KIWI RIDER JUNE 2020 VOL2 | Page 14

DIRT NEWS DIRT GUIDE CROSS COUNTRY IS GO! Hadleigh Knight took overall Dirt Guide honours last season R ejoice XC fans! With the move to Covid-19 Alert level 1 last week, that means the annual Dirt Guide Cross Country Series can swing into full, unrestricted, action. This weekend marks the 13th year of the annual cross country series after a narrow escape. So, what can we expect from the first cross country competition event out of the post-lockdown gate? Established in 2008, the Dirt Guide Series is renowned for its laid back nature and welcoming atmosphere, with the series offering up competitive racing action in the Kinleith Forest for all comers over the age of seven years. “It’s become quite popular because of the low key nature of the event, but also because we have properly marked and good tracks”, says organiser Sean Clarke, “Just having something year in year out, people like the same believe it or not, they like to know what they’re going to get with no nasty surprises and that sort of thing.” For those uninitiated, the Dirt Guide Series follows a closed-loop of marked trails with riders completing multiple laps. In this case, all of the tracks have been carefully marked out by the Forest Trail Events team for the various classes which race across three distinct tracks. “The Dirt Guide Series itself is just something I wanted, Clarke continues. “I wanted like a club 14 KIWI RIDER