The first ever National race at the £24million Indoor BMX Centre attracted the biggest rider turnout in over a decade with 710 signing up to face the challenging track. At stake was the glory of winning a National round as well as the prize of qualification for this year’s World Championships.

With Saturday’s Supercross showcase race having set the standard high, Sunday saw the action begin early with the Cruisers and youngest riders up first. Harry Ives had a great day in 7′s with a superb 2nd in the B Final to show for his efforts. He may be young but he didn’t seem overawed at the track or the scale of the event!

Fin Mead was LNM’s next rider up, hailing from Somerset he hasn’t had chance to get to grips with the track like his northern team-mates but that didn’t show as he rode brilliantly to a B Final win in 11′s. Mark Ferguson was representing in 30-34 and got through to the main taking 7th, a solid start to his season and his goal of at least 6th overall in the class. Damian Mead was right in the mix in the tough 35-39 class, making the main and coming away with 7th. He finished 4th overall the last two seasons so is a real contender in the class.

Shay Casey and Scott Dominguez were both doing double duty on 20″ and Cruiser meaning they had a very long day! Shay took the 9-12′s National Series title in 2011 so rode up in 13-14′s, alongside new team-mate Scott, for more challenge. Both riders made the track look easy with incredible skills on display delighting their fellow LNM riders and other spectators. On the big rigs, they made the A Final with room to spare and Scott narrowly lost out to Talent Team rider Paddy Sharrock, no stranger to the Manchester facility! Shay took 7th to round off a great day on 24″ wheels for the boys.

On 20′s they were in fine form too, with Shay getting the team’s best result of the day in the shape of 2nd place in 12′s. Scott made the A Final in 14′s  and came home in 5th, both are riders to keep an eye on not only for their results but the way they fearlessly jump the track!

16′s is a tough class with a lot of young talent. Love Not Money has two who rank up there with the best of them in Matt Saunders and new team-mate Mike Njuguna. Motos were no problem for either rider and they were drawn in the same quarter final. Matt was running 2nd with Mike 3rd down the final straight when an uncharacteristic crash left Matt in the dirt and out of the semi. 29th was his result but his riding on the day rated a much higher place. Mike went on to make the A Final and a strong ride netted him a great 5th place.

The posse of Love Not Money riders we have in 17-24 were in the thick of the action with Shaun Issitt taking time off from his busy schedule of interviewing other riders for the official edit of the weekend (the camera loves him) to make the main. Peeebz was storming through his motos to the delight of his team-mates with a 3-3-2 to make the quarters, where a 5th place left him disappointed not to advance further. His riding shows his potential and he’ll be hungry to build on a great opening round performance. Shane Dean is one of the youngest in the class and certainly felt like he needs some weetabix as he rode well but went out in the quarters finishing 25th for the day. He’s got bags of talent so will come back brighter!

Chris Potter was doing double duty and had encountered the rigidity of the stewards earlier in the day when they refused to allow him to get his bike in time to make his semi in 17-29. He compensated somewhat by winning the B on the big rig. On his smaller wheeled bike he impressed by making the B Final where he grabbed 6th place. Shaun took 5th in the A Final behind riders who raced Elite last year, showing he’s one of the contenders in the class. Overall out of 52 riders (by far the largest class on the day) LNM riders took 5th, 14th, 17th and 25th.

25-29 had two of The Brotherhood in the mix, it’s a small but physical class and Joe Davenport survived an interesting experience where he was forced to transition from the pro line to avoid a crash. He missed out on the final by a single point and vowed to come back stronger next round. Ross Gill was in his first National action since a very nasty crash at Redditch last year, he took 11th on the day in a solid outing.

Dave Ives was back on his preffered 20″ after a year spent focusing on Cruiser in 2011. He was always in the hunt in a super tough Masters class, which featured the likes of Dale Holmes, Dylan Clayton, Daz Reidy, Alan Hill and Tony Fleming, all World class riders. Three of last year’s top eight didn’t make it out of motos. Now that’s a tough class… Dave made the B Final and ended 5th, a brilliant result that validates his decision to return to the little bike.

Overall, Love Not Money had 15 riders in 18 classes and finished with 8 A-Final appearances and 5 B Final appearances including 2 wins!