Curtis Manaton added the HSBC UK National BMX Series to his National title at Leicester Huncote Hornets in the final round, but had to settle for second on the day.

Eddie Moore claimed the victory and finished second overall, while Charlotte Green was also victorious in the women's race but finished in silver position overall too.

Beaten at the last

After a postponement due to the early spring rainfall, which left the track and surrounding campsite waterlogged, Leicester Huncote Hornets finally opened its gates to welcome nearly 900 competitors along with over 3,000 spectators for the season finale.

In the men’s Superclass it was business as usual for Manaton in the Saturday round as he took the holeshot, helping him secure yet another win.

Sunday’s final, however, was another story. Despite grabbing the holeshot and leading in his usual dominant style, Manaton this time had company going into the second corner.

Without realising the danger until it was too late, Manaton was taken by the move of the weekend by Moore.

On the hunt for his first National round win in three years, Moore dropped in underneath Manaton to take the lead.

The ensuing battle was fierce with Manaton doing all he could to get back to Moore, and as the riders crossed the line it was down to a thrilling photo-finish, with Moore taking the win by the narrowest of margins. 

Despite conceding the win on the final round, Manaton still underlined his season by taking the Series title and Moore showed his year-round consistency by taking second overall.

Manaton said: "I just didn’t realise I had company going into the second corner and I left the door open a bit and they took full advantage and came underneath.

"I tried to hunt him back down but in the end he got it. It was good for him to get his first elite win under his belt; I'm sure he’s really buzzing from that.

"It's nice that I've been able to underline my season by winning the national champs and the series overall."

Moore said: "I’ve been in the elite class now for three years but its taken me a while to get to the area to be in the top three.

"Staying up there with Curtis isn’t easy, so I was pleased to be on terms, then on the second corner I made my move and managed to dive underneath him and then the hardest bit was just trying to hold him off till the finish line.

"That was a really close finish, my legs were really feeling it but I managed to hang on and grabbed my first win with the narrowest of margins.

"My first ever win in elite men and that feels really good. I’ve managed to grab second overall too which is a bonus."

Bitter-sweet victory for Green

In a weekend of thrills and spills, the event started with nearly half the field in the women’s final in R3 (11) coming to blows in the opening straight.

Lauren Anyon, Lauren Stack, Eleana Stafford and Imogen Hill came together on the Birmingham track leaving three riders with visits to hospital.

Luckily no one was seriously hurt, but all apart from Hill declined to ride R4(12).

Meanwhile, unaware of the chaos on the track, Charlotte Green rode strongly to take her first win of the weekend. 

Sunday saw a bit more crashing on the track in the women’s races, leaving Charlie Hartnell sidelined and Ellie Featherstone battered and bruised.

Featherstone still came out all guns blazing for the final, but despite chasing hard still couldn’t get on terms with a dominant Green, who secure yet another win.

Despite the successes, Green had to console herself with second in the overall standings to Beth Shriever.

With seven out of the 12 rounds counting, Shriever secured six wins in the series despite missing a few rounds due to international racing, which scored her enough points to take the series.

Charlotte Green said: “It was a good track, not overly technical, which is why I think there were a lot of crashes this weekend as we were pretty much all together.

"I'm disappointed that I only managed to get second overall in the end despite racing most rounds, but at the end of the day it is what it is, it doesn’t really matter I have lots of other titles, both world and national, so its not the end of the world.”