No.1 JST GAS GAS UK Team rider and World #8 James Dabill has just had two strong 7th place results at Rounds 1 and 2 of the World Trials Championship this weekend in Ireland.
James with his Factory Kev prepped PRO300 and his superb minder Jack Lee were fully commited to the weekend which started on friday morning at the Official Practice area.
Keen to impress and continue his run of good form Dibs adapted well to the mega slippy Irish rocks with ease. Friday afternoon left Kev back at the Factory truck prepping his No.1 bike whilst Dibs, Jack and myself toured the 15 sections for the event.
The general feeling was that the sections were awesome but waaaay too long and we all knew that time (both the 1.5 minute per section rule and the 3 hour time limit for the first lap rule).

Day 1;
James started well with a superb clean on section 1 which settled the nerves. Onto section 2 where the awkward undercut step with very slippy approach caught him out with being a little too slow. He rode the rest of the section feet up and flattend the log at the end.
Section 3 and 4 saw another two fives but they were MEGA slippy and didnt faze him too much.
Section 5 in my opinion was one of the best sections but on the first day was simply too long, i even joked that it could be two sub-sections (5a + 5b) with 3 minutes allowed !! This pi**ed Dibs off because he knew he could clean it but simply went for a three to get through the section in the allowed time.
Section 6....same deal as section 5 !
Section 7 with the very steep end part caught everyone out and he did well to drag it out for a three on both laps..
Section 8 had a very awkward double step that had everyone scratching their heads choosing lines and technique and only two riders did it on the first lap....only Bou and DABILL made this section which impressed all.....me especially!
Onto the awesome quarry section of 9,10 and 11 where Dibs had a confident 2 dab ride on 9. Sections 10 and 11 were again too long and he did well to get out them both for threes..
Down the track to 12,13 and 14 which were again excellent sections but AGAIN too long. James went 3,5,3 on these.
He levelled the last section to finish the lap on 49 in 7th place, one behind Doug and only 4 behind Fuji.....game on!
Lap 2 saw James way too self critical and also complaining about the length of sections which was beyond his control so i gently advised him to get on with it which he listened and had some awesome rides on 2,5, and 9.
After he fived 12,13 and 14 his head fell off a little which he took to 15 which he would have normally cleaned with ease but because his bottom lip was out he hit the double step slightly off line which resulted in another 5.
He finished the lap on 51, two more than his first lap and finished 7th place on 100 marks three ahead of Marc Frexia.
After a 'little chat' back at base we told James not to be too hard on himself and to keep his chin up. His riding was superb and many of his fives were because of the length of the sections.
It was obvious that the club had overdone the length (not severity) of most of the sections and therefore changed most for WTC2 on Sunday.

Day 2
The Trial was perfect!
The club had worked incredibly hard with the sections so a massive congratulations to them!
Dibs was 7th again and was riding well. He started very confident and got to 4 on one. He fived 4 on the 'swooping' step but was very close and promised to 'pi** it' on the second lap....which he did ;-)
He was average on 5 and good on 6.
Section 7 was my fault because i told him to hook 4th for the end which didnt work....sorry pal (me and wayne would have pi**ed it back in "93 ;-)
Section 8 he was 'oh so close' but rocked back for five. He was 'the man' on 9 with an effortless clean but fived 10 when he snapped his gear lever and couldnt get 2nd...ta for new lever Kev ;-)
Big three on 11 which was still bloody long....but possible, he said again he would pi** it on the next lap....which he did for a dab.
He then finished the lap very strong with excellent rides on 12,13,14,and 15. Although riding better he was 8th, ten behind Doug and 6 behind Frexia.
Lap 2 went better with with only two fives on 7 and 10. Mega cleans on 1,2,9,13 and 15.
Dibs closed the gap on Doug on the last lap but not enough to beat him so Doug got 6th. Dibs was 7th and thrashed Frexia on the last lap.
All in all a very strong start to the WTC and he's promised me Top 5 in Portugal so let's 'have it' !

Team JST GAS GAS riders SAM HASLAM and ROSS DANBY battled it out again all weekend in the Junior Class...
Sam was 6th Saturday and 8th on Sunday.
Ross was 7th both days.

Craig Robinson was as commited as ever and scored points on both days! (15th + 14th) Welldone mate !

Congratulations to;
ADAM RAGA / GAS GAS
TONI BOU / MONTESA
ALEXZ WIGG / BETA
JONATHAN RICHARDSON / SHERCO

Thanks to;
JACK LEE
FACTORY KEV

Pic;
Trial Mag.

Sorry for 'long-winded' PR this week but this lad from Leeds has got me buzzing this year and im gonna kick his skinny ass all the way!

Cheers
Shirty