Come Sunday, race day, the trail was feeling the brunt of the biggest National DH event of 2014. Overall the track was in excellent racing condition, but there were a few loose sections to remember…
Day 4 of the Bright National Championships and the business end of proceedings! A short practice session before racing for both the A and B categories let riders ensure they had their lines sorted but more importantly to see how much the track had deteriorated before they tried to race on it! When seasoned world cup riders are exclaiming how much they enjoy the track and that it should be a stop on the world cup calendar you know it is the real deal. A large portion of the track has a ‘natural’ feel to it with very few man made obstacles to ruin this experience, as we found out in racing though the track did get rougher and more blown out over the course of the four days….
A picture says a thousand words so we have gone all out to show you a range of shots from the weekend below.
Tracey Hannah rode fast all weekend, seeding very well on Saturday afternoon. Both Tracey and Sik Mik turned heads all weekend in their matching kit, silent bikes and sheer speed. From weekend warrior to World Cup racer, riders were having so much fun.After picking up the pace, and with a trail that would only get rougher, Connor Fearon switched to clip pedals on Saturday morning, dropping 3 clipped practice runs in over the weekend.Outside of the forest the view was picturesque. A beautiful summer alpine scene with dozens of paragliders!In the forest the chutes were steep, and the trees were tight; closing in on riders as the weekend wore on. That only meant one thing, go faster!U17’s standout Remy Morton has been dominating in 2014, showing very impressive speed and skill, under a cool and calm face off the bike. Finishing off the season with a convincing 18 second gap win is very promising for Remy’s future. Here he gets above the rough stuff and into the next corner, with seemingly minimal effort.
There’s always good racing in the B category, despite not being the premier classes. We do have to make mention of Remy Morton and his emphatic win in under 17’s with a time 18 seconds ahead of his closest competitor and good enough for 6th place in Under 19. We are going to bring you further insight into one of our sports brightest potentials soon!
Moving on to the A racing and it was the junior females who started off proceedings, it was always going to be hard to see Tegan Molloy not win. In the end she did, we can’t wait to see what she can produce overseas this year.
An emphatic and well deserved win for Tegan Molloy.
Next came the junior men, with the chance to represent your country at the world champs on the line riders were going hammer and tong. Some crashed (some multiple times), some had mechanicals and some put together the run of their lives. With Ben Hill absent there was definitely another place freed up near the pointy end of the field, in the end a quality field rounded out the podium.
Ben Dengate took 5th on his Bilt.Jackson ‘The Mexican’ Davis had to contend with a low seeding position to claim 4th.Max Warshawsky has been riding well all year and 3rd pace confirmed this.Aiden Varley put his local knowledge to good use claiming second place. He will be back here in a few weeks to try and get his hands on the VicDH race win.With a 20+ minute shuttle process, there was plenty of time to recall runs and sections, and get mentally closer or further away from riding your best. Andrew Crimmins waits patiently to blast out another run… Little did he know the next time up he would arrive to the village U19 Australian National Champion.No denying Andrew Crimmins the win, a solid gap sees him avenge his overall series loss.
Next up we moved to Elite, a solid field were there to ensure that Tracey Hannah had to earn her victory, some good riding by a few lesser fancied riders kept everyone on their toes.
5th place for Michelle Crisp.First year elite rider Danielle Beecroft claimed a solid 4th.Shelly Flood can handle a crash or two but she kept it upright in the finals and claimed 3rd.Emma McNaughton used her years of experience to take 2nd place.As predicted by the seeding times, T Hannah took the Elite Women’s National Jersey, putting the power down in the last straight to lock it in by over 30 seconds.Realistically it was Tracey’s to lose but anything can happen in racing, Tracey showed us why she is such a class act.
With the females done and dusted for the day it left only the elite men at the top of the hill. Would the Hannah family be taking home all the gold? We didn’t have long to find out!
The view from the top was grand, the para-gliders in the area clearly loving it.Holding it?Not quite….! The last corner was the story of many riders day!The bus ride up was a mission in itself with the steep sides meaning you had to trust the drivers!
Any how Elite, it was going to be a shootout and the stakes were high! First rider down the hill was Troy Brosnan, after not seeding he was at the start of the list. He went straight into the hot seat, little did he know how long he would be spending in it!
Blake Nielsen scored an injury mid run and had to DNF, he will be back stronger then ever soon!Some riders were dancing, if you can call it that?! Down the hill with varied degrees of success…Photographers talk about golden light, Bright was a clinical study in it. Here Jason Stevens captures Sam Brownlie lapping it up – awesome!David McMillan on the hunt… Looking for those seconds.Timmy Eaton is bouncing back form an injury riddled 2013 year.Unfortunately Luke Ellison had a few injuries over the course of the weekend but was looking good. Next time Booga!6th place for Mayhem Dave, he has been riding well all season and really deserved a top 5!Mic Hannah getting wild! This was the case in his race run loosing a front wheel and going down with the ship, he recovered to claim 5th, super impressive!Todd Madsen surprised a few people with a handy 4th place.A new team and bike, Jack Moir claimed third, he almost had to go chainless after snapping a hanger but one was sourced!Cool, calm and collected! Connor Fearon took care of business in second.As Connor drops into the finish arena, the crowd was amped, on edge as he battled Troy’s time to the line, securing Second place just 2.26s behind Troy’s set time.After a shuttling issue left Troy’s bike unrideable, SRAM were quick to do what was necessary to get him on track again. With a couple of practice runs under his belt, after the final U19’s rider had crossed the line, Troy blasted out of the forest and into the arena, setting an incredible (and unbeatable on the day) time of 3:42:90!Some riders didn’t quite have the runs they were looking for!Eyes on the prize!Smashing corners – yeeewww!we can’t wait to go back to Bright, the whole vibe of the place is just amazing.Good times in the pits, everyone having a laugh before the serious end of proceedings.We saw some interesting things in the pits….But it was what we saw outside the pits that really had us worried haha!That golden light!
So a good weekend of racing, with crashes definitely keeping riders on their toes the track and town of Bright was top notch and we can’t wait to go back.
We aren’t quite done with our coverage with Bright as JB Photomedia and Jason Stevens Photography have provided so many amazing shots it would be an injustice not to show you guys, more to come soon!
Keep up to date with Downhill247.com on Facebook & Instagram:
