Watson leads four Cardiff racers into top five overall
Andy Watson showed yet again why he is the man to beat when it comes to racing on the plastic this summer. The fastest man on both runs and even breaking a stick on the second run; did not allow the rest of the field the chance to catch him. Tom Hales did his best to try and better the times set by his good friend and club mate but in the end he just did not have enough to dislodge Watson. Hales took second place and Andy Davies placed third, benefitting from Gerard Flahive crashing out on the second run. James Mozol took fourth ahead of the fourth Cardiff racer in the top five, Rob Hales (father of Tom!)
With the top fifteen randomly drawn, unlike the Grand Prix Series that sees the top seven drawn and then the next eight drawn in a separate group, Andy Davies was second down out of the top seeds. While there is little difference in course conditions on the dry mat racing, this gave the rest of the field plenty to think about as they waited their turn to go down the Guy Hornsby set first run. Whether his run had an effect on those immediately following him is debateable but Elliot Simpson going straight after him crashed out and the next two both suffered big falls. Both Adam Beardmore and Harry Hornsby did finish but this was after hiking back up and gathering all their kit that they had left scattered across the slope. Was Hornsby trying to better his garage sale from the Saturday many asked?
So after the first run: Watson lead by eight hundredths from Hales with Gerard Flahive taking third and Davies making it the four fastest racers from the first run for Wales. James Mozol was in fifth with Ben Clark just behind him.
The second run started with a rash of Did Not Start’s as Beardmore and Hornsby were too battered and bruised and Matthew Martin had broken a ski! Many of the racers starting at the front of the second run would not have looked out of place at the back end (the faster racers!) but for one reason or another found themselves in the unaccustomed position of starting at the front.
With ten to go on the second run, the lead was held by intrepid train traveller Johnny Powell. Powell had travelled overnight on Friday from south eastern France to race (arriving after four changes and before the centre staff arrived to open up) to race and would make the return on Monday for work! Powell even tried to use a little old school technique but it was to no avail. Powell’s lead did not last long as the improvement shown by Mikey Knowles of late saw Knowles grab the lead from Powell. Knowles is turn did not stay in the lead for long as Rob Hales, the oldest man in the field, proved that it is not just his children that can ski fast, showed many of the younger racers just how to do it and stormed into the lead.
With David Hatcher believing that he was too far off the lead to challenge and electing not to start the second run, it was left to Harry Rymell to try and better Hales’s time. Rymell crashed out and he was followed out by Ben “when was the last time you saw me crash out” Clark. With five to go, how long could Hales stay in front and could his son be the one to knock him off the lead?
James Mozol skied smoothly down the Phil Brown course to post both a faster run time and extend his overall lead. Mozol could have gone faster but he needs to learn to attack courses more and not ski in his comfort zone. More time on skis could rectify this.
Andy Davies looked determined but the fact the band he plays in had had a gig the night before, this may have sapped a little energy from him from the first run. Davies gave his all on the second run and was the first racer to break the twenty second barrier for the run carving out a lead of over a second on Mozol and the rest. Could Flahive use the benefit of the course having been set by his boss at Impulse Racing to his advantage?
The answer was no as Flahive tried a little too hard to try and set a challenging time for the leading two and he over cooked it and was out.
And so it was down to the final two: Tom Hales and Andy Watson. These two have been the two racers on the dry mat that have shown talent and speed and the competition between the two has reminded some of the dry slope racers from bygone years: Stefan Elton, Ivan Taylor and through to Adam Lee, Georgie Hunt and Dave Ryding. It would be great to watch a legends race with some of the names of yesteryear competing for fun at one of the dry slope races sometime.
Hales was first down and he destroyed Davies’s time by almost a second. If ever Watson had a challenge then it was for this run. Despite his stick snapping in front of him in the last few gates, Watson crossed the line a mere nine hundredths ahead of Hales and so extended his lead and took the Overall win. There is a reason why Watson has been the zero point racer this season and this race showed why.
So Watson took the win with Hales in second and Davies third, giving Wales a clean sweep of the podium. While many of the top dry slope racers from the last few years have gravitated to the indoor and snow, those that have stuck with the plastic know how much they need to raise their game to beat Watson.
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