Toby Case underlined his credentials as one of the leading racers on the summer race scene with a comprehensive 1.72 second win in the second round of the eola sponsored GBR series Men's race. Megan Skipper took the women's race holding off Rebecca Hart with Isabel Lincoln third and Grace Laws, winner of round one in fourth and Amy Wilson fifth. Charlie Tubbs and Sam Gaskin joined Case on the podium with Remy van Breugel and Charlie Howe in fourth and fifth.
After the race Case was asked if he felt that he was one of the leading dry slope racers this year and he agreed that coming to Norfolk was mission accomplished in taking two wins from two and this was now his seventh win in a row and eighth win in his last ten summer races.Asked if he felt he was now the top summer racer he answered "I would like to say so but you never know with some of the older racers coming back."
In what could be described as ominous to the rest of the field, he felt that his skiing had been "OK but not my best skiing." With the likes of fellow British team racer Robert Holmes having won in the Club National in Sunderland the previous weekend, it is great to see some of the higher profile racers showing what they are capable of on the dry slope and demonstrating what the younger racers need to be achieving if they are to match the likes of Case and Holmes.
Case set his stall out on run one in posting a time just under a second ahead of the rest of the field and then extended his advantage without really having to attack on the second run. There were great performances from Charlie Tubbs to move up to second after the second run and Sam Gaskin just held on to third despite losing precious time on his second run.
Finlay Royle took the Under 14 age group with Alex Hadingham the Under 16 age group, Jonathan Calvert the Under 18 age group, Case the Under 21 age group and Gaskin the Senior age group. Scott Appleby won the Master's age group with a strong couple of runs to place in the top 15 finishers overall.
It was sad to see eight racers not start due to a recent outbreak of Covid at the slope and then when 11 racers crashed out on the first run, the already small start list meant an even smaller second run start list.
Rebecca Hart looked to have taken the first run lead in the Women's race but then going last, Megan Skipper came down to post the fastest first run time and then held on to win the race despite Hart posting the fastest second run time. Isobel Lincoln used her home slope knowledge to take third.
Having won the first race of the eola GBR Series Grace Laws was unable to repeat the feat but pulled up a place on the second run to come fourth ahead of her Ravens and Tigers teammate Amy Wilson.
The age groups were won by Alice Beveridge (Under 14), Amber Fennell (Under 16, sixth overall), Rebecca Hart (Under 18), Megan Skipper (Under 21) and Melissa Sampson (Masters).
Alfie Croft won the Under 12 race with Tallulah Winter winning the Under 12 girls race and Hattie Taylor the Under 10 girls race in second place overall. No Under 10 boys finished the race.
The challenge for the series organisers this summer is keeping people racing at all the rounds nd not just sticking to their home / nearest slopes. It is great to see a new sponsor supporting the series and there was plenty of interest in eola at the race, the athletes need to reciprocate the support and attend the races as long as they can.
Men's results
Women's results
Mini Boy's results
Mini Girl's results
Pictures from the racing are on www.racerready.zenfolio.com
The eola GBR Series next races are on 17 - 18 July at Chill Factrore in Manchester, the opening two rounds of the Indoor series.
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