It’s been another busy weekend for a handful of Stars competing in TT and Crit races in the local area and this is a round up of what they’ve all been up to.
Someone who really seems to have caught the racing bug is young Jorgie Gillett. On Saturday she made her first visit to the Curbourgh closed circuit, near Lichfield. It was also her first-time racing in the wet and nerves unfortunately initially lost her some ground. She fought back well though and managed to take the lead of the girl’s race, only to be stalked and ridden around on the last lap. A great effort though and she’s gaining more confidence all the time.
Jorgie takes the lead at Curbrough
Another rider busy enjoying the racing scene is Sian Hannah Marsh. On Wednesday night she raced at the women’s Bovingdon race where she finished 9th. She followed this up with another race on Saturday, when she entered the Cat 2/3/4 race at Abingdon. Unfortunately, this race didn’t go quite so well as a puncture ended her race.
Also racing on Saturday at Abingdon in the men’s Cat 4 race were four club riders, Matt and Luke Norris, Stuart Quick and Paul Whitehouse. The weather wasn’t looking good and with a really heavy rain shower on the way over to Abingdon it was looking like it was going to be a wet race.
Fortunately, though there were no showers during the race and the surface gradually dried out throughout the race. However, there was a lot of standing water and a big puddle on one corner, which meant care had to be taken on the corners and by the end everyone was filthy due to the spray.
The race started very quickly with the first couple of laps ridden at a very fast pace, however this did not deter the attacks off the front and one of the riders who attacked on lap one stayed away for the win. There were continued little digs off the front of the group throughout the race, with a bit of a lull for a couple of laps mid race. No one else got away until about 5 laps to go and he would also stay away until the end and claim second.
Therefore, as the final few laps ticked off the bunch would be sprinting for third place, in a fairly hectic last lap riders were trying to position themselves up the front of the bunch so they could have a clean run out of the last corner. Luke managed to get up to the front of the group and sprinted to a top 10 finish claiming 8th place, with Matt, Paul and Stuart finishing in the bunch all on the lead lap, and a good showing for the club.
Rounding off the weekend on Sunday, Josh Newbould entered the Lea Valley CC – 10-mile TT, finishing with an impressive time of 19.26, while Mark Boyles went to High Wycombe CC’s – 10-mile TT where he set a provisional time of 24.05.
Please don’t forget to send a report of your evening or weekend racing activities direct to pressofficer@banburystar.co.uk as soon as you can.