All content © Bob MuIIins

Fast Eddy GBXC

Bell Isle Farm, Welshpool
Photos Tilde Tighe

Yet another new venue can be added to the long list of regular Fast Eddy destinations. Bell Isle Farm, just outside Welshpool, showed last weekend that it has the potential to become a firm favourite on the Fast Eddy circuit. It has all the factors necessary to make it a classic XC course and in some places, even extreme.

Rolling fields and a really superb woodland gave riders some interesting challenges on Sunday. The hot weather didn’t help much as the open sections become a little dusty but the woodland improved with each lap. Fast Eddy’s policy of trying to use new venues just once a year will certainly reap dividends with this one.

In addition to the dust there were plenty of rocks scattered in the open sections and although fast in places, care needed to be taken at most points around the course. The day got underway with the Rock Oil Youth XC race, which was won once again by Cory Cookland. Cookland is absolutely on fire this year and stands head and shoulders above the rest of the BW 85/150 cc class. Lewis Hurdsman had a terrific ride in second place but was still over five minutes down on the class winner. This pair managed 14 laps each as Cameron Gamez completed 13 laps to take third spot.

Billy Austin nailed the SW 85 cc class just under a minute clear of Antonio Taylor who was followed home by Endaf Hughes in third spot.

Rees Jones was a lap clear of the rest in the 65 cc ranks, as Will Barnett took second and Archie Jordan third.

For once the Auto class was very well attended. A shortened course, cutting out a few tricky spots saw Sean Smout take the class win by a lap over Winston Wright with Griff Morgan third.

The first adult race of the day began at 11.00 am for two hours - round 5 of the Fast Eddy XC Championship, which was won once again by Over 50s rider Dave Cooper, who is having an excellent season. Steve Taylor took second in class behind Cooper, a class which surprisingly contained just the two riders.

Second overall in the race and top spot in Vets B when to Simon Howden, just over 30 seconds adrift of Cooper in overall first place. Shaun James was a lap down in second spot, very closely followed by Mark Glover in third.

Third overall and top of the Youth B class was Adam James, who had a cracking ride to match the two top vets on laps. Doug Lote followed him home as the only other finisher in the Youth B class.

The top four overall places was a real mixed bag as fourth overall went to Liam Belfield, who topped the Sportsman class. He was a lap ahead of Carl Thomas in second spot and two laps up on Aidan Wright in third.

The top Novice rider was Lee Anderton with 12 laps to his credit. Shaun Cornwall took second in class with the only other Novice, Andrew Williams, recording a DNF after two laps.

The final race of the day, GBXC, saw a terrific line up of young talent take to the course for just over two hours. The battle at the front of the field was intense with Max Ditchfield, Henry Yardley, Cole Cookland and Harry Edmondson full of youthful vigour and all determined to take first place. In what is becoming a habit, Expert rider Max Ditchfield took a superb win with 17 laps to his credit, matched only by second place Henry Yardley. Yardley and Harry Edmondson had fought tooth and nail for much of the race with Henry having the advantage early on until a bit of a wobble over one of the many logs saw him get stuck, allowing Harry Edmondson to overtake and stretch a small gap between the pair. Unfortunately, a slight technical fault saw Edmondson slip down the ranks towards the end of the race as the other Wootton, Ben nailed third spot. Considering his lack of bike time over recent months, third in the Expert ranks showed that Wootton has still got what it takes to be a serious competitor.

The elder of the two Cookland boys, Cole took third overall in the race and topped the Clubman 2T class by some distance from close rival James Palmer. Palmer had a great ride but towards the end of the race, was battling hard to fend off Charlie Chater, on his new Freestyle Yamaha. Chater eventually took third spot.

Looking at the results, the course certainly seemed to favour 2T machines. At the head of the Clubman 4T class was Lee Hattersley in 11th overall. Ryan Phillips and Ben Key completed the Clubman 4T top three.

Chris Wagstaff took the Vets A win following an intense battle with Alex Owen throughout the first half of the race. Unfortunately, Owen DNF’d after nine laps, which allowed Kev Sandland the opportunity to grab second spot with both hands. Andy Daniels wrapped up the top three.

It’s a rarity these days to find a new venue, even more so, a good new venue and Bell Isle Farm proved to be very good. Nothing could be done about the dust with the weather conditions as they were but with the land available, scattered with so many features, it will become a solid venue in Fast Eddy’s ever-growing list.

It was a great layout and it was obvious that the Fast Eddy crew had put in plenty of effort to make this inaugural event run smoothly at Bell Isle Farm, don’t forget the name.

Results