44 Racing Rockstar - World Cup 4X Round 2 - Fort William

After the endless rain showers of the British4X and Euro4X at Afan, Wales, the 44Racing Rockstar team split up with Mop Head and Jake Ward both making the journey north to the second round of the UCI World Cup taking place in Fort William, Scotland. The weather outlook for the week ahead looked shaky with massive storms and strong gales forcing the cancellation of the British Downhill Series not far away in Glencoe the weekend before, but the weather reports promised better weather to come.


Jake Ward was taking the position of the more experienced team member having raced two world cups last season in Belgium and Slovenia, this was Mop Head’s first world cup and he was nervous having dreamed of competing at a world cup since he started riding. With both riders now rocking the new Kore USA T-rail seating system, from team sponsor Kore, and Fox race kit, from Freestylextreme.com, the team were attracting a lot of attention throughout the World Cup community. Mop Head was looking strong and having fun on the track. Both riders were finding that the newly changed Fort William track was suiting them.


The qualifying round reared its head, each rider gets a solitary timed run, if they do not get into the top 64 times that signals the end of their event. The final qualifying positions also define the opponents each rider will face in the heats on finals day. Mop was the first of the 44Racing Rockstar pair to be called for his run, putting in what he described as an easy, solid run where he just had fun he put in a time near to the back of the field. With riders still to come down the hill it could spell not qualifying for the super tall racer. Jake Ward was then called shortly after, it was evident on the big screen in the finish he was on a stormer of a run, shooting through the finish with a time 3 seconds faster than Mop’s.


After all the riders had completed the qualifying round Jake Ward had a great result of 27th with Mop Head getting a lucky break, choosing to have a solid run he avoided the punctures that hindered many and only just qualified in 64th, the last qualifying position. This meant he would be up against the number one qualifier, Jared Graves. Jake Ward was also facing a very difficult heat the next day.


Finals day and the track was bone dry, with rocks starting to come up through the loose surface the finals were going to be interesting. With an hour and a half practice session before the finals both 44Racing riders went out doing only a few runs each to see how the new ground conditions would affect them and to warm up for the heats to come. First in the gate was Mop Head, in a stacked gate full of the fastest racers it was going to be tough, the realisation of where he was, on a gate with his heroes got to him and on the first straight of the track he suffered for it. But he quickly got his head in the game and made up the gap to the tail of the rider ahead but it was not enough to get past ending his first world cup there.


Jake Ward had a lot longer to wait for his heat, but it was worth the wait. A stunning move sent the Rockstar athlete from fourth to first with every rider around him toppling over after colliding with one another. Through to the next heat with difficult opposition from the three other riders things took a turn for the worst. Jake had a small crash at the start of his second heat, he got back up and started charging after the pack ahead, but it was not to be and he finished 4th in the heat.


Both riders then stayed trackside enjoy the Rockstar and cheer on the finals. Mop Head finished in 62nd place and Jake Ward almost matched his qualifying position with a great 29th place for the Rockstar Energy athlete in his first year of Elite category competition in the UK.


The 44Racing Rockstar team will all be back for the next round of the British 4X Series at Harthill, Cheshire. However most of the team will venture to Redhill in Gloucestershire for the first ever Redfest 4X and Dual Slalom weekend


44Racing
Sponsored by Rockstar Energy Drink, FreestyleXtreme.com, Etnies Europe, Last Bikes, Funn Mtb, Kore USA, Halo, Mojo/Fox Shox, Snapped Action, Biketape, Biba Salon.


Photos from Chris Ratford