Manx Downhill National

Course Progress

As your all aware the national was held yesterday at the new track in Tholt-Y-Will plantation. the wet weather had ensured that the track was even more difficult & technical than ever to negotiate. More rocks & roots were being exposed after every run, ruts would appear that weren't previously there & with a lot of the track being off-camber & catch nets at the ready, it was definitely the most challenging track of the year! 11 riders braved the conditions & when the tractor eventually arrived, a couple of practice runs were put in before the business began. initially there was going to be 2 timed runs. 1 for round 6 & 1 for the national, but with the time getting on it was decided to just have 1 run & winner takes all...

with 3 juniors racing & each being assured of a podium position, it was a case of racing for either 1st,2nd or 3rd. the honors again went to lee corlett with a fantastic ride to take the win & put him in 5th position overall on the day. tom cole was only 8 seconds behind, again putting in a great run to finish 2nd & 7th overall. 3rd in the juniors went to charlie pemberton, who although feeling ill still put in a good run to finish 10th overall. a big shout out to all the juniors who have raced this year, they've all put in some cracking performances & the future looks good for the Manx downhill scene!

so now to the seniors. the shock of the day, if not the season was the run from tom skillicorn. arguably the islands fastest downhill rider & obviously pre race favorite, skilly crashed several times before even getting half way. just goes to show how difficult the conditions were on the day. although finishing LAST & 8th in the seniors, the result didn't make any difference to the overall standings & skilly has successfully defended his senior mens title. respect to chris sharpe who raced whilst nursing a 'head ache,' braved the conditions, which on the track weren't getting any better & took 7th in the seniors & 9th overall. 6th went to miss brunswick. sarah again not put off by the conditions or the track was quite happy to test herself against all the guys, put in a good enough run to finish 8th overall & a pretty good finish to a pretty successful season here & away for our no.1 female rider. WELL DONE!!! sean kelly took 5th in the seniors & 6th overall, which is a great result with the limited practice on the track & in these testing conditions, aswell as being the only rider brave enough to be clipped in. as hard as he pushed he couldn't quite catch last years national champion, andrew winstanley, taking 4th in the seniors & overall. winston seemed to really enjoy the track & put in a fantastic run & although he failed to reclaim his title from 2007,he was only a handfull of seconds of a podium position! mark tuson, the chief track designer & builder of the stunning wooden bridge made a flying visit to race the track, again with only limited practice managed to put together a pretty faultless run to finish 3rd & 3rd overall & take the bottom step on the podium. 2nd place went to gareth fargher. gaz thriving in the conditions was feeing confident before the race & apart from a collision with a tree,still managed to put in a fantastic run to finish well ahead of the 3rd place man & take the 2nd step on the podium. 1st place & top step on the podium went to russell sansom. the national champion for 2008!

Russ Sansom