Spank Industries Dirt Wars – Final @ Motion 25/11/12

After possibly the longest season in UK comp history and several postponements leading to the Spank Ind. Dirt Wars final eventually being moved indoors to Motion Ramp Park in Bristol, the last points scoring round of the season was upon us.

Quoting one of the riders from Sunday; ‘Motion is the kind of skatepark that rewards you if you get it right but takes away all your speed & momentum if you get it wrong.’ This was evident straight away, those riders comfortable with parks, pumping wooden transitions & sending it large made it look easy. There were a number of the regular competitors present along with loads of new faces making the trip to this more unusual skatepark comp.
Practice kicked off and everyone started to pull their lines together, getting used to the park whilst sussing out what the competition was capable of. In open category the new faces were definitely going to give the regular podium place riders a run for their money (or prizes in this case) and Diamondback/Terminal 1’s Rob Welch was schooling a number of Pros right from the start. After an hour of practice it was time to kick off the proceedings.

With 12 riders in Open being reduced down to 6 for the final everyone had to be on top of their game not to be knocked out. A number of riders including Dan Wren, Greg Parry, Wig + Sam Lewington-Booth & Freddy Pulman were showing their skills with nice 360s over the spine as well as sweet airs out of the quarterpipes. But it seemed that the judges needed to see not only big smooth riding round the whole park but you needed to have at least one power move to make it through to the final. It was also evident that holding it together for the whole 60 seconds of each run was proving a challenge to some and even if a run had contained some super slick riding, pulling out early due to loosing pump, an error or just tiredness was not looked upon favourably. In the end it was moves like Greg Parry’s 540 to fakie over the spine, Ben Nolan’s signature no handed shoebox, Danny Stewart’s massive sub box Abubaca and James Jones’ flairs, effortless barspins & footjam whiplashes that took them into the final. Alongside them the top two riders on the series leaderboard, Freddy & Wig, made the final with the wooden surroundings not effecting their trick bags; even barspin airs and tyre taps on the huge sub box were thrown into the mix.

Moving into the Pro Qualifiers it was again clear to see who were the Skatepark (as well as Dirt) shredders. Some riders just looked a little uncomfortable when it came to sending shapes over the jumpbox, often due to the fact that you needed to boost a fair bit of air out of the quarter before it to get enough speed. Notable riding in the qualifiers came from Adam Williams with the smoothest of spine backflips, Rob Newman’s signature crankflip to manual to barspin as well as big tailwhips from both Alfie Stephens & Jack Gear. But they didn’t quite have the amplitude and speed of the other riders to impress the judges enough to move forward into the finals. Marcel Hunt scraped through beating Adam Williams by just one point whilst Danny Pace, Clinton Johns & Daryl Brown showed that they had built on the skatepark skills that they had shown at last years Motion round. Finishing off the qualifying pro riders was newcomer Rob Welch, famed for going huge at skateparks round the North of England he managed to do the same in this compact South-West ramp park.

Soon it was time for the Open category to go head to head in this final round of the 2012 series. With only one point separating Wig Lewington Booth in first & Freddy Pulman in second it was going to be a tense battle but would some of the new competitors throw a spanner in the works for one of them. Greg Parry chose to ride the spine/mini ramp & the smaller of the two jump boxes, throwing down barspin airs, truckdrivers & landing the spine 540 clean but just dabbing a foot on the ride out. Surprisingly the judges had Wig in 5th & Freddy in 4th despite super clean 360 whips, truckdrivers, disco cans, barspin airs & Freddy’s huge tyre taps. Ben Nolan took 3rd with consistent speed, pump, style & tricks; the cliffhangers, 360s & technical coping tricks proved that being a Motion regular was a definite advantage. Taking 2nd place was Edinburgh’s Daniel Stewart; no surprises here as out of the Open category he was not only going the biggest when jumping the large box backwards but threw in the most style. Invert airs out of the quarters, tyre grab to no foot cans, stretched superman’s and the sub box abubaca landed clean sealed the deal for Danny. But it was the welsh sender James Jones that took the win in open. It was only his second time on a mtb (he’s usually a little wheeler) and riding Danny Pace’s spare bike James showed how easily he can cross his skills over from 20” to 26”. Sending the biggest, sweetest flares of the day alongside technical footjam moves & barspins everywhere proved to the judges that he should take the top spot on the podium.

This unfortunately meant that Wig & Freddy would draw even on overall series points. The team decided that the only way to choose the series winner was to let both of them take another run and let the judges decide. Both riders did very similar runs to the finals but both looking tired and less composed than before. Wig wobbled a few landings, Freddy didn’t make the sub box tyre tap so it was a difficult one for the judges. But the final decision was 2 votes to 1 in favour of Freddy; a harsh blow for Wig who had ridden so well for the second year in a row, riding at the top level of the category just to be beaten at the last stage. The smile on Freddy’s face said it all!

With the fight for the Pro overall series title almost sealed for Marcel Hunt when Ryan Nangle didn’t arrive at the final there was less of a pressured situation than in Open final. There was however only two points between team Identiti’s Daryl Brown & Danny Pace in 3rd & 4th in the series. In the end Marcel took 5th place with nice truck drivers over the spine & dialled barspin to tyre taps on the mini. Danny Pace took 4th place; sweet xup flips, 360 tucks and lofty airs scored well but the frontflip on the small box, that he exploded a back wheel on last year, alluded him once more. In third place & with his usual laid back composure was Clinton Johns. Clint rode extremely well showcasing his 360 whips, double whips, whip to tail taps and truckdrivers over the spine for the bottom step of the podium. Just like last year Daryl Brown seemed to own Motion. Truckdrivers backwards over the box, double barspins the normal way over the box, barspin to xups out of quarters and great amplitude gave him 2nd spot. But it was newcomer Rob Welch that took it in the final with 720s, Cannon Balls, Flip transfers, Flips on the spine and 540s on the back quarter showing that he is hard to beat on wooden ramps.

This left us with the best whip and best trick jams to run before totting up the points and announcing the podiums. DWUK Best trick was taken by Clinton Johns with a suitably skatepark orientated trick over the jump box winning it for him; a super sweet tailwhip to tyre tap to barspin back in. However a notable rider in the best trick Jam pulling a trick no one had ever seen let alone dreamt of was Ben Nolan. Whether guest judge Chris Smith missed it or just wanted to go with the skatepark steeze, Ben’s No handed shoebox to pendulum was unreal!

Best whip had most riders on their bikes again, going sideways but for the judges it was a two horse race and a close one at that. Marcel Hunt’s fluid motion to his whips looked so good but it was the young Scotsman Daniel Stewart who with a very similar smooth fluid motion put the bike just as sideways but stalled it out that fraction longer to take the MountainBikeBitz.com Best Whip win.

We would like to say a massive thank-you to our title sponsor - Spank Industries and series sponsors; Dmr Bikes, GoPro, Smuggling Duds, Saracen, Ns Bikes, IXS, Charge Clothing, Illuminati Jeans, Kenda Tires, Bell Helmets, Ogio, YBN Chains, BullDog Tools, Rose UK, Manitou Suspension, Hayes Brakes, Sun Ringle, Answer, Relentless, MountainbikeBitz.com and BikeRadar. Also a huge thank-you to our Venues; Wisley Trails, NASS, Holdshott, Adrenaline Alley, Rocket World and Motion Ramp Park.

And last but not least our Dirt Wars UK crew, all the riders & spectators.
See you all in 2013 for the same again, but hopefully much drier & even better!!!