Successful 4X Weekend
Despite being one of the longest 4X tracks in the UK, and the only one to feature berms, bridges and a rock garden, the Afan Valley 4X track was in dire need of some TLC. For years the infamous track had succumbed to overgrowth and weathering, but when the British Nationals decided to host a round in the valley, the Afan Trail Volunteers got to work straight away.
After the ATV team and the Afan community coming together, including Finn and Dan Howarth, Colin Marlbourough and the digger extraordinaire Sam Northham the Afan 4X track got put back to standard. With weeks of strimming and clearing to get the trail and spectators spots back, and Sam spending a week on the digger scraping the top layer off and reshaping section the weekend of racing was a huge success. Everyone spent a lot of time on the hand tools as well, raking off the rocks, hand slapping the lips and berms and making sure the ride lines were good.
Saturday’s race days seen the 4X race take the straight line from the top, utilising the full trail, and on Sunday changing things up and putting the start block down the bank running into the second berm. With the weather gracing the weekend with sunshine, the British National 4X final round got underway. After weeks of hard graft with hours invested by the trail volunteers, the track looked as good as new and ready for racing. We were stoked with overwhelming rider feedback about how good the track was to race, a track like no other in the series. It appears the organisers felt the same as they've already announced an Afan-hosted round for 2022.
So, a huge thank you to everyone who helped make this a success, and all that helped make the trail ready for the racing. Here's a selection of race photos taken by our very own Craig Fawkes.
