The last round of the World Trials Championship was the UK round at Penrith over the weekend where Team JSTGGUK had some mixed results…
No.1 JST rider Michael Brown needed a good weekend to lift him to 8th or even 7th in the overall championship. Before the weekend he was two points behind Danny Oliveras and 5 points behind Jack Challoner. Saturday went "okay" with Michael finishing 9th with Oliveras 11th so he was level on points with Oliveras in the championship standings. Jack was 7th so he pulled another two points on Michael.
Michael was riding well on Saturday and his 9th place didn’t reflect on how well he was riding. He had some very unlucky rides, especially when he leveled the hard part of section 2, only to just overbalance on the final boulder. The sections were quite long for the 1.5 minutes allowed and this caught him out on more than one occasion.
Going into the final day (Sunday), he was quietly confident he could stay in front of Oliveras and hopefully beat Challoner. It would have taken a mega ride off Michael and a disaster off Jack to stand any chance of getting the #7 bib for 2013. Michael really struggled on the first lap and seemed unconfident resulting in a lap he will want to forget. A few words before the second lap seemed to help because he leveled section two and went on a roll nearly halving his first lap score. Only three ‘fives’ on the second lap compared to ‘eleven’ on lap one. This was good to see especially when he was riding with an injured hand after he crashed heavy on section eight on the first lap. At the finish he finished 10th, three marks more than Oliveras so #8 for 2013 was lost and Michael has finished 9th in the championship standings. So, the weekend didn’t go to plan but im proud on Micheal for fighting to the end.
JST GGUK Rider Alexz Wigg had a steady day on Saturday to finish 10th and a superb ride on Sunday finishing 8th. Alexz deserved this 8th place because he was trying so hard all weekend. Alexz has finished 11th overall in the Championship.
RCM/JSTGGUK Rider Ricky Wiggins finished just outside the points finishing 17th in the Junior Class on Saturday. A big crash injured his left side/hip/ribs etc so he sensibly decided not to ride on Sunday.
JSTGGUK rider Tom Dexter had a fantastic result finishing 9th in the Youth Class on Saturday and 10th on Sunday. Bradley Bullock got the better of his brother finishing 14th and in the points on Saturday and 15th on Sunday. His brother, JSTGUK/Kelcoat rider Dec Bullock was 16th on Saturday and a well needed and improved 12th on Sunday.
JSTGGYUK rider Jack Stones finished 16th on Saturday and 15th and a world point on Sunday..
Congratulations to Adam Raga and his Team for finishing runner-up in the championship to Toni
Congratulations to James Dabill on his fantastic podium on Sunday.
Congratulations to Bradley Cox for winning the youth class both days .
Thanks for Factory Kev for preparing Michaels bike.