The Perfect Start!

16/01/08 
 
The first day’s competition and we’re already getting close. Finian Maynard came within a hair’s breath of breaking the world production record. His run of 44.32 knots was not only close but proved that Southend really does have a world class location on its shore’s.

This week was always billed as a test week; Southend’s Ray is a new event and as such has to be approved by the WSSRC before we can run on standby. Monday was more to test the equipment and get everyone familiar with the set-up, but no one really expected day two would bring such great results with ten riders posting their personal best 500m times.

Looking at the results you’d think we’d had a fantastic day, good would describe it better as the south winds ensured the course was square and only broadened the course as the wind dropped. This was just a test and more can be expected from this course, but just consider there is another course which is even flatter and faster at the east end of the Ray. When the real west-southwest wind kick in who knows what can be achieved.

All the riders we carrying gps devices, which transmitted the data to a live site where you could, chose which riders you wanted to follow. Click to watch the days action unfold. 

 
Results  
 
Finian Maynard 44.32knots
Dave White 42.81knots
Dirk Doppenebrg 42.62knots
Martin Van Meurs 41.78knots
Simom Hinkley 41.60knots
John Smalley 41.15knots
Bob Cunningham 41.04knits
Steve Thorp 40.91knots
Bart Goemans 40.13knots
Farrel Oshea 39.94knots
Andrew Brown 38.92knots
Jamie Dodds 38.68knots
Pete Davis 38.09knots
Minos Efstathiadis 37.15knots
Timo Mullen 35.95knots
Denis Royet 35.63knots