Barkston Heath Circuit Races 2011

The club promotes circuit races for Juvenile and senior riders at Barkston Heath, with entrants from clubs all over the East Midlands area. The under 16 race is another qualifying event for the East Midlands team, which will take part in the Inter Regional championships in Scotland later in the year. Attached is a brief programme including a list of the confirmed entries received by the official closing date. I am still receiving entries and have had quite a few enquiries about enter on the line, so expect that we should have good fields for all the events. We look forward to some good racing on Saturday on what is a new racing venue, which if it is a success we will look to promote further events in the future. Programme»

8/6 Week 4 Another good turn out for the 4th week at Barkston Heath with coaching focusing on group riding in team time trial mode. This was finished of with a 2 lap effort with the time taken on the last rider of each team. Teams kept together quite well with a couple of exceptions.

25/5 Week 3 With the usual circuit unavailable we moved to the other end of the airfield to make use of the perimeter road making an approximately 1 km circuit with 3 dead turns and a good finishing straight for a sprint.
With almost 50 riders splitting into 3 coaching groups it was a good chance to have 30 minutes to practice cornering techniques. Then for the training races over 40 riders were split into 5 groups of similar ability starting 1 minute apart, with instructions to work together for 3 laps before pushing on.
It soon became apparent that with the 3 tight corners, riders were finding it more difficult than on the usual circuit to keep together in anything more than groups of 3 or 4 riders.
George Thompson (Jun) and Peter Cocker (Juv A) broke away on the 7th lap and steadily increased their lead to the end, where George proved the strongest at the finish. Ollie Fensom was the next Juv A rider home with Karl Bailliie first Juv B, Matt Ellis first Juv C, Kerrigan Robb first Juv D and Bryn Richards first Juv E. Photos»

Photos can be seen at www.lincsracephotos.co.uk

16/4 After using a small self contained circuit at RAF Barkston Heath, 5 miles from Grantham in Lincolnshire for inter-club coaching for the last 3 years, Witham Wheelers, with an increasing Juvenile membership, thought it was time to try it out for an open event. Approximately 1 mile round, well surfaced with generally flowing corners and safe run-off areas it seemed ideal for Youth racing.
With help from Club sponsor Echo Personnel and event sponsor local specialist lightweight bike shop Pedalpushers, it was decided to try local demand for races for all the Youth categories plus a senior 3/4 cat race
The CDE riders were put together in one race over 15 minutes + 2 laps which produced some really competitive riding with Scot Hookway of Sherwood Pines winning a tight sprint from Matt Ellis of Spalding
A good field for the AB race saw a large bunch gradually reduced to just 6 riders contesting the final sprint after 30 minutes + 3 laps with Luke Markham of Rugby just edging out James Shaw. Grace Garner (Leics RC) led in the second bunch to win the B category overall.
The senior AB race saw 42 riders produce another  competitive race without any breakaway gaining a big advantage and after 45 minutes + 5 laps. Ben Green VC Lincoln got the jump into the final corner for a convincing sprint victory from Oliver Nutall (Nottingham Clarion) and Grace Garner (Motorpoint Point) an excellent 3rd.
Event organizer Simon Cocker reported that he has had lots of positive feedback since the event and general opinion was that the circuit is an excellent addition to the East Midlands racing scene and Witham Wheelers will be looking at future promotions at the same venue. For local cyclists coaching sessions will be starting there on Wednesday 27th April, see club web site for more details http://www.withamwheelers.co.uk/
Thanks to the event sponsors Pedalpushers for their help with the event and Alan East for the photographs.