We always love going out to Inside Line races in South Australia, they always put on a good show so we were keen for round 1 at the infamous Willunga. This race was using the ‘Kite’ track which got its name after after a club member came into a spot of bother when attempting to fly his kite A�few years ago…
Willunga is always wide open with the wind playing a big part of puzzle when it comes to getting down with a fast time!
The weekend played out well with beautiful weather conditions and even the iconic kite flying wind wasn’t at its full strength. The track itself was much the same as raced previously with a few changes here and there, the bunting made the biggest difference.
With a few storm clouds around it threatened to rain but never really did.
There was a good turn out of racers with plenty of new faces, unfortunately there were also a few gnarly crashes, get well soon everyone! We also noticed that a lot of riders were out on trail type bikes, a growing trend no doubt.
Cam Ryan pulled a 4th place on his ‘small bike’ in Elite, clearly it didn’t hinder him that much!Sussing lines and chatting with your mates, an important part of the race experience!The crowd was also enthusiastic with a range of noise making devices…The plate everyone wants…There seemed to be a lot of thorns causing everyone issues!
Racing as always was good, full results can be found on the Inside Line club website. We will just leave you with a few more images from the race.
There was a good crowd lining the track near the bottom drop.There was an odd two or tree to be found out on the track.The bunting was wide open and allowed riders plenty of flexibility for line choice.Braaappp!James Chambers took the under 19 victory.Will Rischbieth took the Elite victory, the spectators had to see more!
Dust! Finally a dry Fox race after battling mother nature over the past few months. Interesting feet positioning… Due to the lack of water the track started to get blown out in places giving riders another challenge.
After a few weeks since the last SA State race we were back at Fox for the next one! With gorgeous weather and fun track there were no complaints though. Fox Long was the location, as this track is open to the public basically all year round plenty of riders were up to speed early, the short turn around on shuttles were helping as well. No big news from the day of practice, a few injuries, get better soon all who succumbed but overall it was Sunday everyone was keen for.
A bit of last minute maintenance? Or was it the two days of riding leading up to your race run? Whatever the case we saw a few riders tweaking in the pits Sunday morning.Running off the track was bad enough with the blueberry’s (spare a thought for marshals and photographers who had to traverse it!) but with this prickly little fella an off the track excursion could have been really interesting!Like magpies to shiny objects, photographers get drawn to riders with colour!
There was good racing across all the classes, with a solid turn out of riders. The big draw card categories for most people are the Under 19 and Elite Men but it was great to see more girls out and racing too. Matt Taylor and Angus Maddern threw down in seeding to keep their form of late going and took the top times for seeding in Under 19’s and Elite respectively.
Of course it is not only just Elite and Under 19 riders that come out for race day!
With Inside Line running everything so smoothly and rider numbers not quite as big as they previously have been racing was done by 2.30pm. It was a very familiar looking podium too!
James Chambers just floating along, two wheels off the ground!Taking selfies to the next level?! Not quite the Adelaide Independent Racing guys always put out some good footage of their weekend.There was definitely a few lines on some part of the tracks, inside, outside, high, low it was all there!Mmm sunlight warm weather is close by, good conditions taken advantage of here by Matt Kelly.
To the racing and Matt Taylor held onto his number one spot from seeding in Under 19’sA�with a 2.13.83, ahead of Connor Clancy and James Chambers. In Elite Women Moira Love took the win from Simone Cameron but both riders were riding well as they went past us. To Elite Men and rider after rider just kept coming through going faster and faster! The top 5 looked like this; Cam Ryan in 5th after battling sickness leading into the race, 4th to the always consistent Ngari Jenkins, 3rd to Steve Gebert another rider who is very professional in what he does, 2nd place went to Will Rischbieth who is “taking the year off riding” and the number one position was Angus Maddern who cracked on with a 2.08.66. There was talk of riders ducking down to the 2.05 which didn’t quite happen but in the end it didn’t matter as the racing was good anyway.
Cal Morrison back form Whistler and into 7th place.Steve Gebert flew past us near one of the high speed sections before dropping in to continue his run.The Elite Men’s winner Angus Maddern taking care of business.
That is a wrap for the SA State Series for 2013, the next race on the calendar is the State Champs at a different Willunga track, we are keen to see the changes!
