Saturday 13th January saw the annual ACU Awards presentations at the prestigious National Motorcycle Museum at Solihull, West Midlands, where over 600 guests attended, representing all disciplines of motorcycle sport.
During the daytime over 200 guests arrived for the presentation of the ACU Youth Awards which saw two International stars enter the room on their Championship winning machines, FIM Trial2 Champion Iwan Roberts along with FIME European Long Track and British Masters Grass Track Champion James Shanes powered up their bikes to make a spectacular entrance to the Imperial Suite.
There was a great turn out of our Youth Award winners to collect their Awards to celebrate their achievements from last year. Iwan presented the Trials Awards and James the Grass Track/Speedway Awards and it was also great to see Gareth Hockey and Margaret Stephens from RHL Activities Ltd on hand to present the British Youth National Awards.
In the evening the Adult Awards took place which saw the large turn out of stars and guests with over 400 sat down to celebrate the achievements of last year. Road Racing and TT Stars Ben and Tom Birchall started the evening off in fine style by riding two Rotary Norton machines into the Imperial Suite, along with James Shanes on his Tornado Jawa 500cc bike, the sound of bikes was fantastic as they made their way up to the stage.
Young Grass Track and Speedway rider Luke Harris collected the prestigious Pinhard Trophy as the best Under 21 year old competing in ACU events. Luke was presented the Trophy by James Shanes and also collected his British Upright Grass Track Championship to round off a fantastic year for the youngster.
The evening also featured a number of the special guests and International and National Champions include Brad Freeman who was on hand to collect his World Junior Enduro Championship and his British Enduro Championships. Top Speedway rider Robert Lambert was also in attendance to collect his FIME Under 19 and Under 21 Speedway titles and the British Under 21 title for 2017. After collecting their own World F2 Sidecar Trophies, Ben and Tom Birchall remained on stage to then present the remainder of the Road Race, Drag and Sprint awards.
The ACU Datatag Commitment to Coaching Award to recognise the outstanding commitment to ACU Coaching by a Non-Commercial club Project or Individual and this was awarded to the BikeWise Mini Bike Club.
ACU Chairman John Collins commented “A lot of hard work by the ACU Staff goes into making the ACU Awards happen. The whole day has been superb and it is great to see so many riders from so many disciplines come together to celebrate their achievements of last year”
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