Tom Grimshaw: Racing is full of ups and downs!
By TMX Archives on 3rd May 17
The Woodbridge clubs centre meeting at Blaxhall Pits was a great day of racing for me as I won the overall with three solid motos, recording a 2-1-2 scorecard although I had a little bit of luck with Luke Benstead DNFing moto two with a rear puncture.
The club put on a top meeting with the track being in mint condition which meant great racing all-round and I'm looking forward to racing there again soon.
My next stop was round two of the Maxxis MXY2 British championship at Lyng. The weather was perfect which brought out a large crowd to watch some nail-biting racing.
I qualified third which shocked me as all my fast laps was hindered by me not getting a clear run and I knew I could go faster so I was really happy with the session.
Moto one I had a great jump out the gate and battled with Lewis Hall on lap one and was able to start building my lead to the chequered flag.
Moto two was the same as I led from lap one and started to build a nice lead over Keenan Hird. At the halfway stage I changed my line on a downhill, washed my front end out and fell.
I picked up the bike but I couldn't get it going straight away as this was my first time starting the bike under race conditions and I panicked. I looked up to catch my breath and saw mum behind the fence – she stood out from the crowd saying "calm down”.
The bike started straight away and I was off but my race pants were falling down and my rhythm had gone. Still, I got home ninth giving me second overall. My goal before the day started was try and get onto the podium but I was gutted not to go 1-1 and claim the overall.
For the Easter weekend we were off to round two of the Thor British Youth Nationals at Brampton. It's a good flowing sandy track and I enjoy racing there.
I qualified first which was a great start but moto one was a bit bizarre as it had three different leaders and three different crashes. I was one of them but remounted to claim third place.
In moto two I was leading with Jed Etchells close behind. At the half way point and again on a downhill I changed my line and it spat me off at high speed. It knocked the stuffing out of me and the bike was all twisted up at the front end but I crawled home for seventh.
The team worked into the evening straightening the bike while mum looked at my injuries and sorted some painkillers out.
On day two I was a bit sore but knew I could do well and went on to record 2-1-1 finishes for third overall with two points separating me from first.
The following week we rocked up to Mildenhall for round two of the Eastern Centre Championship held by the Littleport club. This is a brilliant championship with a load of fast Expert riders.
Mildenhall is not the easiest of tracks to overtake on against such good riders and I was out-gunned on the starts against 450s but I worked hard on my 250 to make my way through the pack to eventually record sixth overall which I was really happy about.
We have calmed things down now as I have six weeks of revision and exams so we're only entering one-day events apart from the BYN until my exams are over.
Instead of riding MX2 as a wildcard last weekend at the Maxxis at Canada Heights I took part in a Fast Eddy Cross Country race which was lots of fun, no stress and good training although racing a full-blown motocross bike with hard suspension was not ideal for this type of event.
Paul Edmondson and his crew run a very slick event and I hope to do more in the future.
#Tom 61
