As you read this thinking you’ve got a hectic weekend ahead with lawn mowing, hedge trimming, looking after the kids, and sitting through Gladiators on Saturday night before you can settle down to watch the Supercross (or Arenacross!), spare a thought for the Welsh ping-ping ball that’s currently bouncing between northern France and the British Midlands…
Words: Ben Rumbold, Featured Image: Arenacross UK
Currently lying 5th in the British Arenacross Championship, two points behind former Champ Adam Chatfield and just six behind American star Justin Bogle, Ashley Greedy also has a passion for a completely different form of dirt bike thrashing – Beach Racing! So the Welsh wizard who somehow excels in both 10-minute blasts around a jump-infested arena, and three-hour slogs around a sandy dune-infested beach, is tackling both the Birmingham Arenacross and the iconic Le Touquet Enduropale event this very weekend!
Ashley’s younger brother Josh is leading the AX ProAm class with two rounds to go, so it is a real family atmosphere in the pits which helps to settle the nerves of the tight Arenacross action.
Le Touquet, on the other hand, is a whole other beast entirely, now the first round of the FIM Sand Races World Cup, which consists six rounds across Europe and even South America. Ashley scored a 7th place in the final round of the 2023 series, at Monte Gordo in Portugal, last November. And he’s even done this whole AX to Beach Race thing already this year, heading straight from Manchester’s 2024 opener to Skegness in January, winning the Bibby’s Beach Race a day after just missing the podium in the AO Arena, then driving for three hours across the country!
This weekend gives him an even tougher task, however, as the stricter FIM rules have made it necessary for Ash to drive to Le Touquet this week, which he did from his Welsh home on Thursday, to get his bike scrutineered and get himself signed on for the French event. Driving straight from there to Birmingham for the Arenacross, while his S Briggs 10 Central Honda team prepare for him there, is at least a 5-hour trek, which he then has to reverse in order to line-up for Le Touquet and one of the toughest Beach Races in the world!
In total he will clock up just over 1,000 miles in order to get back home at the end of an incredible weekend!
They say that you only live once, but that’s clearly not enough for Ash, the 2019 Weston Beach Race winner, who will join fellow Brits Todd Kellett, Dan and Brad Thornhill, as well as Quad racers Harry Walker and Steve Atkins among many others in the massive French event, just hours after banging bars with Brunell, Kullas, and co!
Best of luck to Ash in both events and fair play for taking it all on…
