by Nuno Luz
The great team behind the well known Gorrick MTB races such as the Brass Monkeys XC Endurance series put together an amazing, and new for 2026, set of evening races which happened in June for a period of 4 weeks every Tuesday.
This series was open to a wide variety of categories, from 13 years old all the way to Super Veterans over 60’s. And especially as an open and easy step into racing, a Casual & First Time Riders 17+ category, which I was part of.
Organisation & Race Type
The races were quick 20m to 45m fast paced (for some) goes at the course, which meant that it would be a very good level of mid-week exercise, allowing for enough time to finish off and get back home in time to have a late supper and a well deserved night’s sleep!
My races all started at around 6:15 or 6:30pm and lasted about 30m (with the exception of the last race that was only 20m). We had to do as many of the short (up to 3km) laps as possible in that time.
Each category had its own series points, which was quite refreshing to see – since I’ve been on other series where my category (usually the Fun category) did not have points – making it more interesting for me! And I’m sure it does help to keep riders consistently signing up to all the series events.
As the organisation put it: series points would be awarded for attendance, results and special Bonus Points could also be won for the 3 riders with the fastest first laps in each category.
The price of each entry was extremely reasonable, ranging from £13 to £19 per race depending on category, and you could even get a good deal if you were to have purchased all entries in one go.
The Venue
The course was different every race, with different levels of difficulty and tech. The Gorrick team does such a great job of working with the trail network and building different courses and features to keep you busy and never bored!
I mainly remember the third race, which was the most challenging, from both a tech perspective but also with the most elevation of all. We had these great features, such as drops, small jumps, rollable drops and steps, nice well built berms and loads of great single track as well as challenging climbs!
All the races took place at their iconic venue of Highlands Farm, Frimley Green, Surrey, which is an amazing venue with huge MTB race potential that they exploit very well.
Weather
For the first couple of races we had some cool weather and slightly wet patches, but little mud as the course drains quite well.
The last two rounds in particular were quite hot, making them especially hard, being that we had a scorching 33 degrees on the last round! But thankfully most of the course was in the shade, as the trees provided a most welcome respite from the sun!
Quick view of round 3 from onboard camera: https://youtu.be/oCmnaqNI-HE
Results & Turnout
As usual there were some fast boys there, so I am quite happy that they offered this entry level category so I can improve and still have a bit of that competitive feeling!
Depending on the course, each lap could take me anywhere from almost 9 minutes (on the first round) to close to 5 minutes during the last round. This meant doing at least 3 laps for my category, but other categories would do up to 6 laps in under 45 minutes!
As for results, in the first round I was 3rd, then dropped to 4th in the second round. Each round would usually have about 7 participants in entry level.
The third round was a bit of a funny one as only one other rider showed up to race my category, so I got an easy second. In the Final round we had good turnout once more and I was able to finish third again.
In the end I got 3rd in the 4-race series, just about, and I have to thank Will for his very helpful mini coaching session the day just before the final race which definitely had a massive contribution for the 26 second lead I had on the 4th position rider – every second counts and technique is important – Thank you so much Will!!
The category with most participants was the Grand Open Veteran 50-59 which had in one round up to 21 riders! Overall each round saw around 50 riders more or less which is a great turnout for a mid-week competition!
Also have to mention that we had three other FCCC riders competing: Will, Robin and Scotty. And a huge thank you to Steve, the man behind the camera cheering us on and supporting us throughout, making this event not just a great competition but also a great place to meet other club members and socialise!
You can also watch the great video that Derek made of the event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_595Tcz2q4
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