For the second year in a row the NPS 4X circus came to PORC. With the series coming into the final stages the 44Racing riders set out to increase their lead in the championship and continue to dominate each of their categories.
As in 2009, Naked Racing held one of their mini downhill races on one of the many downhill tracks at the Kent venue on the Saturday with the 4x event the following day. With Jono Jones out riding in the Alps, it was left to Hatch and Mop Head to represent the team here.
After coming back from a week's riding at Innerleithen, Mop Head was feeling comfortable and looking fast down the technical course. Riders were allowed four runs to post the quickest time possible and Mop chose to go all out on his first run on the dusty course. The popular pirate put in a great time and went straight into third position. Despite seniors being a very quick category, Mop's time held for the rest of the day keeping him in the podium spot and making sure he beat close friend and long-time rival Andy Hibberd.
Racing in the Masters category, Christian Hatcher set out to better his third place of last year. Despite taking a huge crash on his second run, Hatch brought the Last Herb into first place with an amazing time of 48.96 seconds. As well as winning the Masters category, beating O'Neal/Solid rider Colin Williams, Hatch's time was only 0.4 of a second off making the top three in the Elite category.
The following day the riders awoke to the same hot and dusty conditions as of the previous day. With two hours of practise before racing, the 44Racing riders were getting on very well with the large track. The riders continued to get quicker and everything seemed to be going very well. This quickly changed when Junior rider Jake Ward went over the bars coming into the last couple of jumps. With an injured knee it looked like the championship leader might be forced to miss the round. After a few cans of Rockstar and a chat with the medic, Jake decided he felt well enough to race. This was definitely the right choice with Jake winning his first three motos and, despite having the worst gate, second in his fourth. From here Ward was able to cruise through into the final where he met season rival Tom Knight. Things didn't go as planned for Jake, snapping his chain out of the gate he was forced to pump down into fourth place.
Also racing in Junior was Jack Hudson. After struggling with his gates throughout the day the talent team rider spent most of his four motos trying to fight back and gain positions throughout the twisty bottom section of the track. This gave Hudson two third and two fourth place finishes putting him into joint twelfth place overall.
New signing for the talent team was Jack's younger brother Connor Hudson. The young juvenile racer fought well throughout his motos, getting two second and two third places. This qualified him for the B final! Getting the snap out of the gate Connor led into turn one. On the exit out of the corner he came together with the Bike Yard's Kyle Greenway, forcing them both over the edge of turn one and Connor off the large drop. Both were okay but Connor found it hard to get his bike back on track and was forced to finish in eighth place.
At the third round of the series, at Redhill, Mop Head placed in ninth, one spot off qualifying to race at the World Cup rounds. Once again Mop planned to meet his top eight target and after winning some of his motos, it looked like Mop would be able to do so this time round. In the quarter finals he was drawn with three very tough and fast riders. Despite this Mop Head battled for second the whole way down the super fast track but, for the fourth time this year, was forced to settle for third. Although aiming for the semi-finals Mop Head has continued to ride very well and consistently place in the top ten in Seniors.
Despite his huge crash racing downhill the day before, team manager Christian Hatcher made it through to the semi-finals after dominating the Masters category throughout the day. With numerous moto wins, Hatch was awarded the gate pick in the second semi-final. With a strong gate he was able to cruise through into the main final where he would meet former Elite racer Martin Ogden. The pair fought very closely with Oggy coming out in first. The second place for Hatch has continued to ensure his second place in the series standings.
After missing Redhill due to injury, AJ Boardman made his comeback in Elite. Being in a very challenging and competitive category, racing was going to be very hard but, despite only just being back from injury; AJ rode very well and led a number of motos.
With good results from both 44Racing and Naked Racing the team championship is now very close with only a few points separating the two teams.
The next race for the team will be NPS 4X Round 5 and the UK National 4X Champs at South West Extreme.
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Article by: Jack Hudson
