Intro

Welcome to your Dirty Weekend! For 2008, the ACE 2 Day has undergone a transformation. In many respects, it is the same great event that many of you have enjoyed for years. You can still do so, in the 2 day format, with some enhanced features such as a rope-work challenge and some re-vamped night time activity. But to all intensive purposes, the format remains at its core, the 2 day event of the past.

However, there are now options too. If you are a 1 day ACE racer, or indeed a racer from other events and you are keen to make a foray into something a bit bigger and longer, then we are offering the opportunity to come to the ACE Race Dirty Weekend and JUST DO THE SATURDAY of the event. This will give you biking, running, kayaking, navigation and rope-work options. And it will be longer than what you are used to in the ACE 1 day format. It will take place in a rugged place (the Scottish Borders) and will be rubbing shoulders with other events too, allowing you to make the most out of a very special weekend of multi-sport.

For those of you who are seasoned ACE racers and fancy a challenge that is a step beyond the regular 2 day ACE Race, then we also have an offering for you. The ELITE class event will feature action on the 2 day course, plus longer night sections and faster paced racing throughout the weekend. This will be a prize money race and we are putting up significant prize money of £5000 up for this event.

ACE Race Dirty Weekend, Explained

The ACE Race Dirty Weekend is a new take on the traditional 2 day ACE Race but as have said above, if you enjoy the current 2 day ACE Race format just as it is, don’t worry – you can enjoy this format just as it always has been. If you are a 1 day aficionado and you are still thinking the 2 day is a little out of your grasp, then we have a slimmed down version for you WITHIN the Dirty Weekend; you can just do the Saturday; although it’s a long Saturday. If you are a racing whippet and consider yourself elite, or aspire to race at an elite level, then you can do so in our new ELITE class within the DIRTY WEEKEND format. Here’s how those 3 options look, at a glance:

• 2 Day ACE Race: Complete the 2 day event – just as you always have done: It comprises a Saturday full of adventure activities followed by a short night navigation stage, then enjoy the night under canvas on the Saturday night and go forth again on Sunday. Activities include running, biking, kayaking and ropework, all connected by your own navigational talents. This event is open to pairs and teams of 4 in the categories Mixed, Male and Female.

• Saturday ACE Race:  Or, pitch up on the Saturday and have a long day out with us on that days' activities. The lion's share of the action will be in daylight but if you do choose to do the day race, there's the traditional ACE night stage for you too. Except we have spruced this up a bit. Expect some unexpected activities as we take you out on the hills and into the forest at night. With the one day option, you will be back well before midnight and we will have beer and bands to round off your evening. Pairs and teams of 4.

• 2 Day ACE Race Elite: For the ELITE, you’ll do the first day, just like everyone else. You’ll do the night stage and then you will KEEP GOING into the night. So you get more night and more action at night. It’ll be rugged. It’ll be tiring. You’ll get back to the village in the early hours and then you will rest up for the remainder of the wee small hours before tackling the second day, where you will do as much as you can within the allotted timeframe, score format style. There is a specific prize fund for the Elite and this will comprise £5000 cash. More on this below. Other classes will have sponsor product prizes as always. Pairs only can compete for the ELITE class cash prizes, although any gender teams of 4 are welcome if that suits your team dynamic.

For those wanting to enter a team of 4, please complete the online entry form as two pairs and then email info@aceraces.com and explain that you wish to group your two pairs into one team of 4.
 
Score based navigation will be the significant format for all classes, and will enable you to bite off just as much as you want to achieve from the course.

Rope-work

One major change (or upgrade) is that you will ALL experience some exhilarating rope-work within the event. This will be straightforward, but exciting. And this is in direct response to the overwhelming verdict shown by you the racers, in our recent survey. You said you wanted it, so here you go! The ropes will be fun but will not require an overt climbing or abseiling skill level. We insist that you have BEEN on a rope and you are familiar with a climbing harness. And if you are still unsure, our instructors will be able to lend a hand on the Friday night when you arrive with a refresher tutorial for those who want it.

So what’s this Dirty Weekend all about?

OK, so here’s how we have changed the identity. The current 2 day event, transformed into what we outlined above with all its options of 1 day Saturday, 2 day or elite racing, will be the ACE Race Dirty Weekend. This is because it will be a feature event within a wider event entity called the DIRTY WEEKEND. Rubbing shoulders with you on this epic weekend of adventure multi-sport will be riders taking part in the Polaris Challenge, the famous MTB navigation event. You will also meet runners taking part in the Dirty Dozen, an off road 12km run that will  run from the same event site. All combined, these 3 events will comprise the Dirty Weekend, supported in its first year by Scottish Borders Council, Scottish Enterprise and Visit Scotland and based out of the dramatic grounds of Traquair House near Peebles in the Scottish Borders. It's a weekend of AR, Adventure Sport, Multi-Sport, Social and Sport Action.

