DMR Dirt Wars 2014 - Final @ NEC Cycle Show

Ever since the start of the Cycle Show at the NEC (Ran by MBUK back in the day) there has been dirt jumping at the show. This all changed a few years back when they introduced the Pump Track Challenge to the NEC; I know a lot of people were disappointed that the Dirt had disappeared as it kind of took the action of the huge jumps away.

This year the Cycle Show went back to its roots to host the final of the 2014 DMR Dirt Wars UK Dirt Jump Series. Monster Energy built a huge single jump with drop in jump and quarterpipe after it for The Sam Pilgrim Big Air Invitational on the 27th of September. We were lucky enough to get to use the course on the day before to host this years series final where the highest placed uninvited rider would get a wild card through to Sam’s Big Air comp the day after.


With 12 of the UK’s best riders entered it was sure to go off bigtime! With big crowds comes big tricks. We started the day off with an hours practice for the guy’s to get used to the course and get their tricks dialled ready for qualies, all the riders seemed to be riding really well and getting used to the huge jump when the first crash came out the bag. Unlike any other crash we have had a DWUK this one was off the hook.

Open Rider Darren Eastall (Darren qualified for the final by taking 3rd overall in the open series) started his run off the 30ft high scaffold tower and all of a sudden decided he didn’t have the speed to make the drop so pulled his brake and went to dismount from his bike, his back wheel slid out sending Darren rag dolling off the 30ft tower onto his head and back on the hard floor below.

Although Darren felt ok and wanted to carry on riding the awesome staff at the Cycle Show and NEC got full medical attention for him and he was off to the hospital on a stretcher.

After a short break and a course check we got the riders going again and the tricks began to flow. Practice ended at 12pm with an hours break before qualies (which we were using as seeding runs as all riders would be in the final) and to give the riders a chance to rehydrate on the various flavours of Monster Energy that were supplied for them.

As the riders got ready to throw down their tricks to get their seeding spots you could see the concentration and determination from both Tom Cardy and Ray Samson as they were having a private battle for 1st place overall in the series. With the pair being on the same points overall it was all down to this round to decide who would be champ. Normally the qualies would be 3 runs per rider but the judges (Sam Pilgrim, Chris Smith and DWUK’s Cliff Barbeary) decided to go on an hour’s jam session and let the riders have some fun as well as competing.

Ray Samson got the crowd buzzing with his flip x-ups and flip tables as was his nemisis Tom Cardy pulling super clean 3’s and huge Tucks. The 5 riders that had made it through to the Pro Final from the Open overall series came out fighting. Cam Croziers back Flips (simultanieously screaming like a girl) whilst Jack Ambler and Series Winner Andy Crawford (Now Riding for DMR Bikes courtesy of DMR and DWUK) were throwing out their usual 3’s and Supermans. Matt Scott was the first to 360 off the drop followed by a huge clicked superman over the double but not quite as clicked as Spank’s Freddy Pulman who was almost scorpioning them with his body flexing backwards.


Rob Welch was out to show the crowds and other riders that he wasn’t just a park rat and could beast out his trick bag on dirt too, popping massive flip combos over the jump and flairs on the quarter that were that high we had a call from NASA to ask him to calm down! After an hour of riding the judges were stuck with the top 5 all on the same points, the 5 riders were called back and given 2 runs each to decide the top 5 seeding order. After the little 5-man showdown the seeding list was set and went as follows…

1st Tom Cardy
2nd Ray Samson
3rd Matt Scott
4th Freddy Pulman
5th Rob Welch
6th Tom Reynolds
7th Andy Crawford
8th Jack Ambler
9th Alfie Stephens
10th Harry Campbell
11th Cameron Crozier
12th Jack Cardy

The final was set for 2.30pm so the riders went for a walk round the show and had some lunch whilst the guy’s who built the jump spent some time repairing the various case marks on the landing from a few riders coming up short. At 2.30 we gathered the riders together and had a quick riders meeting to ensure all the riders were happy with the course and were up for opening their trick bags for the crowds that had gathered ready to see these guy’s throw down.

The Emcees Dylan and James started off by getting the crowds pumped by throwing our T-shirts from our Title sponsor DMR Bikes whilst the riders made their way to the top of the tower ready to drop in. Young Jack Cardy (Rider from Open category) was the first to drop in and hit the jump with a super styled tuck no hander which he seemed to hold out for an eternity before catching the bars again closely followed by the youngest guy in the comp Cameron Crozier who threw out a sweet 3 followed but a huge scream as he aired out the quarterpipe.
Harry Campbell hit out with his 360 1 handed suicides but Alfie Stephens showed Matt Scott that he wasn’t the only one who could 3 the drop and followed up with a steezy superman at full amplitude.

Rob Welch hit the drop with an x-up then a flip tuck to late table on the jump followed by a flair tuck on the quarter which sent the crowd and the judges into a frenzy, this was easily the best trick on the quaterpipe all-day. Ray Samson let his battle with Tom Cardy slip a little as he popped an awesome tailwhip off the drop (this has got to be harder than 3ing the drop) but then crashed a flipwhip on the jump. Tom Cardy returned the favour to Ray moments later when slipping off his bike as he tried to flip fakie on the quarter. Tom Reynolds tried to pull out all the stops as he boosted a huge frontflip over the jump totally clearing the landing and landing to flat really hard sending his head into the bars and knocking half of his front tooth out. After Tom got up we looked at his bike and he had actually bitten a small chunk of metal from his bars as his teeth hit them. OUCH! Matt Scott had 3 crash runs as he just couldn’t quite get the bike back straight after his corked 720’s which was a real shame as this would defiantly have landed him a podium as he had 360’d the drop 3 times in a row totally clean.

The crowd wanted to see height so height they got as Freddy Pulman 360’d the drop popped a huge flip double barspin then a massive tailwhip out the quarter hitting it higher than any other rider in the comp. After the riders had had 3 runs each it was left down to Ray and Tom Cardy to drop their last runs and see if they could better the scores from their last 2 runs.
Ray dropped in tailwhipping the drop, sending a tuck flip on the jump and a huge flair on the quarter but it wasn’t quite good enough to take the win from Tom next run. Tom 360’d the drop double tailwhipped the jump with a flawless flair on the quarter taking the win at the Cycle Show and also the overall series first place. Well-done Tom!

1st Tom Cardy
2nd Freddy Pulman
3rd Rob Welch
4th Ray Samson
5th Alfie Stephens
6th Tom Reynolds
7th Jack Ambler and Harry Campbell
8th Andy Crawford
9th Cameron Crozier
10th Matt Scott
11th Jack Cardy


Full Series Standings are up on the website www.dirtwarsuk.com

We would like to say a huge thanks to all the riders that have taken part and helped make this the best year of DWUK so far. We would also like to say a mega thank you to all our sponsors especially our title sponsor DMR Bikes, to all the venues Holdshott and their digging crew, P.O.R.C and their digging crew, Vision 9 and all the NASS Staff (especially Ryan Matthews), The Legend Chris Rocket Rose and Rocket World, Radical Bike Park and their digging crew, Upper Street Events Staff (especially Chris Holman) Monster Energy UK and Sam Pilgrim for the Cycle show.

We’d also like to say a special thank you to the Dirt Wars Crew for all their hard work through out the year, Steve Weir for being an absolute legend with the website and also to Olly Wilkins @ DMR Bikes for being on the other end of the phone when ever we needed advice and help.

Planning has already started for next years series so keep an eye on the website, Facebook and Twitter for all Dirt Wars goings on in the build up to the 2015 series.