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April - AR Springs into life

Rob / 11.12.2002

The weekend of April 13/14th was a busy one and teams had choices to make. The long awaited Red Bull Northern Exposure was promising something new up in the snowy wastes of Scotland and at the same time the only 2-day Questars race of the year was happening down in sunny Devon among the daffodils. Northern Exposure had prize money and Questars was offering the first free British Championship place to the winners.

Northern Exposure

Red Bull backing a new race had to mean something special, especially with Gary Tompsett doing the planning for a winter race in the Cairngorms. Only 10 teams dared have a go but the competition was strong with many of the top names in UK racing.

Course details were all very hush, hush until a midnight start was announced the day before the race – a cruel twist setting teams off in the middle of the night. When the action started the first challenge was a rainsoaked low level romp around the Spey valley, followed by an adrenalin pumping high level stage up on the plateau, and mixed in amongst them were Gary’s ‘surprises’. These included a freezing night time lilo foray to retrieve a Mars Bar from a castle (strange by true), some frustrating GPS exercises, and even clay pigeon shooting.

The highlight had to be the rope and trek stages in arctic conditions on the plateau, sometimes in white-out conditions. The competition was close, but it was a shame the leaders Parrott-Lythgoe became unranked when John Lowther was injured. This left the way open for Goretex/Golite to win, though they staggered over the line suffering severely with sickness after drinking dodgy water.

For SleepMonsters.com it was a bit of a test too – a first live race report (not counting the indoor event) in tough conditions and on a largely untried system – but thankfully it all worked OK and you can see the reports and picture galleries here.

Marines and McSweeny’s

The new British Championship series started with the 2-day Questars race in Devon. No snow and ice here, but there was the chance to get wet and dirty on the Royal Marines Endurance Course. Believe it or not there were near drought conditions at the time and the going was fast on hard packed trails with several teams competing for top places. Team Wales, Big Pack Kona, Team McSweeny and Wadenhoe High Five were all in contention and it was the McSweeny of McSweeny who lead his troops to victory. (As they were only a team of 3 not a team of 4 it was Wadenhoe High Five who won the free place at the British Championships though.)

You can read Tim Lloyds report here.

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