Dave Walsh a local rider has set himself a challenge to raise funds and awareness for the Injured Riders Welfare Fund and the Air Ambulance NI with a physical challenge to support these causes close to his heart and Darren Gilpin @Wilson Craig Racing.
Dave who lives and races motorbikes in Northern Ireland and Europe as a full blown privateer racer, who says he is getting greyer by the day, “That after the first lockdown last year, I and a few of the boys from the road racing scene had a meet up and a couple of beers @wheelers bar and started to put the world to rights.”
“Darren Gilpin @Wilson Craig Racing agreed with me, that after these lockdowns, all the fund raising and charities are suffering and we started to knock around some ways to help out and raise awareness and hopefully some money to support a couple of very worthy causes close to our hearts.”
“We decided to do some of form physical challenge and I should brush off the auld mountain climbing race leathers and kit and set a new challenge through the 31 days of March 2021.”
So Dave has volunteered to take on a 31day physical challenge which is: 31 miles a day for the 31 days of the continued March lockdown.
The physical challenge will be broken into 10 or 11 miles runs in full bike kit, one piece race leathers including wearing a helmet gloves and boots. Then 20 or 21 miles on the mountain bike again in full bike kit.
The runs will be covered by lapping the old Aghadowey race circuit (1.003 miles a lap), during the early mornings or evenings, followed by the bike again probably in the evenings. At weekends I intend to cover the bicycle miles around the MTB trails at Garvagh forest or a mixture of track and trail, but each day he must complete 31 miles, 10 miles minimum on foot the rest on the bike. Total Mileage is 961 Miles for the 31 days.
Dave says, “I will be using a tracking app (Strava) that I will screen shot and post on Instagram and to the Wilson Craig social media sites so that my progress can be followed.”
“I will also try and post the times that I will be tackling the next day’s mileage so anyone who would like to follow my progress or support could see.”
“For those of you that know me or of me you will know I am not a spring chicken or built like a racing snake. If you would like to help out these worthy causes then donate what you can to the Go Fund Me page.”
In 2015 Dave climbed Slieve Donard in the Mourne Mountains in full riding gear with a mini Moto strapped to his back, raising funds for the Injured Riders Welfare Fund, being grateful for the support they showed to him and his family after he was seriously injured in an accident at the Ulster Grand Prix in 2013!
Today, Monday March 1st, saw the first of the challenges, starting at 7.30am at the Aghadowey race circuit for the first 10 mile run followed by the bike.
Informaton
Daves 31×31 Day Challenge – Go Fund Me page
Follow the Challenge at Wilson Craig Racing – On Facebook
The Injured Riders Welfare Fund – https://injuredriderswelfarefund.org.uk
Air Ambulance NI – https://airambulanceni.org
In 2020 our fund raising was severely curtailed as the road racing events and race meetings throughout Ireland were cancelled or postponed due to COVID 19. With only the Cookstown 100 being run in September 2020
We will try our best to keep you all up to date with all our activities and fund raising events.