Seven out of the last eight times that Andrew Watson has raced at Pontypool he has won. The only blemish on his results sheet was a disqualification in 2013, the last time he raced in the Welsh Open. Only two racers from that year raced in the 2018 race such has been the turnover of racers in the last few years. Toby Case pushed Watson hard to take second place with TJ Baldwin taking third. Harri Evans and Joshua Price rounded out the top five finishers.
Surprisingly considering the lack of racing Watson has done in the last five years, Watson was still the second best ranked racer by seed points with 1.58 points. Craig Speed has been the zero pointed racer for the 2018 season. After the first run, Watson was half a second ahead of Toby Case, eleven years his junior, with Baldwin in third two-tenths further back. These three were the only ones to go under the magical twenty second mark.
With seven racers to go it was Rhys Price, one of the two survivors of racing against Watson in 2013, who lead. Matthew Smith was unable to defend the small advantage he had over Price and went into second.
Nathan Smith, another athlete to come from Aldershot went quicker than Price to take the lead before Joshua Price just held on to the race lead.
Next down was one of the most improved racers this season, Harri Evans. Evans, part of the Welsh team but trains with Aldershot went a second and a half quicker than Price to put pressure on the three racers laying claim to the podium places.
First up of these three was TJ Baldwin. Baldwin is a past Champion on snow and is having a little renaissance of his career on the plastic and in the Indoor Halls. Having mistakenly pulled up in the National race the day before, Baldwin wanted to put down a marker to the younger racers and went two-tenths faster than Evans to take the lead.
Next down was Case. Case is one of the few multi surface racers that challenges across the surfaces, indoor, snow and plastic. Coached in the past by Baldwin, Case went almost six tenths ahead of him as he looked to put pressure on Watson.
Watson, despite the lack of training and races is still in a different class to the rest of the field and extended his lead over Case and the rest of the field to over a second. This was poetry in motion and really showed the level that aspiring racers need to look to. Smooth, tight, determined and looking for every hundredth while not sliding and slipping was how Watson took the race.
The age groups were won by Charlie Deem (under 14, 13th Overall), Will Forster (Under 16, 10th Overall), Toby Case (Under 18, Runner Up), Harri Evans (Under 21, 4th Overall), Andrew Watson (Senior, Welsh Open Champion), Mark Richards (Masters 23rd Overall)
The Under 10 and Under 12 races were won by Xavier Poynton and Geno Hounsham respectively
Pictures of the racing are available on www.racerready.zenfolio.com
Welsh Open Results
Mini Boys