DH Chris's report from the courses at Innerleithen and Scarborough

Innerleithen
The last NPS at Innerleithen was a good event and a brilliant track even though I did really rather poor. I just couldn't get it together in practice and didn't get the flow going until my race run when it was too late. The course was superb, nice and long with lots of lines to choose from and not too many jumps. The only problem I had with the weekend was the 1.9 mile ride to get to the buses for the uplift. 
I'm not averse to some cross country now and again but when you're on a DH bike it is a bit different and the rather steep and long push from the top of the uplift finished me off completely. So I managed to get a bit of flowing going on my race run but it was too late to improve and didn't finish very far up the field.

Scarborough
I had been looking forward to the Fat Face Night race in Scarborough for months and when it finally came I was super excited. I walked the track on Friday night and got even more excited as I'd just bought a new Hope Vision 4 light and couldn't wait to use it. The course started up in the castle and finished on the harbor wall by the seafront. The builders were busy Friday night until 2.00 in the morning building the large wooden features just down from the castle. 
Unfortunately the security people were not happy with the felting on the wood and delayed practice so we only got three runs before seeding (I know people that managed to blag them selves extra). In seeding I took a big dive off the scaffolding over the roundabout at the bottom (only crash all day), managed to pick myself up and crawl to the finish line 20 metres away. The weather just got worse and worse and the accidents stacked up and the spine board got plenty of use. Just the accidents that I heard of included - dislocated hip, dislocated arm, broken arm, broken leg and several broken ribs. It got to 10pm and I was out in the pouring rain by the castle waiting for my run when the decision was made to halt all proceedings and cancel the race. So a mass descent of Scarborough it was and I did get to use my new light at least once. Unfortunately this means that they take the time from my seeding run as my race run. One of my worst ever results in my history of racing.
I did intend to use this year as a bit of a test and to get myself back into the racing scene but was hoping to do a little better. Its the Decision DH at Moelfre next and hope to do ok there even though the tracks there are not my favored style, roll on tight, wooded courses rather than the open hill sides of Moelfre.