Friday Night Summer Series 1992 - 2013

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BY: Richard Jones

Published: 3rd October, 2013

The legendary Friday Night Summer Series is known by most and raced by many. However few know that it’s actually the longest running mountain bike series in the UK and the second longest in the world.  Few also realise that there is £400 to £800 pounds worth of cash prizes handed out every race night.  The FNSS is something we should all be proud of and perhaps we all need to know a little more about its history and the people who have made it such a fantastic part of the mountain bike calendar.

The FNSS series has been running since 1992 when it was originally called the Interclub Mountain Bike Summer Series. It was started my a handful of local road clubs for people who wanted to race there MTBs. Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays were busy with handicaps, road races and TT’s so it was left to either a Monday or Friday. It was decided that Mondays wouldn’t be a great way to start a week and so Fridays it was. 

Race coordinators have been Patricia Clarke, Richard White and Dave Donoghue but since 1996 Neil Holman took on the role of race co-ordinator - a role he still fills today. 

Neil Holman organized the very first race, the venue was held on his friend’s farm near Clipston, Northamptonshire. The police even closed a small-gated road for the evening to allow the course to cross over the road. The races cost £3 to enter and up to 45 riders would turn up to race their bikes. 

A short while later the “Inter club” part of the name was dropped and so the FNSS abbreviation was adopted. Here is born the FNSS series, as we know it today. As times changed so did the insurance and the brokers swapped from one to another up until the National Farmers Union become involved. To this day the event is still insured under this organisation. 

The FNSS has also had its fair share of young competitors who have later gone on to become successful. With young riders such as Ian Stannard, Nikki Harris, James Moorre and off course Vic and his son Dean Barnett to name just a few.  

FNSS has had some tough years through out its time, the worst of these being in 2001 when the foot and mouth epidemic was at its worst. Riding off road was almost impossible however the FNSS was able to hold some races at a small local airfield. 2012 was to be another challenging year when the horrific wet summer forced many rounds to cancel as the venues where just too waterlogged.

The rules are similar to cycle cross with 10-minute laps and 1-hour races for a £9 entry fee. The FNSS is proper grass roots racing. In fact it’s the definition of grass roots. With courses being held in all manners of places including quarries, farms, country parks, 4x4 courses and any other venue in which a fast challenging course can be stringed together. 

2013 was the FNSS 20^th year of continuous summer racing, this makes the series the oldest in the UK and only misses out to the world claim to the UCI XC Mountain Bike World Cup, which started just one year before. 

In recent years the season has begun in May with 13 rounds filling just about every Friday through to the season finale fancy dress and BBQ in August. The races pull on average 108 riders a night, the 2013 season saw 406 individual entries through out the series. This is slightly down on 2011 however after a very wet 2012 it was to be expected. 

Since 2010 the timing has been taken care of by Ian Mansfield who has created his own electronic timing system. In the three years I have known the series to be using this system there has been no major issues and lap times are always uploaded onto the FNSS website within hours of the race finishing, something some major events could learn from. 

A different club organises each race so that the pressure is passed between varying people. With each organisor you gain a fresh perspective and usually a new venue or an older venue with a redesigned course. What you can guarantee is a well-organised night and good quality fun. 

The atmosphere at these races is something I struggle with capturing in words. The race to many is a part of history; it has become a group of friends who come together for 4 months of the year. During this time there are smiles and giggles before the race but as soon as that starting gun is fired it’s strictly business. Yes there’s money up for grabs but this is mostly for pride and bragging rights. It doesn’t matter if your battling for 1^st or 31^st its all about beating “that guy”.

However there is cash and a fair amount of it to between the categories too. Depending on the turn out and the race organizer there can be anything from £400 to £800 handed out after the night’s racing. Categories include: 

Senior.

Under 23. 

Youth. 

Vets. 

Grand Vets. 

Ladies.

The last couple of years have seen the introduction of some non-counting rounds. These are added into the season for extra fun. This year saw a 2-hour team relay race and a 3-hour endurance race. 

In the past the season has been brought to a close in a formal manner with guest speakers such as Nick Craig . Now there is a much more laid back approach with a fancy dress handicap race being held at a local golf course. Once the racing is done it’s into the clubhouse for a BBQ some drinks and the trophies. 

Privateer recently wrote an article on the nostalgia of London’s Beastways Racing and how it’s written into history. The FNSS series is much the same and has equal rights to be compared against it. However its story hasn’t been told and more than likely wont ever be. Perhaps it’s best that way as we then have our own race series but some recognition to the people that have worked so hard to make it possible wouldn’t go a miss. 

So if you’re in the Midlands on a Friday night next year then come and check it out. I can guarantee you wont regret it!

Richard Jones. 

XCRacer.com 

Accelerade. 

MTZoom. 

Scimitar Sports. 

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