Trip to a 4X National

Never raced 4X before, so when I heard about a race at the South West Extreme bike park, Bideford I was well keen to have a go. The cool thing about 4X nationals is that they have a just for fun category, aimed for beginners just having a laugh or people avoiding the license fee. Me (Greg) and my good friend Matt where those beginners trying to have a laugh but unfortunately we got caught by those national guys avoiding the fee, meaning racing was intense and hard. The track was awesome, it featured a good variety of jumps, rock gardens, shelf drops and huge Pro Line on the final straight (check out the video). During practice we managed about 6 runs and on gate practice we did about 4 but as we discussed all of this practicing lines was irrelevant as when your in the gate with 3 other guys (and girls) anything can change and yours lines can become non existent as there is already someone there.  For me this provided a new intense style of racing, that is a lot more sociable than downhill too but in all honesty I am in no hurry to change hobbies. As far as the racing went it was ok, I think in my 4 motos I had a 2nd two 3rds and one 4th. Unfortunately this meant it wasn’t enough for me to make it into the semi’s but Matt on the other hand did well with two 1st a 2nd and a 4th, placing him 3rd going into the semis. Unfortunately again he didn’t have a good semi final and came last going into the small final. Where he again didn’t make the cut. On the plus side we had  a great day doing something different from the usual downhill. If a 4X race is near you, I would highly recommend entering. Its a very exhilarating style of racing. Me following Matt through to the rock garden during practice First moto, 2nd place Rock garden Exiting the rock garden into the last few corners Video of the small and big finals filmed using our shop GoPro HD HERO camera