World Trials Championship
Round 8 – 29/07/07 Hawkstone Park, Great Britain
 James
Dabill finished his home round of the 2007 FIM SPEA Trial
World Championship in a disappointing ninth place, his worst
result of the season. James was understandably upset with
his performance in front of thousands of cheering trial fans
who had turned out to watch James and the World’s best
in action.
The British event took place at the Hawkstone Park motocross
circuit near Shrewsbury. Like the rest of the UK, it had experienced
the wettest summer on record with several days of heavy rain
in the run-up to the event. However, the sandy soil drained
well and the riders did not anticipate too many problems,
despite the rain during Saturday night.
Both Saturday and Sunday were bright and sunny and the sections
dried out quickly. Once again, James started well and was
well in contention over the first four sections of lap one.
However, he then picked up three fives in a row on sections
five, six and seven and admitted that this knocked his confidence
for the rest of that lap.
He picked up a further five before cleaning the penultimate
section, the first rider to do so and to the delight of the
crowd. However, on the following hazard, he also looked to
be cleaning it, but a bad landing off the final ledge meant
his rear wheel slipped off a rock and landed outside the marking
tape, earning him another maximum.
His second lap was slightly better than the first, James
recording a score three marks less than the first lap. However,
he once again fived the final section, feeling he made it
to the top of the climb, but then sensed the bike sliding
backwards. He went on to finish the event in ninth place,
just three marks ahead of Spanish rider
Jordi Pascuet.
“Today really wasn’t a good day for me,”
James explained. “I started well but the three fives
in a row on the first lap really knocked my confidence and
I simply didn’t feel comfortable after that. I tried
really hard throughout the trial, but it simply didn’t
come together for me.”
“Of course, I wanted to do well here, in front of the
home fans and perhaps that was part of the problem. It’s
not that I felt under pressure particularly, as I didn’t,
but I just wasn’t riding well enough. “
“I’ve got a little time off after next weekend’s
round of the British Championship, so I’m going to take
a short holiday before the championship heads for Andorra
and the penultimate round.”
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