After twelve rounds, at six tracks, over five months, the 2010 National BMX Series came to an end in Bournemouth.  Some were crowned Series Champions, others saw titles slip from their grasp.  BMX Racing is full of highs and lows but is never dull!

LNM Team rider Andy Clucas was hunting for precious points in the hotly contested 17-24 class. Although he’ll be disappointed with 8th and 6th over the weekend, Saturday’s 8th was dropped from his overall tally as was his B Final win in Gosport. The best ten results from the twelve rounds count, so Andy cemented 3rd overall, a fantastic result in his first full season of Nationals!

Matty Glynn had a battle of his own in the tough 17-29 Cruiser class. After a season of Saturdays when he’s made B Finals, things in Bournemouth went better for Matty and he bagged an excellent 6th in the main. Sunday saw him go one better with 5th, meaning he finished 8th overall, a result to be proud of in a class that’s become more competitive this season.

Matthew Saunders finished 16th in 14 Boys, Joe Davenport ended the series 22nd in 17-24, Ross Gill took  11th in 25-29 and in 30-34 LNM had Roy Sutton in 7th and James Tresman in 8th.

Here’s a fantastic shot from the recent Love Not Money photoshoot by Rick Schofield Photography. . No lenses were harmed during the production of the images!

Rick took some truly awesomne shots of team riders Andy, James, Matty, Ross and Roy modelling the LNM clothing range and team kit.

Check out the new clothing page for more of his work and an idea of what’s available to buy!

Good weather, great action and deep emotion.  The Bob Field Grands had it all.

Apart from light rain late on Saturday, the Grands were graced with good weather, particularly on Sunday, when bright warm sunshine bathed the riders as they took on one of the most popular tracks in the UK. The Cheshire Ghost Riders team and Clark & Kent Contractors had worked hard in the weeks leading up to the event to ensure the track at Tipkinder was well groomed and fast.

A turnout that included top Elite riders Marcus Bloomfield, Kelvin Batey, Cal Strickland and Dan Whyte took on the Grands early on Sunday, with Bloomy taking the win. Love Not Money riders Joe Davenport, Ross Gill, Roy Sutton and James Tresman were in action in the Grands races, Sutty rode brilliantly to take 2nd behind SE’s Dave Ives in 30+ Cruiser.

Love Not Money sponsored 16+ Cruiser at the event, won by Martin Brown ahead of Mark Maddox.

Sunday saw a special guest there to watch the action; Stephen Murray, racer, dirt jumper, part of the UK BMX family, returned to the country for the first time since the horrific accident at a dirt comp that left him paralysed three years ago. To say his presence made the event more special and the crowd more emotional would be a massive understatement. The Stay Strong team has worked tirelessly to promote products for sale which help fund Stephen’s care and were there with Stephen on Sunday. Scott Dick, commentating on the event and given the task of introducing Stephen, was clearly very moved by it all.

Stephen thanked everyone for their support then reminded us all that we were there to remember Bob Field, the Crewe coach who had shaped so many top BMXer’s careers. The crowd cheered Stephen, cheered for Bob and then saw the race in his memory.

The Bob Field Memorial Trophy race is unique on the British calendar. Racers who’ve competed in a Grands class can enter the Trophy race for £5 with all fees donated to the Macmillan Nurses. With a prize of £1000 to the winner, 42 riders signed up. Some were genuine contenders to take a grand away from The Grands, others looked at it as a great way to donate money to a worthy cause. The format was one lap, no crap; top 4 go through to the next round.

With so much at stake and only one chance at grabbing it, the racing was furious; the Elites rose to the top as expected but Daz Reidy made it through with some superb riding. The top three are no strangers to Nationals podiums, with Bloomy doubling up and taking the win, followed by Kelvin and Cal.

The weekend was fantastic; well run, fun and in a good cause. We’re already looking forward to next year’s!

The North Region Summer Series ended in style with the final round at Leeds on a beautifully sunny day. Three LNM riders secured the coveted 1.4 plates that denote Northern Champions at the Brits.

Congratulations to Ross Gill (25-29) Matty Glynn (17-29 Cruiser) and Roy Sutton (30-34 Cruiser) on winning Regional titles!

