Race Report: Northern Downhill Hamsterley TT

I'm literally just starting to recover from covering the Northern Downhill race at Hamsterley last weekend, it was that epic of an event. A great turn out even though the weather tried to dull the day. Here's how things unfolded.

Northern Downhill has been around probably for longer than most of us realise. It was way back in 2009 that Carl, Tommy and Barry started organising races and attracted some of the biggest names we know in the UK for mountain biking including Danny Hart, Helen Gaskel, Bex Baraona, Adam Brayton and Scott Mears to name but a few. Last weekend saw many riders descend upon Hamsterley Forest for the very popular TT format of race.


This race is an ideal chance for all levels of rider to have a go at racing, novice or experts looking for a pre race season test. The format is quite straight forward. Practice the track for a couple of hours and then race it. You have 2 chances to get your fastest time, so basically 2 race runs. Mess up your first run, then you've a chance to dust yourself down and go again. So even though this is very similar to some downhill races, this is raced on very popular trail centre red trails. In Hamsterley these were 3 classic trails called in order, Transmission, Accelerator and Nitrous all linked together for one lung busting track.


This is a race heavily contested by the locals, it's hugely competitive, this is the type of race to square up to your mates and see who's the fastest, with proper timing. I asked a couple of local spectators in jest on the day where their race boards were, only to be met by "why would I pay to ride my trails". Come on!! You cannot beat that feeling of nearing the starting gate, with a rider in front of you and a load behind you itching to drop into the the track! This weekend is always about "when the gate drops, the bullsh*t stops"


So who were the overall fastest of the day. Normally I would just look through the results and go through the top fastest, but now a days the ebikes are coming through in the top fastest. Talking with racers both ebikers and non ebikers, it seems the right time to split the different bike formats, some organisers even have separate hardtail categories. The debate continues to thrive, especially with some organisers not able to closely monitor if the ebikes are derestricted or not. Please do comment below what your take is on the subject.


So the fastest man on the day on a normal bike goes to 1st place Tomas Kupstys (40-49) in a superb 3:20.025, hot on his heels was Pete Thompson (30-39) in 3:25.745 and 3rd fastest went to Liam Clement (19-29) in 3:26.228. All 3 of these lads recorded their fastest times on their second race runs, some amazing racing there for sure. A big shout out goes to Zac Huber (50+) for breaking into the top ten and being 5th fastest overall on the day. This man is unstoppable!


The women's race was also a tough fought battle and again Helen Gaskel (30+F) took the fastest woman of the day and 13th fastest out of all racers on the day in a brilliant 3:33.914, but chasing hard was young Hollie Vayro (U30F) in 3:39.952 and third fastest woman was Lucy Bell (30+F) in 3:42.969. It's great to see a strong turn out of women racing, rarely do you see a race hit 10% of the field women, so top effort to Northern Downhill. What is it that attracted such a good turn out of women racing this weekend?


A very special mention has to go to Trev Coulson and Barry Crowther, with a combined age of almost 140yrs!! You would have thought a sedentary lifestyle would be more suited to these two gents. Both have many years of motorsport trackside experience between them, but a visit to a Downhill Event convinced them their marshalling skills were easily transferable. For some years now Trev (the tall one) and Barry (not so tall) have been part of Carl's "dream team" of marshals. But with a "I can do that" attitude they entered this TT race. Their main objectives were to not come last and to not have a helicopter flight to the local trauma unit at James Cook Hospital. But one thing they hadn't bargained for was their category being full of "racing snakes" (their words lol), as they discovered when looking up on roots and rain their fellow competitors. It goes to show these two were after the fun fact all day long. You'll be pleased to hear, neither came overall last and Barry took the win between them both.



Next up for the Northern Downhill will be another TT race over at the amazing Kielder forest. Even though it's a location well off the beaten track, it's well worth checking out, especially if Carl and the NDH are hosting the event. I hear there'll be a fresh cut track for the occasion. So get signed up here. If you want to keep track of their upcoming events, head over to their Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NorthernDownhill.


Photos and words @JWDT.Photography
Event organiser Northern Downhill/Carl Davison
Sponsor Start fitness