United Kingdom (10/12/2009)-
Jason Macbeth held off a hard charging Steve
Atkins to take a well-deserved win in today's
quad race at Weston-super-Mare, after avoiding
a spectacular crash on the start straight involving
more then a dozen riders.
Macbeth led the 400 strong field from the
start, but was forced wide at the first turn
and dropped down the order. The Reading rider
retook first position on the third lap, and
held onto the lead for the remainder of the
three-hour race.
"The track was good today; probably
the best I've ever ridden at Weston,"
declared Macbeth. "I got a good start
to go straight into the lead, but then got
passed by a few riders into the first turn.
I got held up a couple of times on the opening
lap, but the traffic jams weren't nearly as
bad as they have been in previous years."
"I think I took the lead again on the
third lap, and managed to hold everyone off
until the end. It was a tough race, especially
when the riders behind me closed to within
a few seconds, but I just kept plodding along
and it was enough to see me across the finish
line in first place. It was good to win, and
I'm sure we'll be celebrating with the team
in suitable fashion tonight," concluded
the race winner.
Ten time British quad champion and pre-race
favourite, Paul Winrow, had an incident packed
race, before being forced to retire with just
one hour of the race left to run. A four-time
winner at Weston, Winrow's problems started
on the opening lap when another competitor
landed on him after over jumping one of the
infamous Weston dunes. Four laps later the
Honda pilot was forced to replace a snapped
chain at the side of the track before rejoining
the race outside the top ten
After pushing hard to fight his way through
the field, Winrow eventually retired from
the race after two hours.
"Someone landed right on top of me on
the opening lap, and I took a fair hit on
the left side of my back. A few laps later
the chain snapped - I carry a spare, but it
took a while to get the new chain on and rejoin
the race. I was pushing quite hard and had
a few scary moments, but I was outside the
top five and my back was starting to cause
me a few problems. In the end I decided to
stop rather than risk making the back injury
any worse."
"I'm entered in the solo race tomorrow.
Racing the solo doesn't put as much strain
on the back as the quad, but I'll see how
it feels in the morning before making a decision
about whether to ride or not," concluded
Winrow.