Ok, so we may not be selling suits, but the cool range of new clothes will be arriving at LNM Towers tonight, ready for the Grands!

We’ve got new designs in Mens, Ladies and Kids t’s, as well as some hoodies!

The BigRedTent will be up at Crewe, come over and say hi, buy stuff and feel good that your money goes back into funding the race team!

See you at the Grands!

The weekend of August 21st and 22nd will see Love Not Money team riders in action at the Bob Field Grands, a fantastic event hosted by the Cheshire Ghost Riders club at their track in Crewe.

The Grands, now in their second year, are being held in memory of Bob Field, who was the driving force behind the Ghost Riders for many years and trained several top level riders including multiple World Champion Shanaze Reade.

Love Not Money is sponsoring one of the race classes and we’ll be there racing and selling some of our lovely t-shirts (although not at the same time, that would be a bit complicated)

Saturday has novice races and practice with a big hit from last year, the Clark & Kent High Jump Competition, returning as a featured event on Saturday evening. Class racing and the main Grands event will take place on Sunday.

For more details visit;

http://bobfieldgrands.blogspot.com/

The sun shone (mostly) the track rode well and the action was as exciting as ever for the latest rounds of the National Series which hit Gosport at the weekend.

The Gosport track is a little different from the average Nationals venue… the club had to put the new track on the footprint of a shorter pre-existing track, so to make it up to National standard length it features seven straights! With the same number of berms, it was a real test of skill and nerve as the racing was much tighter than on wider tracks with only 4 straights.

First up for the Brotherhood was Matthew Saunders in 14 Boys. Matt’s riding is super smooth, he makes up ground on riders ahead of him simply by being much better at manuals. Saturday saw his hard work this year pay off with his first ever National A Final appearance and a 7th place finish. Sunday saw Matty unlucky not to make it to the A but a good ride and 3rd in the B made it a successful weekend for the youngest member of the Love Not Money team.

Andy Clucas had a tough time in 17-24 on Saturday, in 4th in the semi, he got put over a berm and didn’t make the A Final. Bitterly disappointed, he gritted his teeth and won the B to salvage some valuable points from day one. Sunday saw a determined Andy on fine form and he stormed to a fantastic 2nd place in the A ahead of series leader Billy Luckhurst.

Matty Glynn had a similar Saturday to Andy, without the berm incident. He was disappointed to miss out on the 17-29 Cruiser Main, but made up for it with a B Final victory. Sunday saw him make the A Final with some great riding and he came away with 7th.

James Tresman just missed out on the 30-34 Cruiser A-Final on Sat, but got amongst the top eight on Sunday finishing 7th.

The Gosport National rounds kicked off a busy August, with the finale of the North Region Summer Series following on August 15th, the Bob Field Grands at Crewe on the weekend of 21st-22nd and the final rounds of the Nationals at Bournemouth over the August bank holiday weekend.

The 2010 BMX Race season is drawing to a close; with four rounds of the National Series left and only one Regional to do ahead of the Brits, things are quiet at the moment but when it comes time to race, it’ll heat up like a furnace!

Love Not Money riders will be in action in Gosport for Rounds 9 & 10 of the Nationals on August 6th-8th, with Andy Clucas sitting in 2nd in 17-24 and finally recovered from his nasty crash at the Manchester rounds and aiming for the top step of the podium in Gosport.

After Gosport comes the Bob Field Grands event in Crewe which will be well worth going to and then the finale of the National Series in Bournemouth.

The latest round of the North Region Summer Series hit Bradford at the weekend, with a smaller than usual turnout of racers getting another round under their belts towards Brits qualification.

Thanks to Phil Boyle for this pick of Rooster in action in 30-34, he took the win which wasn’t difficult seeing as he was alone in the class…(merged with 35-39 on the day so at least he had company on the track.)

Matty Glynn took the win in 17-29 Cruiser and Matty Saunders took 5th in 14 Boys.

This fantastic shot of Matty in his new LNM Team jersey comes from the team at Fastlane. They’ll have the latest issue of the mag hot of the press for you to enjoy in mid-July. see www.fastlanebmxmag.com for more!