AFTER finishing seventh at the age of 40 at the World 4X Championships earlier this year and following that up with a somewhat against the odds National 4X Series win, it was back on his BMX for Northallerton's Scott Beaumont for his last race of the 2018 season.

The goal, to qualify for the 2019 UCI BMX World Championships.

As the last round of 12 in the National BMX Series, Beaumont went into the weekend knowing he needed to perform well to guarantee his place at next year’s World Championships.

Held in Huncote, Leicestershire, he kicked off his weekend with three laps of practise to get dialled back into BMX racing mode, ‘confident’ going into the ensuing qualifying races.

“Leading from the start I entered the final turn with a small lead but got a bump mid-turn and slipped back to third. In the second qualifying race it was a similar story as I finished second, but it was third-time lucky and I recorded a clean lap to take the win!” he said.

Moving onto the finals, conscious of the bumping and barging, Beaumont decided to take an outside gate to get a clean run on the start straight with the ability to carry good speed into turn one.

“The gate dropped and I made my best start of the day," he said. "There was a huge drag race to turn one and I almost got there, but entered the turn level for the lead. Pushed wide, I fell back into third but then made a clean move into second. I reeled in the leader somewhat, but at the finish I couldn’t quite make up the extra ground.”

Onto Sunday and the remaining final races, Scott was determined to end the season on a high. He started the day, doing just that, winning all three qualifying races to give him the vital choice of gate for the grand final.

In prime position to score his place at next year’s World Championships, he said: “Going for gate one, I wanted to lead the race into turn one and get away from trouble, but frustratingly my gate wasn’t perfect dropping down and I was up against it in fourth.

"With a powerful first straight though, I fought into the lead in turn one. From there, I rode a solid lap until the final straight. I was still in the lead, but it was tight. With ten jumps to go, my goal was to wheelie the first eight two at a time, jumping the last two.

"On the final manual between jumps seven and eight I bumped the landing, losing a little speed and had to jump higher on the final jump. It was all it took and as I crossed the line it was a photo finish. By just a couple of thousandths of a second, I was beaten at the finish and ended up second.”

Despite the bittersweet ending, the result was a culmination of another fantastic BMX and 4X season for and qualified Beaumont directly for next year’s UCI BMX World Championships in 2019.

  • Scott Beaumont is an ambassador for leading sports nutrition brand USN who have just launched their brand new lifestyle range, USN Trust. To find out more visit www.usn.co.uk.”