World Outdoor Trials Championship Hawkstone Park, Great
Britain
Round 8 Day 1 Sunday (1 day event) 29/07/07
 Dougie
Lampkin finished his home round of the 2007 FIM SPEA Trial
World Championship, the Great Britain Grand Prix, in fifth
place in front of thousands of cheering fans. However, the
result was almost fourth, as he tied on points with Albert
Cabestany, but was denied the position thanks to the same
number of cleaned sections, but one less dab than the Spaniard.
The weather in the run-up to the event was famous across
Europe – the UK was still experiencing the wettest summer
on record, with flooding to areas of the country. The venue
for the trial, the Hawkstone Park motocross circuit, was also
hit with rain in the days preceding the event, but the sandy
nature of the soil meant that as Saturday and Sunday were
dry, the ground dried quickly. However, heavy rain during
Saturday night meant the ground was damp and soft as the riders
began the first lap.
By his own admission, Lampkin was not on his usual form to
begin with. He was keen to take his 100th World Championship
trial win on home soil, but knew that this would be an immense
task, thanks to the pressure from team-mate Toni Bou and Adam
Raga on the Gas Gas. His problems began on section two, when
his factory Cota caught its sumpguard on a rock and pitched
him over the handlebars for an early five. His run of bad
luck continued, when his exhaust system caught the marking
tape and melted it, leading to another five.
The second lap began better but then Dougie picked up a slack
five and a series of unnecessary marks. By the end of the
event, Dougie was tied with Cabestany on points, but lost
the position on the tie-break.
Lampkin stated. “Today was disappointing, especially
not to get the 100th win, but that was always going to be
difficult. But the support from the home crowd was incredible.
It’s always good to ride at home and this was no different.
One particularly special moment was in section ten, when the
crowd was quiet for a moment and I heard my son, Alfie, shout
“Daddy”. I’m now going to take a little
time off with my family and assess my performance so far this
season.”
“On section ix, I decided to avoid the huge rock climb,
which no-one had cleaned and went round a tree instead. It’s
always tricky when you’re riding at the front and you’re
not sure what the other riders are doing. I didn’t want
an early five so I tried that and took three marks instead
of the fie. But now I’m looking forward to my home round
– it’s always good to ride in front on your home
crowd.”
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