LAURENCE Mapp led the way as Royston Rockets BMX Club completed a successful day s racing at Milton Keynes. Following the cancellation of the previous weekend s regional race because of a flooded track, Rockets were competing in the third round of the Eas

LAURENCE Mapp led the way as Royston Rockets BMX Club completed a successful day's racing at Milton Keynes.

Following the cancellation of the previous weekend's regional race because of a flooded track, Rockets were competing in the third round of the East Anglia BMX Summer Series last Sunday on the sun-drenched track of the Milton Keynes club.

It was also the second of two inter-region challenges between East Anglia and the South Region - after the first round at the South Region's Hayes track, East Anglia held a narrow lead in the competition.

The event again attracted almost 250 riders from the two regions.

As usual, to give the older riders more experience, the 17+ category was combined with the master class and the classes split out after the racing.

Mapp went on to win the A final, while his brother Christopher returned to action after a football injury by finishing third.

Jonathan Roberts who had slid out on the dusty surface in his semi final bounced back to take the B final.

The Rockets' newest member to try his hand at Regional level events, Jake Murley, was second in the novice 8-10 B final, while the youngest riders in the six-and-under class saw Daniel Blanche finish fourth ahead of Oliver Snelling and Ted Dalleywater, who the top two places in the B final.

In the seven-eight year class, Ethan Lewis was unlucky not to make the main final but took second in the B final. In the same class C final, Aaron Dalleywater won, with Zak Foreman fourth and Kieran Archer seventh.

In the 9-10 year group two, Rockets made the A final with Louis Burton finishing in sixth following a mid-race melee which left James Handleigh rolling in the dust to end up eighth, and in the class B final Kyle Gutteridge raced to fourth.

The 11-12 year class saw Zak Stevens take third in the A final just inches ahead of Ben Gutteridge in fourth, and in the 13-14 year class B final Wayne Gutteridge took third with Antony Taylor fourth.

Katie Roberts took on the 15-16 years male class where she finished fifth in the B final.

The next event on the race calendar is the re-arranged round of the Regional Summer Series at Braintree this weekend, where the Rockets riders will again be out in force to gain points towards their ranking.

The club's regular Tuesday night sessions at the club's track in Burns Road, Royston, start at 6pm to enable the riders to have additional coaching.