Lauren Vale and Craig Speed produced performances that underlined their growing reputations in posting the winning times. With few racers having raced here before this was a real opportunity for all the racers to learn about the slope and how it would react. Three runs down the course set by Emily Evans gave the racers plenty of opportunity to test out the rollers and bumps and learn where to attack.
Vale had the edge on Shering on both runs that they both finished to put pressure on her for the following days GBR race. Vale was in great form down the undulating slope that has been missed from the racing calendar for too long. Jenny Davies took part in only her fifth race for the summer due to University commitments but still was able to take third place ahead of Georgia Hyett with Elin Jones rounding out the top five.
Craig Speed was looking to get back to winning ways after his defeat in Pontypool a week before and was in a class of his own. Club mate Toby Case used his runs down the slope to gain knowledge and was living with the pace of Speed on the final run. Brandon Matthews produced another strong performance to take third place with Callum Witts and Charlie Tubbs to round out the top five.
Amber Fennel and Genevieve Cassidy took the mini girls race wins with Liam Atkinson and Casper Mellon-Hendry taking the boys race wins.
It was great to return to Chatham for the first time since 2006 for a dry ski race. The drive down brought back many memories from races at Chatham and the other John Nike slopes before their demise to the carpet matting. The news at the end of the day of Chatham being rehomologated as a race slope is great news for both the variation in slopes that can be used for the main races and spreading the slopes around the country. Now we only need to get Swadlincote and Llandudno back on dendix and things would be back to ‘the good old days….’
The hard work put in by members of the Chatham Race Club to make sure the slope was ready for racing was much appreciated by the racers and parents alike. We look forward to returning again in the future.
Women’s results
Men’s results
Mini’s results
Girls
Boys
FREE pictures from the racing are available here, courtesy of Ski Shack
The full catalogue of pictures from the summer is available here