Round three of the Thor British Youth Nationals at Pontrilas was a hit and miss weekend for Team Green. After heavy overnight rain the track was hard going for the youth riders on Saturday, but come Sunday it had dried considerably with more race lines. 

 

Some bad luck and disappointing starts effected the lads results but there were still some greats rides and plenty of effort, and still a few race wins. Jed Etchells took a couple of wins with an brilliant display of riding on Sunday, while Lewis Hall took a race win on Saturday. Dylan Woodcock had a terrible weekend by his current standards and then suffered bad luck in the one race it looked like he could've won when the link on his chain broke, resulting in a costly DNF. Joel Rizzi got fifth overall in the small wheeled class just behind Lewis with some solid rides after a few mistakes on Saturday. 

 

"With the rain it was always going to be tough on Saturday and the lads struggled. Not with the conditions as such, just by the fact none of them really made good starts and with the track being so one lined it was hard to make up time. They rode as hard as they could but it just wasn't happening. In fact they probably rode too hard and made a few mistakes out of frustration, hopefully they'll learn from that. Sunday was much better. Jed was brilliant, he was the fastest rider all day on Sunday and it showed with his two race wins. He's had a lot of bad luck this year but he showed that his confidence is growing and what he is capable of doing. Dylan just wasn't his usual self and could get it going on, he looked out of sorts and then when he did start to look like he could win one his chain broke. So that's the championship lead gone just like that and with the way they've structured the points it's a bitter blow and it's going to be hard to make those points back up. We've got to hope the riders in front of him have similar bad luck now. Lewis was again an absolute animal and rode so hard but his starts cost him winning more than just one race, all said and done, third overall wasn't a bad result really considering where he started most of the races from. Joel was neat and tidy as usual but just made a few little mistakes on Saturday, if not for them he would've had a good shout at being on the podium too. An indifferent weekend for sure, but as long as the lads learn from it then it's not that bad, its all part of their learning curve.” 

 

"I rode okay this weekend but I had some stupid small crashes and I'm annoyed with them. The track was one lined on Saturday and it was hard to come through, so once I crashed it made it hard for myself. Sunday was much better and much more like I know I can ride. I'm looking forward to coming back here next week for the Masters round and putting my starts right.” 

 

"It wasn't a good weekend really. I rode okay and won a race but I never really got much of chance to race the guys at the front in some of the other races because they had gone by the time I got through traffic. I really need to keep practicing my starts. I'm a little heavier than some of the others which doesn't help but I have to deal with that a find a way to get better starts.” 

 

"I got taken out in the first moto on the first corner and was dead last and I thought it was going to be another one of those bad luck weekends. I then maybe tried too hard in the other two races that day and made a few mistakes but Sunday I just tried to ride the track and not worry about it and it was really good. I was the fastest rider all day on Sunday and won two back to back races, that felt really good. I'm really looking forward to Desert Martin now for the best round.” 

 

"It's been my worse weekend for sometime. I just couldn't get into any kind of rhythm and kept standing it up in the corners and wasn't riding well at all. My starts were really bad too so I just made it hard work, but to top it off was the broken chain. That's what has cost me the championship lead really. I could've had a bad day with my riding and still come out of here with the lead but if you have one DNF in this championship it's a nightmare because the points are scored differently than at other championships. I've just got to go to Desert Martin and try and go for wins, stay out of trouble and hope that others have a bad luck race like I have.”