Shannon Potter produced a stunning performance to take victory in the Anglo Welsh Championship race by a comfortable margin ahead of Nicole Shering and Ella Giles with Kirsten Walton and Ellie Jackson rounding out the top five. With many of the leading racers from the summer indoor race scene away on training camps Potter produced a class performance to state her case as a rising up and coming talent on the British scene.
In the days leading up to the final weekend of Indoor racing for this summer in Britain, Amanda Aldridge stubbed her finger playing touch rugby and this severely affected her on the first run. Alldridge straddled on the first run and as the commentator was announcing that she was the leading seed point racer in the race, the Milton Keynes racer crashed out.
A disappointing run by Ellie Jackson had seen her over a second and a half off the pace and the winner of one of the British Ski Academy bursaries from the BSA sponsored GBR Series had it all to do on the second run if she was to challenge. With Walton and Shering sharing second but over half a second behind Potter, Ella Giles, Maisie Jefferson and Holly McKey were battling it out for fourth place after the first run, 0.11 separated the three.
From a Mark Vinter set first run to a Jo Ryding set second run, it was all to go for and when Ellie Jackson went under sixteen-seconds and into a healthy lead ahead of those in the finish, Jackson had raised the bar. If she had left herself too much to do to make the podium from being in 12th place after the first run, time would tell.
While Holly McKey and Maisie Jefferson were close to each other again, Jackson was still out in front with Jefferson 0.14 behind her and McKey a further 0.15 back. Jackson was in the mix and would now be at worse in fifth place.
It was Ella Giles that finally took the race lead from Jackson and then despite having an advantage of almost a second, Kirsten Walton edged in front of Jackson by the slimmest of margins, 0.01 seconds to second with two more to go.
Nicole Shering has posted some positive results across both indoor and outdoor all summer and she went faster than Giles to grab the race lead with just Potter to go.
Potter was in a class of her own and posted the fastest second run time to win by 1.13 seconds from Shering. Had Jackson performed on the first run as she had on the second run, the result could have been much different. There is no what if in racing and Potter was delighted to have taken her fifth win of the season, her biggest result on the indoor scene yet.
The age group winners were Abbie Parker (Under 14, 12th Overall); Ella Giles (Under 16, 3rd Overall); Shannon Potter (Under 18, Race Winner); Maxine Hancock (Under 21, 8th Overall) and Carrie Walsh (Masters)
Results (Main race)
Results (Under 12 & Under 10)
Pictures from the racing will be on www.racerready.zenfolio.com