There may have been a few names missing from the entry but after missing the previous weekends racing, Euan Kick wanted to show that he is also a force to be reckoned with on the summer circuit. Thirteen hundredths was the lead after the first run and despite Ashley Breese skiing a clean and fast run on the second run, Kick extended the lead by another four hundredths to take the win overall. Robert Trebilcock from Hemel took third place just ahead of ex GB Team racer and Programme Director for Ambition, Marc Telling with Glasgow's Zak Vinter taking fifth place after a late entry and forced him to start one from the back.
The GBR Series has appealed to many of the up and coming racers and the competition was interesting to see. While some of the top seeded racers were in the top group courtesy of the seed points they have gained on the plastic matting, others were there from having raced in a number of indoor races: The difference between the two types of racers was clear to see.
With the battle between Kick and Breese at the top of the field interesting to see, every hundredth was being fought for by all the racers lower down the field as well: Just under a second separated the top fourteen racers after the first run, with all but the oldest and youngest age groups being represented in the leading times (Alex Molliex posted the 15th fastest time on the first run but was just over a second off the lead.). Mere hundredths separated each racer from the net in this group.
Two local racers, Thomas Rascagneres and Cameron McGregor-Ogden took the top two places in the under 14 age group with Owen Vinter taking third place. McGregor-Ogden recovered from a poor first run to very nearly take the win from his club mate. In the Under 16 age group, Zak Vinter took the age group win with fifth place overall ahead of rising talent from Sunderland, Rory Farren (11th overall) with Daniel Barton taking third in the age group.
With the top two racers in the race coming from the under 18 age group, Euan Kick and Ashley Breese were joined on the podium by another exciting talent in Jordan Fellows (8th overall). Robert Trebilcock took the under 21 age group ahead of Kieren Norris and Chris Corr with Marc Telling taking the senior group comfortably infront of Gerard Flahive with the returning to racing Zac Rayson in third. Alex Molliex took the Masters age group with Andrew Hjort in second and John Norris in third.
As with the girls race, the racing was fast and furious and while a number of those that chose to forerun, did so due to not having done much training, there is definitely a feel that there is a changing of the guard amongst the top racers and maybe a new generation will be dominating the racing in the races to come. This all bodes well for the future of racing in the summer in the UK and hopefully this can encourage more racers to take part as well as attracting more skiers to start racing as well.
Full results
Pictures from the racing will soon be available on www.racer-ready.ifp3.com