After an eventful start to the 2018 season at Chicksands for round 1, USN Racing entered round 2 in Harthill looking for a strong result ahead of the 4X ProTour starting in 3 weeks.
The track at Harthill in Cheshire has always treated Scott well and on this occasion the team were looking forward to a great days racing and some strong results.
With practice beginning at 9.30, Scott was immediately up to speed and looking fast. Scott had already practiced on Saturday morning and felt confident on the track.
In the motos Scott looked dominant in his first 2 races, winning from the outside gates and puling some decent leads. In his third moto, he made an uncharacteristic bad gate and found himself in 3rd through the first 2 corners. It was a good position though as Scott began searching around the track for different passing opportunities should he need them later in the day.
Into the semi final Scott took gate 2. Making a perfect gate, Scott led the race from start to finish which would see him through to the final.
In the final, Scott took gate 1 with former GB Elite BMX rider Grant Hill in 3, Will Evans in 4 and Davi Roberts on gate 2. The gate dropped and Scott was level with Grant down the start hill. Scott pulled a small lead on the first straight but it was close and over the double into turn 1 the 2 riders collided. Staying up right Scott moved into the lead but through turn 1 Grant did not brake and on the exit the 2 riders collided. When Elite 4X riders collide all that horsepower normally explodes and on this occasion it really did. The 2 riders flew through the air and hit the ground hard. Grant seemed ok and continued to finish the race in third but Scott didn’t move for quite a while. The medical team were on the case quickly and thankfully after a few minutes Scott was slowly back on his feet and rolled on his bike down to the finish line to complete the race.
The crash was a pure racing incident as the 2 fastest riders on the day battled hard into turn 1.
The sequence below shows the whole event:
At the finish line, Scott was clearly in pain, but looked towards the positives:
‘Today has been good. I have felt fast on the track and although I did not win, I am excited about how good I felt on the bike. We now have 3 weeks to get ready for round 1 of the 2018 4X ProTour.
The podiums were held immediately after the finals and Scott was happy to be walking and take 4th place.
Some interviews with the media and then it was home and back to training for an intense block of work ahead of the ProTour starting.
Thank you to all our partners for the 2018 season. It’s going to be a great year.
Images – Lewis Bradley