (DMR/Morvelo/X-Fusion) – 52.5
2 – Tom Reynolds (Specialized UK/Salice/PedalHeaven) – 51.5
3 – Daryl Brown (Bulls Bike/Mountainbikerider) - 49.5
4 – Freddy Pulman (Spank/One Industries/Marzocchi) – 46.5
5 – Tom Cardy (Dartmoor/X-Fusion/Slam69) – 45.0
6 – Scott Merrell (Jimmy’s Iced Coffee) – 41.5