Good old Fox Creek, you never know what you are in for!
Hang on we hear you say, race 4? You just put up race 5 the other day…! Well after some rather inclement weather RoundA� 4 was postponed until after round 5, make sense?! When we heard that Matt Bird Photography would be heading out to the race we threw down a challenge for them, shoot the race on film! So all the warm images you see are from the ‘by-gone’ era of film!
Ah the warm glow of film! Will Badger bursts out of this corner.
Conditions weren’t dry and dusty but they were a big improvement from the weekend the race was cancelled. Pretty standard track at Fox – Pattos Curse for this round, it has some real off camber sections, some really good turns and a big jump into the finish area.
Keeping warm was the name of the game!The big jump into the finish area, Tom Matto puts on a show.
The future of the sport, the Under 19 racers, fought it out with the victory going to Matt Taylor, his time of 1.55.23 was also the second fastest time of the day, quite an impressive effort! Racing was super tight in the Elite category with the top 5 separated by less than 1.5 seconds! In the end it was Angus Maddern, who has recently returned from Canada including racing the Mont Sainte Anne World Cup, who took the victory.
Matt Taylor took the Under 19’s victory and the second fastest time of the day, super impressive!
The next raceA�in the series we head back to Fox! This time Long, it is bound to be another good weekend of racing.
The views from the top of the course were sublime…!
Let’s wrap up our coverage of the SA State Series race at Willunga with a few more photos from the event. The new top section of the track really changed the feel of the rest of the track, even though it was basically identical to how it has been for many years.
The Trak Cycles downhill247.com team had a mixed weekend results wise!Off camber grass, a classic test of skill!Brraaappp!Elite winner Troy Brosnan charging towards the finish!Getting this jump right was critical as there was a right hander literally in the landing.Get your lean on, elbows out!
The next round is at Eagle Mountain Bike Park on the 15th and 16th of June, see you there!
Round 2 of SA State Series was held on what can only be described as perfect conditions, even more so because we were racing at Willunga. A track notorious for being exposed to the elements!
On the weekend of the 18th and 19th of May, Willunga Hill held the second round of the SRAM South Australian Downhill State Series. Arguably one of the favourite tracks and locations for the series line-up, Willunga Kite Track saw all riders, both young and old coming out for a ride; many of which decided to pick up a bike after a long time, simply to ride the tracks they grew up racing!
Willunga has been on the race calendar for years, even holding a national race many moons ago! Everyone was really enjoying themselves out on the hill.
Weather conditions on practice and race day were absolutely perfect. Beautiful weather was a blessing for riders and spectators, despite that many riders were forecasting a nice, wet track for racing. Someone must have done something right in the lead up to the weekend, because track and weather conditions could not have been better. Sunny, bright, warm, dry and rocky were a few words commonly used to describe the track over the weekend. a�?Windya�� Willunga was anything but.
Have we mentioned the weather was really good?! If you have ever had to stand in Willunga when the wind is whipping off the ocean and the rain is coming in horizontal you will understand why we are banging on about how good it was!
The actual track is positioned on a paddock, and the owner of the land, Paul Giles, was kind enough to allow everyone to race on a wicked track once more. Thanks Paul, you are a star. The paddock features reasonably large hills, with steep gradients either side. The grassed terrain had many riders re-considering riding positions and styles, because for many younger riders, this was their first experience riding something other than dirt. However, as riding went on, the grass quickly disappeared and dirt appeared, becoming dustier and looser with each rider.
Off camber grass, classic Willunga and it had everyone trying to get a grip with the track, literally!
As for the a�?Kitea�� track itself, it consists of a short off-camber section which made riding difficult for many, followed by a steep, bumpy section into a left-hand corner. After a short off-camber pedal, the riders were faced with several corners and jumps to make things interesting. It was important to keep speed through these sections as a flat, rock-garden rapidly approached and required significant line choice, or the consequences of a flat-tyre were realised by many. The rocks continued down the track, and riders were again faced with a challenging rocky left-hander. Lacking any form of berm or corner assist, riders had to make a quick, hard turn to the left to stay on track, as many ruts were forming down the bottom. Once this section was completed, a few more drops were in order, as well as several more corners.
