There is no better place to watch ski racing in the UK than at the Suffolk
Ski Centre on a warm summer day. Perched on that grass bank at the bottom
of the hill, soaking up the sun's rays whilst watching skiers negotiate
those idiosyncratic contours that make this hill one of the most
interesting on the circuit. The only thing that seems missing is the
poolside bar and a multitude of Germans fighting for deckchairs at dawn..
Quite what it’s like on a bleak day in February is anyone’s guess. However,
since the race organisers seem to have the ability to order good weather
for this event each and every year, the thought of a Glastonbury-esque GP
mudbath isn’t worth worrying about. Indeed, whilst temperatures soared
and parents took cover underneath sun beaten gazebos the action on the
hill somehow managed to be even hotter.
In the girls' race, Emily Evans immediately set about rectifying her
defeat in the Norfolk leg of the 2009 series, this time producing a brace
of error free runs that produced breathing space from the morning run and
doubled her advantage in the later run to complete a relatively
comfortable victory. The Chatham racer again proving that, despite her
relatively small frame, there is bags of power available when she reaches
for the accelerator.
In the male race, Norfolk warhorse Stuart Riches, like Evans, produced the
fastest run of the day on both courses to claim overall victory despite
Dan Curtis pushing him every single inch of the way. Indeed with Curtis
only nine hundredths of a second behind Riches after both runs he can
count himself somewhat unlucky not to have added to his hat-trick of Club
National wins in Southampton by completing his first overall GP victory.
In the categories Emily Goddard proved too good for the other seniors in
the field with Stacey Luck claiming 2nd. Overall runner up Charlotte
Davies took the spoils in the Junior 2 category with third placed overall
Alice Hales 2nd and Charlotte Gould in 3rd. In the Junior 1 category
Caroline Powell placed 2nd behind Emily Evans whilst Charlotte Shrimpton
claimed 3rd. In Children 2 an excellent 6th place overall was sufficient
to provide Sophie Skipper with the category victory, though 2nd placed
Stephanie Davies and 3rd placed Bethany Widdup were not that far behind.
In the children 1 category Yasmin Cooper went one better then her runners
up spot at Sunderland to claim victory with Isabella Hathway 2nd and Emma
Peters 3rd.
In the male categories Andrew Crawford followed Riches home for 3rd
overall and runners up spot in the seniors with Andrew Leeson completing
the podium positions in 3rd. In Jun 2 an impressive 4th place overall was
enough to provide Harry Hornsby with 2nd overall and squeeze Ian Williams
into 3rd by the very smallest of margins. Ashley Richards deservedly
claimed the spoils in the Jun 1 with James Grant and Max Wheatman
following each other home for 2nd & 3rd respectively. In the child
categories Norfolk’s Shaun Blythe simply blew away the rest of the
children’s field, claiming the older child category win by well over a
second and a half. Ambition racer Max Moss proved to be the best of the
rest in claiming 2nd with James Gibb in 3rd. In the younger category
William Wheeler overturned a first run deficit to claim his second Grand
Prix category victory of 2009 whilst Jordan Fellows claimed 2nd and Angus
Ives 3rd.
So as the 2009 Grand Prix series passed the half way point, the only thing
really decided was that everything was still undecided and just about
every racer has something to race for. With this being a seven race series
and two of the last three races indoors it would take a brave man (or
lady) to claim they know the winner of any category or indeed the overall
title. Much racing lies ahead, if it’s anywhere near as good as what has
gone before then the final half of the season will be worth waiting for.