The annual ‘Rock it til Sundown’ Midweek Summer MX Classic is still set to run this year. The event will be held on Wednesday 5th August at their new chosen venue of Cusses Gorses MX, near Salisbury.
For their third year of running the event the Steel Hawk MCC have not
only changed venues but also revised the format after a lot learned from
their first two years of laying on the event. For 2020 and future years
they will now be an auto class and all the youth racing will run in the
daytime only, leaving the late afternoon and evening for adult racing
only as Steel Hawk MCC’s Paul Oughton explains;
“Although we’re happy with how the first two years of running our ‘Rock
it til Sundown’ event went, we also learned a lot and we’re always
looking to evolve and make things better and never be too shy to make
changes to improve our events for the racers and people who are
supporting us. So for various reasons like track preparation, safety and
scheduling we’ve decided to dedicate the daytime to the youth riders and
make it their’s, and then let the adults cut loose in the evening.”
“Obviously this year has been tough for so many reasons, and of course,
we’ve considered canning the event for this year, but ultimately we love
what we do and with the situation improving we feel it’s important for
us to keep the event alive for this year if we can. We’ll be following
all the necessary guidelines set out and making it as safe as we
possibly can for all involved. Julie, Jeff and myself we unanimous in
making the decision to run the event and we’re looking forward to seeing
everyone who enters out enjoying their racing again.”
But that’s not the only good news from the Steel Hawk MCC team as
they’re already looking at 2021 and are happy to announce new race
events for next year. The “Rock it til Sundown’ Midweek Summer Classic
will become a two day motorcycling festival running on Tuesday 3rd and
Wednesday 4th August. Then the team will be adding three new and
exciting events to their name. The ‘Helter Skelter Hill Climb’,
‘Speedcross’ and the ‘Hammer & Tongs’ Team Trophy will all be rolled out
in 2021 to add to Steel Hawk MMC’s portfolio of events as Jeff Perrett
explains;
“When Julie, Paul and myself got together to form Steel Hawk MMC we all
agreed from the outset that we’d look to try and do 4-5 events a year
but all different stand alone events and try and offer up something
different from the norm. We’re now in a position to crack on with a few
of them in 2021 and we’re excited by that, so I hope everyone else will
be. Some of the new events will for dirt bikes in general, not
necessarily just motocross bikes, like the ‘Helter Skelter’ Hill Climb
for example. We’ll open up a moped class for that I reckon, that will be
brilliant. The concept is simple, we race four riders to the top of a
hill, but it doesn’t end there. What goes up must come down, so when
they get to the top they turn around and race a slalom course back down.
The top two go to the next round until we get down to a final for each
class. I think it will be a lot of fun and good entertainment on a
summer’s day, going into the evening.”
“We’re excited about the ‘SpeedCross’ too. Again, it’s quite a simple
format that should be a lot of fun. Short races with small numbers on
the start line, but this start line is on a Speedway track using the
Speedway tape start. Then as they round the first corner, down the back
straight they turn into the infield and do a few twists, turns and jumps
before pulling back out on the back straight and getting it sideways
around the Speedway track for another lap. I’m looking forward to trying
it myself along with the ‘Helter Skelter’ Hill Climb. Then our fourth
event of 2021 will be the ‘Hammer & Tongs’ Team Trophy. This will be
more like an old fashioned ‘scramble’ open to anyone that wants to enter
a team, but unlike other team events where you race for your regional
club, at our event you can make up your own team and call it what you
want….as long as it’s not too rude or insulting, but the more humour the
better!”
“Obviously there’s a lot of information we need to get out on all of our
events for 2020. We’ll be announcing them in more detail throughout the
rest of this year, but we really wanted to try and spread some
positivity at this moment in time and let everyone know our plans for
next year, because let’s be honest, 2020 hasn’t been a year to remember
for too many good reasons. We want to focus on the future and something
positive, for us as Steel Hawk MCC and hopefully for people in the UK
who love riding a dirt bike and having a good time. That’s our aim,
because that’s what riding a motorcycle should be!’
For more info on Steel Hawk Motorcycle Club and “Rock it ’til Sundown”
head here >> http://www.steelhawkmc.cc/ . Pics by Nuno Laranjeira