On the 29th March 2009, Steve Cottam, Two Wheel Centre’s top MX rider, headed to Gale Common in Selby for the first round of the 2009 National Twinshock Championships.
Riding his 1980 Honda CR125 Elsinor ‘Red Rocket’, Steve had a rough time in the first race before improving his form for the second and third races.
Beginning the initial race, Steve had a smooth run around the outside of a 7 bike pile up at the first corner. Breathing a sigh of relief that he wasn’t included in the scrap heap of riders, Steve was soon given a grounding experience – quite literally – when an airborne YZ125 launched itself into Steve’s front wheel, sending Steve careering over the handlebars, through the fencing and into a wooden post. That pile up didn’t sound so bad after all…
Knocked out for a matter of seconds and seeing stars, Steve scrambled his way back out onto the track to re-join the race. Overtaking several people within a matter of seconds, he started to think things were looking up. That is until a couple of corners later, his throttle cable snapped. So with a broken throttle cable, a sore groin, a rough head, a dinted exhaust and an even more dinted ego, Steve retired from the first race in defeat.
On a positive note, things couldn’t get much worse in the two remaining races, so out Steve headed to regain the vital Championship points that he had surrendered in race one.
Reaching the first corner in the top ten riders in both races, Steve had a couple of blistering rides overtaking several riders on the tricky tabletops and step downs. Back in the form that we have come to expect from Steve, he finished 4th in both races and accumulated a respectable 24 points towards the championship. Leaving him around 7th in the rankings, Steve is all set to head out and take on the championship leaders at his next meet on Sunday 12th April at Stippers Hill in Polsworth. Watch this space…