Some jumps on the course caught a few riders by surprise, here Ian Jones and Cam Ryan tackle them as a team!
Willunga hadna��t finished yet though, as riders had to push themselves to their limit in the slalom section. Wide, open and fast encapsulated the remainder of the track, and the difference between winning and losing lay in the techniques used. Riders had to endure a long section of flat ground, putting in constant pedals to maintain speed and beat each other. Nearing the end of the track, a medium-sized step-down is featured, of which claimed many riders, followed by a small open straight to left-hand corner and a relatively large step-down, and finally, a sprint to the finish line.
Everyone we spoke to seemed to really be enjoying the course!The final part of the course featured a few step downs, nothing huge but after a full race run they took their toll.
Usual suspects were looking quick all weekend, and it was interesting to see how the track would separate riders. All riders were seen to be picking and choosing lines, and quite diverse line choices were seen. Time could be lost or gained in these sections, and these debates filled the pits. As extra lines began to present themselves, and full-runs were being ridden by riders, practice came to a close, and race day started.
Rocks, rocks, rocks meant lines, lines, lines!What appeared to be a simple course presented some what more of a challenge, as usual!
Conditions on race day were identical to the previous, which made riding much easier for many. In previous series, riders had been subject to the rapidly changing South Australian weather, and would have to change and adapt their runs to the conditions. Everyone appeared to be super stoked for the racing and numerous riders were punching out runs before racing started. After all the formalities were completed, the transport trailers were loaded, and so were the 4WDa��s, full of excited (and many nervous) riders.
Typical Australian downhilling, in to the back of a Troopie!
In the Female field, the one and only rider, Laura Kelly, obviously won a�� Yew! In the Elite Womena��s category, Phillipa Rostan (1), blitzed the field with a time of 2:50, closely followed by Molly Payne (2) with a 3:05 and Moira Love (3). In the mena��s categories, the U19a��s field was anyonea��s guess who would take the top step. It was difficult, as usual, to set these few apart in practice and no name was definite for the win. Names such as Matthew Taylor, James Chambers, Curtis Dowdell, Conor Clancy and Bryce Wing littered the field, all of which could be seen putting in 110% to raise their chances of achieving first place. In 1st place was Conor Clancy (1) with an amazing 2:27.29, just off second was James Chambers (2) with a 2:29.33 and Matthew Taylor (3) with 2:29.39.
Qualifying was the first indication of who was really on it this weekend.
Last but not least was the Elite mena��s field. Consisting of past, present and future World Cup racers, National racers and weekend warriors, seeing this field race was truly amazing. So much raw talent has been grown in this state, and ita��s great to see favourites such as Troy Brosnan, Angus Maddern, Craig Yates, Steve Gebert, Ngari Jenkins and Will Rischbieth throwing style for the crowd and putting the pedals down for the win. In fifth place was Cycleworxa��s Ngari Jenkins (5) with a time of 2:22.77, in fourth place was Specializeda��s Angus Maddern (4) with 2:22.47, in third place was AIR DHa��s Steve Gebert (3) with a 2:22.460, in second was Gianta��s Will Rischbieth (2) with 2:22.06 and in first place, with a time that blazed the category by more than 5 seconds was Monster Energy/Specializeda��s Troy Brosnan, with a time of 2:15.74!
Racing was a blur! With so many people to watch out for and times getting faster and faster!Yes this was at a downhill race, no we have no idea what was going on!The number one plate of Steve Marsh is what everyone was chasing!Nice, very nice!Cam Ryan straight out the gate!World Cup speed getting it done, you can’t argue with that!Smiles all around for the winner of round 2!
The race held at Willunga, was safe to say, one of the most enjoyable that has been held in a while. Everybody was super excited about the weekend, spectators and rider numbers were massive and racing was amazing to watch. A huge thank you to all the organisers, without them there is no opportunity for the riders to race and everyone are very appreciative. The spectators/hecklers were all very lively; a few of them having a bit too much fun, but the races wouldna��t be the way they are without these people! The rest of the South Australian series is something to look out for!
Stay tuned as we will have a part 2 from the weekend with more photos!
Kellen Ewens has put together this nice little edit from the first SA state round at Fox CreekA�(you can read our raceA�report and check out the picsA�here) for everyone to enjoy.
