This weekend Rafe was honoured to have been asked to represent his Club (Hampshire Youth) at the annual NORA Team Event, which took place at Landrake in Cornwall. Each club puts forward four riders per class, and they race against each other to score as many points as possible.
The club was very welcoming and each team rider received a huge box of goodies and were supplied with a lovely BBQ on the Saturday evening.
Early start on Saturday, Rafe headed out to the parade and the paddock was filled with colours from each club, whistles and horns in full flow with an air of excitment for a fun weekend.
Qualifying – Rafe secured the third fastest lap, which meant he had a good gate pic for the weekend.
Race 1 – A good start saw Rafe round the first corner with the leading pack of riders, however after two-thirds of the first lap, Rafe gave a little to much gas down the hill, the back end skipped out, as Rafe reduced the throttle, the bike hit traction and threw him off the bike. He hit the ground hard knocking the wind from his lungs. It took him a little whilst to compose him-self, he mounted the bike and was dead last in 36th place. He spent the remainder of the race in his famouns hunt mode, and went from 36th to finishing 13th. A truly spectatcular effort by Rafe and really shows his fitness and statimina are exactly where they need to be.
Race 2 – By the time the second race came around, the track had become very rutty, the cornish sunshine had done a cracking job of drying out the track, but it meant the ruts were rock hard, this had caused a lot of crashes. Rafe went into the race consious he needed to be smooth and consistent, railing the ruts with confidence. A cracking start, Rafe settled into 5th position, attacking forward, some intelligent overtaking manoeuvres saw Rafe move up into third and pull a comfortable lead. Crossing the line in 3rd position, a good clever consistant ride.
A good end to day 1.
Day 2 / Race 3 – Pumped for a new day of racing, Rafe got another good start and quickly settled into third place, the second place rider was in sight and Rafe was able to catch up and began to apply pressure, changing lines and giving it everthing to make the pass. However, back-markers came into play and made any further progression difficult. Rafe crossed the line hot on the heels of the secon place rider, had there been another lap, he might have been able to make the pass. Crossing the line in third place. (Due to a communication error, Rafe received a 5 place penatly, meaning offically he finished in 8th place).
As the race finished, the rain started and the track conditions deteriorated. The organisers took the difficult decision to cancel the event for the safety of the riders.
Hampshire Youth finished Second at the Team Event and Rafe was please to be able to offer some points towards the overall.
Some big improvements have been made over the last few months, seeing Rafe progress well and move to the front of the race. If he can smooth out the riding and stay on the bike, 2026 looks to be a good year.
Thank you to NORA CRS, Coach Robb and the team sponsors.
