LAST Sunday members of the Royston Rockets BMX Racing Club competed in the second round of the East Anglia BMX Summer Series, the first of two Inter-Region Challenges between East Anglia and the South Region. The Race was held at the South Region s Hayes

LAST Sunday members of the Royston Rockets BMX Racing Club competed in the second round of the East Anglia BMX Summer Series, the first of two Inter-Region Challenges between East Anglia and the South Region.

The Race was held at the South Region's Hayes BMX Race track and almost 250 riders from the two regions took part in some very competitive racing.

The Rockets had riders in many of the Expert classes with the youngest being the six and under class, where Daniel Blanche finished in fifth ahead of Jasia Blanche in eighth and Ted Dalleywater, who won the B final.

In the 7-8 year class A final, Ethan Lewis took eighth place and in the same class B final, Aaron Dalleywater took sixth and Bradan Blanche came seventh.

In the 9-10 year group two Rockets made the A final with James Handleigh finishing in third just ahead of Louis Burton in fourth and in the class B final Kyle Gutteridge raced to fourth after a recent layoff.

The 11-12 class saw Aston Blanche finish fourth in the class B final and in the 13-14 class Wayne Gutteridge came eighth in the A final after a mid-race slip and Antony Taylor took seventh place in the B final whilst new rider Darren Plumb took the win in the class C final.

The Rockets' only female rider on the day, Katie Roberts, took on the 15-16 years male class, where she finished in a well-deserved fourth place in the B final while in the Cruiser Classes Danny Bateman came second in the 13-16 class, with his Dad, Paul, coming sixth in the 40-plus final.

As usual, to give the older riders more experience, the 17-plus category was combined with the Master Class and the classes split out after the racing, which left Royston's Laurence Mapp winning the A final with Jonathan Roberts in fourth.

In the B final, Richard Townsend came seventh after a mid-race incident saw him slide out on the dusty surface, a fate that also befell Lee Alexander, who had to retire injured.

The next event on the race calendar will be round three of the National Summer Series at Parc Bryn Bach in Wales where the Rockets' national riders will again be out in force to gain points towards their ranking.