HOOLIGAN RACE REPORT - Round 4, Greenfield Dirt Track
ANOTHER TOP FIVE FINISH FOR DANNY, SAM ENTERS THE HOOLIGAN CHAMPIONSHIP!
Due to the cancellation of our Mallory Park race, Round Four of the national DTRA Flat Track Championship took us back to Lincolnshire, and the famous Greenfield Flat Track circuit, for the final round of the Hooligan series. As ever, Danny Williams was aboard the #585, this time joined by Sam Shook on our Age Of Glory x PCC BMW R9T Hooligan machines. Sam has been at the front of the field every time he's competed over the last few years, successfully wrapping up nation titles in the Rookies and Vintage classes. Both Sam and Danny were racing in the Inters/Pro classes alongside the Hooligan class, so it was going to be a busy day all round.
The final round of the DTRA season is always a special event. Riders from across the globe descend on the Greenfield track to compete their hardest and put it to the UK riders. In addition, many of the DTRA regulars have one eye on wrapping up a 2023 title - so the racing often goes hard! One of these title-contending riders was Sam, he was looking to secure his first Inters championship. We were going to have to run the Hooligan class races in amongst the Pro & Inters schedule, this meant that both Sam and Danny would need to run back-to-back heat races and finals - a tough ask given the intensity of the racing!
A quick practice session, for the riders to get up to speed, was followed by three heat races which saw Danny scoring a best result of third in Heat 3, with Sam only 0.247s behind him in fourth. In flat track racing, the starting positions for the Final are set by your cumulative results in the heat races, Danny and Sam put in a string of consistent finishes to qualify 3rd and 5th on the grid. After a cracking start, Danny put in a solid ride in the final to finish fifth, just behind two riders competing the Flat Track World Championships, and Sam scored a great sixth spot on his debut outing riding the R9T.
We're still waiting on confirmation of the seasons standings but we think that Danny has achieved an over position of fourth in the Hooligan Championship - a result that far surpasses the efforts of Rory and Stu in 2022! We're incredibly proud of Danny, Chris and Sam to have been able to take the BMW bar-to-bar with World Championship riders on monster race machines from Ducati & Indian alike.
Congrats to Jack Bell for winning every Hooligan round aboard his Devitt x Vanoni Ducati Scrambler! You can check out the full race results and championship standings here - DTRA Hooligan Championship.
Next season we'll be looking at how we can modify our race programme to push the bikes and riders ever further up the field - stay tuned!
Thanks to our partners for supporting our racing; Age Of Glory, BMW Motorrad, Dunlop Motorcycle Tyres, DNA Performance Filters & Putoline.
Amazing pics by Jon @ Braking Point Images
