Interview – 50+ Grand Vet British Champion Lee Hunt

Year you started BMX?
1983.

Hometown local track?
Poole Panthers.

How was the Bournemouth/Poole race scene in the 80s?
It was certainly really big in the South back in the early eighties with three tracks in Dorset at Poole, Bournemouth and Mannington. There were also some other good local places for dirt jumping like the Sections at Upton Heath and the Chestnuts in Wareham. It certainly helped me having regular gate practice evenings with the likes of Tim March, Anthony Revell and Paul and Martin Upshall. Got to say that the Poole UKBMX National in 1984 was probably the best atmosphere I’ve ever experienced at a race meeting. We were all in awe watching the older riders like Charlie Reynolds, Geth Shooter and Tim March jumping the Dolly Parton’s on the first straight.

You made your way right into Superclass in the early 90s. What were some of your highlights as an Expert moving into Superclass?
I made the 13 & Under Cruiser final at the Slough Worlds in 1986. I fell off on the last corner though and finished 7th. One of my best race memories was winning the 1989 Poole National 16 expert final from gate eight. It felt so good to get the win at my local track. I won a few nationals as an expert, and had a lot of podiums on both cruiser and 20″ at nationals over the years and a couple of second places at internationals also. I also finished third in the national rankings on both cruiser and 20″ a few times as well as at the British Championships too. It was near the end of the 1990 season that I decided to go Superclass. It was certainly really tough riding in Superclass compared to being in the experts and I didn’t have much success in that class. The best I did was nearly making the Supercruiser final at the 1991 Euros at Slough where I was in fourth in the semi final but got pushed off the track over the last berm.

When did you decide to pack it up? And, was there any specific reason?
I raced from 1983 to 1997. However from 1992 onwards I just started to lose interest and from then onwards I was only ever doing a few races a year. I went back to racing as an expert in 1993.

Did you still ride after you stopped racing?
No, I didn’t ride a BMX at all during all the years I was retired from racing.

Looks like you’re fully back into racing now. What gave you the urge to start back up?
I think Facebook is to blame for that. Just seeing all the pictures and videos of people racing made me realise I actually missed it and I wanted to challenge myself again before I got too old. It was back in 2018 that I decided to attempt a comeback after 21 years of being retired from racing. I started training and riding again over a six month period before the South Regional race at Bournemouth where I raced in the 40+ Vets class. It went really well and won all of my races!

Who are some of the older guys you race with?
Chris Carter, Matt Phillips, Tony Pitman, Bernie Schaale, Mike Baggs, Nigel Whyte, John Bentley, Jason Lewis, Zoltan Buday, Gary O’Brien, Craig Hughes and Aide Woodcock.

What kind of training or riding do you do to help your racing?
I do exercise bike and rollers training and some weight training (nothing too heavy nowadays!) a couple times a week. I try to do some sprints once a week at the skatepark near where I work. Then it’s gate practice once a week at Bournemouth track and also riding at the track again on Saturday for a couple hours when it’s not a race weekend.

How’s the Bournemouth race scene these days?
Bournemouth BMX Club is really thriving. I would think it’s probably got one of the highest numbers of members in the country. Michael Whittaker, John Twitchen and the other committee members and volunteers really do such a fantastic job with running the club and putting on regular club races and coaching sessions for riders of all abilities.

I’m sure you follow the current Elite scene these days. Who are some of the riders you like to watch?
I’m always impressed seeing Niek Kimmann’s awesome first straight pull. Also it’s great to watch Kye Whyte with his phenomenal track speed.

Goals for the rest of the year?
Going to give the British Championships another go again this year. It’s definitely going to be really tough though this year with the likes of Alan Hill and Darren Reidy now racing in Grand Vets!

PC: BMX.photos

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