After months of planning the inaugural Red Bull Breakers event took place last Saturday in a scrapyard in South Yorkshire. Working in conjunction with the ACU, one of the countries leading Promoters, G2F Media, created a track at the industrial venue on the outskirts of Rotherham and the event was a huge success.
The concept of the event was a head to head format with two lanes being created and a crossover point at the end of the lap. The course consisted of thousands of tons of soil, a deep sand section, railway carriages, cars and a section up into the rear of the now defunct grandstand. Working to a clear brief, it took nine days to build the circuit in the scrap yard environment. The guest riders were balloted in pairs for the qualifying session which eventually came down to four riders for the semi-finals which took place in dry, but overcast conditions.
Speaking on behalf of the ACU, Chairman Brian Higgins commented, "It goes without saying that the ACU were delighted to be able to be involved in this event from the outset. Whilst some aspects were new to us, we were able to work through a format which we were all comfortable with and the event ran without a hitch. I have to say that the riders were brilliant and the racing element came out in the finals, but all rode well within their limits.”
Elliott Banks-Browne who was involved in the creation of the event from drawing board to racing. Coming through the qualification races unbeaten the Suzuki rider stayed smooth all day eventually taking the win in the final by just over half a second Jamie Law (LPE Kawasaki Racing).
The loosing semi-finalist, Ben Watson and Jack Brunnell went head to head in a run off for third place which resulted in the Watson taking the lower step of the podium at the end of a fantastic end of season competition.
Speaking on behalf of the Promoter, Jake Miller was delighted with the response of all concerned saying. “It was almost two years ago when Elliott first shared his dream, and last Saturday we saw it come true. The project was a real team effort, with great support from the ACU and an incredible amount of personal input from Elliott who was onsite for a week to help with the build process. The riders really enjoyed the resulting track and unique format, as did those who got to view the action first hand. Overall the first ever Red Bull Breakers has been a big success, and has hopefully given us something to build on in the future.”
Images by Olaf Pignataro / Red Bull Content Pool and Sam Needham / Red Bull Content Pool