Astonhill Rnd 2 DH3, Wendover

Astonhill was the place to be over the weekend; the last race under Ian Warbys careful direction was taking place on DH3. After nine years of running races and developing the hill Ian is now moving onto a new challenge.

As such the event was as much about saying thank you and goodbye to Ian and Mike as it was about the racing. Ian and the crews hard work kept everything running as smoothly as possible making sure everyone had a great time. There was a fantastic turnout with lots of new faces mingling with veteran astonhillers and as always the competition was friendly yet fierce. The atmosphere in the car park pit area was great with Relentless Energy on hand providing free samples in very generous quantities and trade stands from Balfa UK, Kenda and DMR to browse and of course the ancillotti team tent.



DH3 is an old favourite; the perfect mixture of open fast and jumpy at the top and tighter and more technical towards the bottom. With some small modifications to two of the corners at the halfway point to improve the flow of the middle section; with some rain during the week the track dried out nicely for the racing which made for some super fast times being set from the start.

The Hardtail category saw Nick Geoghegan astonhill Ancillotti again competing in two categories, Riding flat out to take the win setting a blistering time of 1.30.24 seconds first run coming in 8 seconds up on second placed Lee Huskinson with Captain Codpiece taking third.



In Juvenile Pete Robinson put in a fantastic run to take fourth despite feeling under the weather.

Youth saw Jack Geoghegan astonhill Ancillotti put in a flat out run take first and Ancillottis £50 Fastest Youth Time of the Day Prize over Harry Molloy while Marcus Williams on his first visit to astonhill took third.

In the Junior category Nick Geoghegan set a time good enough for fourth fastest overall and took to the podium for the second time with Jeremy Callow taking second and Jack Graham in third. I had great fun seeing how fast I could go.



The womens category saw a good entry this weekend; Nicky Belton took the top spot on the podium aboard her Ancillotti with Rachel Lewis taking second and Renee Diwell third.

In the Senior men category a massive seventy three riders where entered but it was Joe Achilles who took the top spot ahead of Mick Ridgway in second and Matt Kemp astonhill Ancillotti put in a fantastic run pinning it to third.



The Elite category saw some super close racing with the top three separated by only points of a second; Chris Sinden took the top spot and the other £50 Ancillotti prize for fastest time of the day; with Ancillotti Team Rider Matt Simmonds taking second and Ross Searle third. Team Manager Andy Ayres kept it lit to take a well deserved sixth place.

A Big Thanks go out to Ian, Mike and the rest of the Astonhill crew for all their hard work and for a fantastic day of racing and to all the guys for some brilliant riding.