Weston-super-Mare Beach Race Success

THREE times World champion David Knight won the solo Weston-super-Mare beach race for the fifth time.

The enduro race took to the sandy beach at the weekend attracting around 55,000 spectators to the resort.

Both the onlookers and around 1,000 riders braved the rain and wind at the event, organised by RHL activities.

After an intense fight for three-hours around the grueling dune course, Knight took first place after a battle which saw a number of riders take the lead throughout the super-tough solo race.

Knighter, 33, said: "I got a good start and as stupid as it sounds it's better to follow someone for the first few laps through all of the dunes.

"For the first hour I was struggling and the bike was messing around a bit, so I had to stop in the pits early.

"The bike was still misfiring a little so I pulled the kill-switch leads out while going up the straight and it cleared. After that I got my head down and I saw Tom was half a minute ahead.

"As I came in the pits for my second stop I was in the lead and I caught back up to Tom after a good stop.

"He seemed tired, and while I thought my fitness would be bad because of my hips, I pushed in the last hour and got away a little.

"I knew I had done enough and needed to back off in the last few laps, but I nearly had a couple of big crashes.

"But yes, the smaller mounds made the track much harder to get away this year, and although I got some cramp, I felt good in the end.

"It was good to be pushed to the last few laps with Tom, as we lapped up to second. It's been a good day and I'm pleased to have another win, so hopefully I can be there at Swansea."

Paul Winrow won the adult quad race and the quad two-man class was won by the team of Keitch and Price-Draper.

 In the 85cc big wheel class Honda rider Robert Davidson took first place and in the small wheel race Mitchell Warhurst grabbed class the title.

The rookie 125cc/250F class title was won by Ben Howell.

Robert said: "I got a good start and led for a little while. I only had to pit once, as I had a big tank, but towards the end it was hard, as my chain kept falling off

"My chain roller wore down quite a lot from the drag of the chain and a few corners from the end it jumped off, but I managed to get it back on in time to take the win.

"I've been on the podium once before and my bike broke last year, but it's a really good feeling to have the top spot."

Organiser Gareth Hockey, said despite the year being difficult after RHL were not given the race earlier in the year to a competitor and then getting it back, the race was postive.

He said: "It's been a very positive weekend for RHL Activities.

"Everything has worked well and after a difficult 12 months, we've stood up to prove who we are and what we can do; now we can move on from this to Swansea in March and next year's Weston.

"We thought entries would be down, but we received a lot of late entries, which surprised us and we were actually up on last year.

"It's very positive for us considering the situation with the World economy and it's certainly been a good weekend. Also, while today's weather wasn't the kindest, we also had a great turnout for the race.

"We held the start until 1pm, as we still had people coming in, and I've had a lot of positive feedback from everyone, spectators, traders and so on.

"I'd like to thank all of our sponsors Monster Energy, Doodson Motorsport, Molson, Hyundai, Rhino Goo, Ice Valley Water along with all of our supporters, contractors, staff and event team for all of their help in doing a good job this weekend."

For the full results visit www.wbruk.com