ELITE class cash prizes

This class is definately meant to grab your attention. Whether you consider yourself a whippet or a very reliable completer, this is the class for those that work well as a team of 2 and it's a great training ground for the longer and harder expedition events out there. With our prestigious event partners we are able to present a cash prize fund unparralled in the UK AR scene. £5000 to be shared amongst the podium places at this event - the inaugural ACE Race Dirty Weekend. It will break down as £1666.66 for each winning pair; Mixed, Male and Female. There will be product prizes offered for other classes and other Elite podium places, and these prizes will be presented by our sponsors, which in 2008 will include oodles of great outdoor gear from Ellis Brigham.

Summer 2008 venue and event info

The Dirty Weekend is being held at Traquair House in the Scottish Borders on 5/ 6th July 2008. It’s a superb location and we have used it previously. The terrain is superb  - described as the best ever by the 2007 Polaris Challengers, the venue features delightful grounds and the oldest inhabited house in Scotland and they even brew their own beer! The idea is very much to create a large community feel about the event village with your adventure radiating out into the surrounding forests, hills and making use of the River Tweed itself, which flows right through the site. As you approach the Dirty Weekend village, imagine food simmering, beer settling, the bands rehearsing and the numerous outdoor gear concessions setting out their wares around the central arena. You’ll be able to get your bikes checked over by our mechanics pre-event, buy last minute gear, hear the commentary from our MC and grab some delicious food from the caterers. There will even be some workshop style refreshers for those that want them, notably on navigation and mountain bike skills. When you return from the race, enjoy the soothing hands of our masseurs, a pint in the beer tent and browse our late opening concession stands too. If you have kids, we aim to lay on crèche facilities and there will be fun and games for them too. All this will be adjacent to our giant camping village, free of charge to all of you participating.

Dirty Weekend Website

We will be producing a brand new Dirty Weekend website that goes live on 01st April. Check it out at www.dirtyweekendadventure.com. This will contain info on the all elements of the Dirty Weekend event; the entry system for ACE Races will however remain on THIS website and detailed information on this event will be contained here within the ACE Races site.

Smile, you’re on TV

The ACE Race Dirty Weekend will be filmed for distribution to Channel 4 TV on Transworld Sport. We’ll upload the footage to the website after the event but in the meantime, get your best one-liners ready for the film crew for that point when you KNOW they will inevitably jump out from behind a tree and catch you digging-in somewhere on the course!

2 Day Race, career points and rankings

Some of you may have noticed we have removed the career points from the website. Well, we have taken the decision to do this on account of the administration involved in keeping them up to date and at a time when we are transforming the Series into stand-alone Dirty Weekends, where they are less applicable. We want to concentrate on giving you the very best weekend event experience in terms of quality of terrain, racing format and support facilities. There were many people that saw the career points as a clear way of proving and showing their very solid and athletic ACE Race prowess over the years, and gave a clear insight into individual performance over team performance, and are a massive credit to those that strived to climb to the top. Of particular note are the individuals that were the highest achievers by the end of 2007. We salute you.

Indeed we are talking about ONE Dirty Weekend here, not a Series of them, not yet. Well, we intend to put all of our energies into the Borders event this 05th/ 06th July and we have achieved some excellent support for the event from public authorities and sponsors. We do aim to continue with this format and we do aim to re-instate a number of events in time, as we partner with various regions, and add to the portfolio of Dirty Weekends. However for 2008 the plan is to firmly invest in a superb action packed event here at Traquair as a stand alone event. We are currently looking at other great venues in England and Wales for Dirty Weekends no.2 onwards, and will let you know as they come together.

Sponsors and Partners

We are privileged to be working with some top brands and public sector partners for this year’s event. Confirmed so far are Ellis Brigham, who will be there on site with their awesome gear shack, selling bargains galore. We also have support from Sea to Summit and Adventure Medical Kits, as well as Buff and Sigg too. Sleepmonsters will be on hand taking pictures and generating race reports, alongside event favourites Wilf’s and other caterers, serving up quality rustic fare to racers and their supporters weekend-long.

We are also pleased to announce that this event is being wholeheartedly supported by Scottish Borders Council, Scottish Enterprise Borders and Visit Scotland. TO find out more about these organizations, visit our partners page.

Enter NOW!

For those looking to compete in the two day format we have keep last year’s price available until April Fool’s day. Great value with the extra ropes disciplines. Please click here to enter and take advantage of the Early Bird pricing. There is also a free pair of Bridgedale socks for the first 20 sign ups! Here’s a re-cap on the pricing:

Keep watching for more info, as we crank the ACE Race Dirty Weekend up into gear this July 5th/ 6th in the Scottish Borders. We will be adding more racer info and more supporting info on services surrounding the event within the event village, plus news from our sponsors, who we are adding all the time…welcome to you Dirty Weekend!