The DTRA Presentation night in Bury St. Edmund’s was a memorable night for most, but a blur for some… The doors opened at 18:00 leaving an hour for visitors to look around the impressive Krazy Horse shop, selling custom built and low production motorcycles as well as clothing and food and drinks from the café and bar upstairs.
The presentation, led by the DTRA's Anthony Brown, started with a list of companies and people to be thanked for helping throughout the racing season.
There was a lot to fit in, but most had finished eating from Krazy Horse's special DTRA menu, when the Youth Junior class, the youngest riders, were given their prizes. Every rider in the top five consisting of a bag full of goodies and a trophy. On the top step of the podium was Wyatt Hopkins, P2 was Dan Mason and P3 was Wilbur Skipp, just two points ahead of Maddie Banks.
Next up was the Youth Inters (above), Luke Gardner finished 1st, Fergus Bluff came 2nd and Thomas Hunt was only one point behind, finishing 3rd.
We then moved onto the eldest of the youths, the Youth Seniors. Archie May finished 1st, in front of Jack Bell, P2, and me in, P3. All the Youth podium finishers got prizes which were kindly donated by companies such as Rock Oil, Fasthouse, Deus, Bike Shed, Survivor Customs and some others.
During the break, some of the raffle prizes were drawn. £1000 was raised by the raffle, this money will go towards Oliver Brindley’s 2019 American Flat Track racing expenses. Adam Brinkworth then amazingly said he would double the money raised by the raffle, leading to a total £2000 being raised by the DTRA for Oliver Brindley.
Companies and individuals who donated to the goodie bags and raffle were: Costello & Tokelove, Days on the Dirt, Webig inc., Survivor Customs, STANCE, Greenfield Dirt Track, Evolve Motorcycles, Hagon Shocks, Bike Shed, Sportax Racing, Sideburn, S&S Cycles, FTH, Champions Flat Track School, El Solitario, Fasthouse, Jeffery Carver, Jared Mees, Rock Oil, VC London, 250 London, American Flat Track, S&S Cycles, FTH and Deus Ex Machina.
The Indian Hooligan Championship consisted of some exciting racing, especially between Gary Birtwistle, P1, Grant Martin, P2, and Lee Kirkpatrick, P3. What made this even more exciting was that Indian Motorcycles had supplied a bike for the winner of the championship. At the last Hooligan race at Dirt Quake VII there was a buzz in the atmosphere because three riders were mathematically in with a chance of winning, but it Gary Birtwistle who came out on top, and was awarded the Indian Motorcycle. As well as presenting the Indian Scout 60 to Birtwistle Indian’s PR representative, Steve Cain also announced they will be sponsoring DTRA next season as well.
We then moved on to the Sportax Thunderbike Class. Mike Hill finished 1st, the first rider to win a back to back overall Thunderbike seasons we think, Westley Agius finished 2nd and Jon Bell finished 3rd.
In the biggest DTRA class, the Stock Minibikes, Paul Young came 1st out of 53 riders! Geoff Cain came 2nd and Freddy Trott Jnr finished 3rd.
Freddy Trott finished 1st, in the Modified Minibikes (above), in front of Joe Banks, P2, and Scott Faulkner, P3.
In the Sideburn Vintage Two-Strokes Ross Jackson, P3, finished behind Darren Legg, P2, and the winner, Mike Fisher. The Sideburn Vintage Four-Strokes (below) consisted of some great racing between Rick Bearcroft, P1, John Harrison, P2, and Norm Joss, P3.
Before moving on to the Rookie, Adult Inter, and Pro classes, more raffle prizes were drawn, and more thanks were given to people who generously contributed to the UK Flat Track scene.
The Sideburn editor, Gary Inman interviewed Oliver Brindley asking questions about his racing career in America so UK dirt track racers could get a slight taste of it.
The top five from the Rookie Class were then presented with their trophies, Andrew Horner-Glister came 1st, Douglas Reed finished 2nd and Terry Pyewell came 3rd.
We then moved on to the Adult Inter Class, we saw Joe Banks on the podium again, but this time on the top spot, Matthew Porter finished 2nd one point in front of Martin Mills.
The Pro Class was the main attraction without a doubt, this year brought great racing. Toby Hales, a nineteen-year-old from Lincolnshire finished first, in front of the Spanish Gerard Bailo who finished 2nd and travelled to every race from Spain to support the series and have heaps of fun. Gary Birtwistle got his first Pro round win at the Greenfield TT helping him finish 3rd. George Pickering who finished 2nd at his homemade track finished 4th overall in front of Dutch rider Maikel Dijkstra who also travelled a long way to support the series.
Big thanks to all companies who helped throughout the season and Krazy Horse for hosting this great night. Massive thanks to Anthony Brown, Anna Butler, Leah Tokelove and the rest of the DTRA crew for organising these great events which couldn’t be any better.