Spank Ind. Dirt Wars 2013 - Round 1

With bad weather in the area two days before the event things weren't looking good at times, but with a mixture of sunny weather the day before and some hard work from the trails crew the jumps were rideable. Round one was on!

With 15 riders in the Open category and 12 in Pro it was a pretty decent turn out for the start of the season and morning practice showed who had been training hard over winter. With a couple of riders moving up to Pro and a load of new faces in the Open category the day was set to be an interesting one.


Qualifiers took the 15 Open riders down to 8 with Liam Tuite, Kerry Pert, Sam Lewington-Booth, Alfie Stephens, Daniel Stweart, Olly Parker, Ben Nolan & Tim Peckham qualifying. All the riders threw down what they had in the final to try and take the top spot, but it was Olly Parker who ended up taking third. With a consistently wild style and some solid tricks he fully impressed the judges at his first Dirt Wars event. Second place was claimed by Alfie Stephens with fluid 360s and tailwhips all day long as well as some clicked opposite unturndowns over the hip.


But First place in Open category was claimed by the young Scotsman Daniel Stewart. A familar face from last year's Dirt Wars series, Danny had again travelled down from Edinburgh to ride and his unique bag of tricks, decent amplitude along with crisp execution throughout the day saw the judges put him on top of the podium.


The Pro category saw most of the usual British domestic scene riders alongside one of the UK's top international scene riders, a less familiar face to Spank Dirt Wars events, Sam Reynolds. We even saw the return of a couple of riders who were familiar faces from 5 or 6 years ago - Matt Scott & Phil Aukland.


Each year the Wisley comp shows how all the Pro riders have progressed, and this year was no different. Each rider in the final had fluid styles, huge trick bags and it was just a case of who could keep their trick bag open the widest, for the longest! Taking third place was the returning veteran of the UK dirt scene, Identiti's Phil Aukland. Phil whilst having his quiet patch had been studying hard to become a doctor, but he definitely hadn't been slacking on the bike in this time! Huge one-handed 360 tables & 360 no footed cans were thrown with such ease and showcased some stunts never seen at our events before. (Unofficially I think he was the rider's favourite of the day to be honest.) In second place was DMR's Ray Samson. Ray looked like he warmed up slowly throughout the day and didn't unleash his banger tricks until the finals, but unfortunately for Ray it wasn't quite enough to beat his old team mate.


Taking the top spot in Pro Category was the S4P legend & Polygon Bikes/Monster Energy rider Sam Reynolds. Alongside Ray, Sam was one of the only riders to use the alternate line through the trails and his clean execution of flipwhips, flintstones and general trails steeze sealed his first place.


Freddy Pulman ended up taking the Slam69 Best Trick comp with a double truckdriver over the big last jump showing that as one of last year's Open riders, he has really been putting in the hours over winter to make the step up into Pro.




Round 2 will be held at Holdshott Trails in Hampshire on the 16th of June.

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