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Dirty Weekend Repo
24th August 2004 - Dud
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Last weekend riders from all over the country made the trip down south to Newnham Park, Plymouth lured by the promise of FreeCross, 4X, Dirt Jumping, FMX, MiniMoto mayhem and beer. This is an event I'd always missed out on in past so had no idea of how 'big' this event was actually going to be. Turning up a Saturday morning we were met by a sure contender for Radio 1's 'Camp Man' and given a spangly pink bracelet. The site is well laid out in a valley overlooked by a hill on which has been shaped into an often fear inducing FreeCross track. First thing to notice is how small the site is, what you can see in the picture is everything except the FreeCross track just behind you. But the size wasn't really a bad thing as it meant there were no walking miles to find that you've just missed the racing. Also the hill allowed you to oversee everything that was going on so when watching kids case the jumps gets boring, the motocrossers pulling stretched superman's is a nice change. Anyway enough fluff, down to the action.
The Dirty Weekend site
First off was the mini moto racing. This has to be seen to be believed, fully grown blokes riding stupidly small bikes round a course littered with jumps. To be honest I thought theses were a piss take really, why not just get a 'proper' bike. But as usual I was wrong, the guys were jumping the big gaps with ease and the racing was actually rather intense.. If I had a spare grand or so I'd be fully up for having a go on the pocket rockets. Who won I have no idea but it certainly made for some cool racing and big get off's.
Mini moto racing!
Then riders and spectators started to gather around the FreeCross track. As usual with these type of events everyone is kept waiting for a good few hours before any racing actually starts to happen. This one took top honours though in that none of the riders actually knew how the points were scored or the format of the compo until 5 minutes before racing began, nice. When the mic was finally sorted we were informed that there would be four rounds of heats with four races in each. Then the top 8 riders go into the semis then 4 into the final. Points were allocated by position first (1st=8 2nd=6 and so on) then up to 6 bonus points for 'style'. Sounds good but as style points were rarely over 2.5 riders generally treated it as a race trying to chuck in a cross up on the way down. That said the track was pretty cool with a massive variety of possible lines and some big jumps to give riders a whole load of airtime also chucked in for good measure was a huge wall ride just before the finish, inspiration taken from Whistler no doubt.
Wallride on the freecross course
There was a fair bit of carnage throughout the day with riders colliding or just trying to go that little bit too big. The Swedish rider Joscha Forsteuter took a couple hard falls attempting a 360 over the enormous finishing jump. The couple falls were both in the same race as in FreeCross riders are allowed to go back up the track in order to score the extra bonus points. Anywhere you find racing you'll always find Scott 'Boom Boom' Beaumont and he was dominating throughout the day picking up average bonus points but always finishing high in the rankings. After the heats which took maybe a little too long for most spectators liking it came down to the final to win a sweet little Honda mini-moto. The final saw a super fast run from Martin Murray take home the moto, Boom Boom take a stash of cash and tourist Roger Rinderknecht take 3rd. Overall most people thought FreeCross was a hit with Beaumont even stating he was "loving it"... Will it be around in the future, I doubt it; maybe next time we'll have a few north shore stunts chucked into a 4X track in another attempt to make it the next big thing but it's all good.
  
 
Click for full size images..
After a few hours knocking about the floodlit DMR World King of Dirt got underway. This was what the weekend was all about really, all the dirt jumpers were there giving it their all to firstly clear the jumps which proved a little difficult and then to bust out their biggest moves. The night saw plenty or riders going down hard which is always fun to watch, plenty of mayhem from the bad boy of dirt Ross Tricker and a few flip attempts from new found celebrity Glen Coe, unfortunately no double flip attempt but in his defence the jumps weren't perfect for it. Nearing the end the spectators had moved past the barriers and everyone was surrounding the jumps in true backyard jam style. Chopper took the title with some big tail whips and 360 bar spins, this man is unstoppable.
Choppers 360 and the crowd at night
Next up was the party. Or not. Whoever chose to get that hippy band in to play at an 'extreme' sports show should be severely beaten. After everyone's pumped on some sweet riding we do not want to see a bunch of guys in ponchos and pink trousers playing a banjo, I don't care how good they are it's just not cool. So after getting pissed enough to fall asleep we called it a day. As for Sunday it was much the same with the NPS 4X instead of FreeCross and a bit more dirt jumping. I don't have the results to that because I didn't watch it. We're a Downhill and Freeride site so get over it! Hope that's whetted your appetite for next year and remember kid's bongo's are for losers.
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