2024 Season Review

Another year in the bag, and certainly not without its ups and downs! Here is a whistle stop recap of the 2024 season:

I’ll actually start several months earlier, as eight British teams made the annual pilgrimage to Finland in February for the 12 hour ice race. With a spate of unseasonably warm temperatures in Lavia resulting in race abandonments and a number of years held off the ice all together, this year the venue moved even further North to Paltamo, ensuring the race would return to its frozen roots. And boy did it deliver! The substantially sub zero temperatures (-32C!) caused frosting issues for machine and man, many of which sounded thoroughly unpleasant and well worth hearing from the afflicted if you get chance.

Back to the UK, and after several years of trying, the weather finally permitted us two solid days racing at our opening event at Spring Live in Ardingly at the end of April, with Alfie Smith, Dean Fuller and Graham Tibbenham taking wins in Groups 4, 3 & 2 (the latter win from a tie break, foreshadowing the season to come) from a total of 34 entrants. Much to the ‘relief’ of campers, despite once again being relegated to the car park, we did make sure that we had 24 hour access to toilets!

There was then a break from sprint racing whilst we held an early Double 4 at Matterley Basin near Winchester attracting 27 teams, with the seemingly unstoppable Bullseye racing taking the overall and Group 4 win, Gash and Bash It taking the tourist trophy, Algridas Races taking Group 3 and local boys Smoking Grass Racing the sole representative of Group 2. Thrills and spills abounded, particularly around the gravel sections of the track. An understandably touching moment saw our friend, long term committee member and endurance enthusiast Les Pantry starting the Saturday race, mere days before we lost him to Pancreatic Cancer.

23 racers attended Alfold in late May, which this year we’d selected to host the World Championships. Last year the field proved to be very bumpy and dusty, this year however, whilst still very bumpy, the weather made for some fairly boggy sections and saw Sean Tanswell’s tow rope come out for the first time of the season! Paul Johnson took a long overdue win in Group 2, Alfie Smith took Group 4 and the aforementioned Tanswell took both Group 3 and the European Trophy. The major change this year was the introduction of a joker lap in every race to try to prevent the final result being decided at the first corner. We think it worked, but welcome feedback.

Slightly less hot and dry than the previous year, but hard and fast none the less, 26 racers made the journey to Motorfest near Chelmsford. Alfie won Group 4, Dean Group 3 and Graham Group 2. Having not raced at Blake House Craft Centre for some years now (watch this space), it seemed only right that this alternative venue should host the Horn Race, which is an Essex native and was won by Rob Rowlands.

West’s Wood Fair was our first new venue of the year and proved to be a good one, even if we were a fair distance from the show itself (something they’ve promised to look at for next year). 28 racers took on the hard, flinty and hilly ground, with some nasty off camber bends, which caused some issues throughout the day, including Mike Cresswell’s Group 2 getting some air off a felled Graham Tibbenham! The event also hosted the Les Pantry memorial jumble sale, with all proceeds going to his family. Alfie won Group 4, Dean Group 3, Jenson Cresswell Group 2 and Graham a cracked rib.

The Dauntsey Festival of Transport was our second new venue of the year and our most Westerly event of the season, offering spectacular M4 views. The show itself perhaps suffered from the draw of a rival show less than two miles away (including Mower Madness!), but this had little effect on our weekend’s racing, which took advantage of a whole field to ourselves and attracted 24 competitors. Kenny Goodesmith took the win in Group 4, Dean Group 3, and Jenson Group 2. 

As is customary, perhaps even mandatory in every race calendar, in July we took our annual Reservoir Dip. In what was proving to be a very damp year, and this being a venue that suffers from such conditions, this proved to be probably the hottest meeting of the year, with dust to suit. The meeting attracted 33 entrants, Alfie winning Group 4, Dean Group 3 and Charlie Thurston Group 2.

Then followed a 12 hour for the history books, which for the first time ever was not what most would call ‘local’, indeed it was some 20miles away as the crow flies at Trooper field near Petersfield. Attracting a very healthy 45 entrants across all groups, the distance apparently not deterring many, particularly “In Memory of Les” who travelled some 4000 miles to give Les’s Wheel Horse one last spin before it emigrated to the USA. Whilst on the face of it, the firm ground conditions seemed ideally suited to the abuse we were set to give it – this soon proved not to be the case as ruts appeared and the hard crust bunched up in corners making for particularly gruelling conditions, made worse by a fog that descended over the track during the night. Reigning Champions Bullseye Racing unfortunately suffered from a number of issues that saw them lose their early lead quite early on and their dreams of reclaiming the title fully dashed later in the night, finishing 33rd. Ultimately NORTHERNERS KICK grASS took the overall win after turning 405 laps, equivalent to around 297 miles and just two laps more than their nearest competition, the local supergroup SDS Racing. AR Racing took third place at 396 laps, with the top three places all taken by Group 4 entrants. No Limit Racing took the tourist trophy from Old Farts Cart and Arm Chair Racing, having turned 386, 355 & 345 laps respectively. Mow Fear took Group 3 from Mower with Attitude and Smokin Grass with 371, 369 & 271 laps respectively. Group 2 was taken by The Knight Riders from The Battle of Britain Mow-morial Flight and OMAH Racing at 253, 228 & 222 laps respectively.

The long break from sprint racing was made longer by the weather, resulting in the dropping of one event from the calendar. Hence the British Championship was culminated at Blacklands Farm at the end of September, almost two months after the preceding rounds. The weather leading up to the event was not particularly clement, leading to a fairly soggy track on Saturday which was turned into a bog after very heavy rains through the night into Sunday. With the weekend suitably truncated, the weekend winners were Paul Johnson in Group 2, Sean Tanswell Group 3 & Alfie Smith Group 4. Sean Tanswell’s rope came out again and unfortunately I think the mess we made may see this venue and the excellent facilities it comes with struck from the calendar in future.

As a very special treat, we returned to Trooper field in early October for a Cross Country event, which was by far the biggest event in terms of acreage we’ve held in a decade or more! Long, long straights and sweeping bends were married with tight technical sections and mixed with some variable moistness, which made for a challenging track, with speeds well in excess of 40mph in places. This was a one-off fun event, which attracted 53 entrants from far and wide. Whilst, there were the inevitable breakdowns and a few unfortunate incidents, including a fire and Mr Ratcliff taking an unusual racing line, which included a tree, I don’t think there was anyone not smiling ear to ear, making it the perfect end, to a slightly imperfect season. Group 3 put on quite a good show, with Sean Tanswell taking the most points of the weekend, consequently winning his Group, Mike Cresswell took Group 2, Kenny Goodesmith took Group 4 and Josh Le cras took the Tourist trophy.

The proximity of the Trooper Inn and it not being a Championship meeting made the Cross Country the obvious choice for the end of season party and prize giving. This saw Jenson Cresswell crowned British Champion in Group 2, Dean Fuller in Group 3 and Alfie Smith in Group 4. Seconds went to Graham Tibbenham, Stuart Johnson & Kenny Goodesmith. Thirds to Mike Cresswell, Sean Tanswell, Richard Atherton. The party went on well in to the night, which did result in some no shows on the Sunday…

So, it just remains for me to congratulate the new Champions and all winners throughout the year, thank you all for helping to make this season the success it has been, wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and look forward to seeing many of you at the AGM on January 25th at the Wisborough Green Village Hall.

As always, all event results are available at speedhive.mylaps.com/organizations/23693