The 2015 South Australian state series wrapped up over the weekend with the state championships at Willunga. Initially slated to be held at Fox on a new track it looks like we will have to wait until season 2016 for that!
Plenty of serious set ups were spotted around the pits.Some more thought provoking than others…It was the action on the track we were really interested in!
Initially conditions looked good, as usual though the wind was the real issue. In fact over the weekend it was probably a major player in many of the crashes of which, unfortunately, there were a few! Healing vibes to everyone that had a dirt nap.
Never what you want to see at a downhill race (or anywhere for that matter)!
Back to racing and whilst there were delays due to the need to ensure injured riders were cared for, everybody was understanding – if you were in the same situation you would appreciate it! The track had a few minor alterations, most noticeably the ‘whoops’ jumps section (after a few crashes it was obvious they were definitely causing a few ‘whoops’ moments).
The whoops caught out plenty of riders, including Shelly Flood, who flew past us only to go down in a heap as she got to the whoops section.The corners just prior to that section were fun for riders….. and photographers alike!There were plenty of riders roosting the corner, Matt Taylor providing one of the best examples!
As always the results from the weekend can be found on the Inside Line website, we have a huge pool of images to show you thanks to RFPhotographics and Kaneophoto (their details are at the end of the article) so enjoy!
Kit on point!There were a range of bikes being ridden, from enduro bikes to full blown downhill rigs.Riding was hot across all the categories.It was great to see all the women tackling the track!Connor Fearon was giving out free lessons to anyone that watched him ride through the whoops.Jackson Davis is in Adelaide at the moment and came out to race, party shirt and all!Henry Blake hasn’t been doing as much riding lately as he would like but a 5th in elite shows he still has it!In some sections it was faster to tuck and cruise than pedal into the wind.Wide open.Practice was all about riding with your mates and having a good time.Line choice was something that had many riders redoing sections to find seconds.There wasn’t much shade on the hill it must be said!
Railing!There was a crowd on hand to watch riders as they took on the course and they were rewarded with some great riding.
Dropping into the finish arena!Wooosshhh!
Low and fast!
The views from the course were fabulous darling!A massive thanks to these two! Kaneophoto and RFPhotographics for their wizardry behind the glass!The rocks caused more than a few punctures!Ouch! Jackson Davis sent the final step down (on his little bike) and didn’t quite hold it, he was okay though!Connor Fearon was always going to be the rider to beat and comfortably took the 2015 state championship!
That wraps up the 2015 season and what a great one it was! Thanks to the club and everyone that helped out, roll on 2016.
Images: RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics) and Kaneophoto www.kaneophoto.com.auA�or on Instagram @kaneophoto and stock Downhill247.com images.
Get more content onA�FacebookA�orA�follow us on Instagram: @downhill247
Old faithful Willunga… It seems like we are reporting on a downhill race here every second month or so! We aren’t but fortunately everyone seems to like it. We headed about an hour south of Adelaide for round 3 of the South Australian state series and were met with a fun course and reasonably good weather.
Ah those views! Not that the riders got to take them in as they were riding, at least the local residents could!There is always a good turn out for the local races and riders seem to enjoy themselves whatever they are riding!
The track this round had a few slight changes, mainly in the way that it was bunted. Feedback from riders was that initially the bunting changes weren’t favoured but after a few runs and riders had things dialled then it was actually quite fun!
You can actually see the majority of the track from near the bottom as it winds up the hill.Sorry Steve but the puppy appears to be more popular!The pits were loaded with boys and there toys! (there were some females racing too which was great to see!)
In regards to racing, there were a few crashes but the main challenge for riders seemed to be punctures! This definitely resonated true through the elite men’s class with Matt Taylor, Simon Buzacott, Cam Ryan and Ngari Jenkins all getting final run flats!A�That’s part of racing though… The Elite Men’s winner, Curtis Dowdell, kept his good form up and it looks like he will A�be making a serious charge for the overall title. All the results from the weekend can be found here;A�http://www.insideline.com.au/index.php/results/2015-race-results/race-3-willunga-2015
Crashes and flats were the order of the weekend!Things were serious in the pits…. at least by the looks of this photo they were!Out on track tucking was the name of the game for the lower half of the course.The middle section of the course was where the drifting was to be had…… And the top part of the course was the rocky sections!It really was quite wild watching riders through the middle sections.Ian ‘Buffalo’ Jones snagged second the weekend after recently stepping up to the 650B world.Sion Buzacott throws some horns.607 on the plate, 7 on the gate…It almost rained, a few sprinkles came down after finals fortunately that was the extent of the rain!Conor Clancy comes into the final arena at warp speed!The camber and wide open turns near the top had people going sideways!Elite men’s winner Curtis Dowdell charging the rocks.Those views!The Adelaide Independent Racing guys run a type ship and lift the profile of the sport here in South Australia.Andy Murnane has been racing for what seems forever, he still has speed though!Considering there has been a bit of rain recently the track was quite dusty in sections!Just you and your bike…Lurking in the trees.Skills!Keeping it low for the dough…Race weekends seem to blur past sometimes.A few changes in the track kept riders on their toes.The Elite Men’s podium.These races are always good for riding with your mates.
After the racing most people went home for round 2, the World Cup in Austria. Our coverage from that race will be up soon! Meanwhile we will have some more photos from Willunga to show you so check back soon.
Images: Downhill247 and RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
Get more content onA�FacebookA�orA�follow us on Instagram: @downhill247
Here we go with part 2 of our coverage from the Inside Line South Australian State Championships. It was a big weekend as it was the weekend where the club celebrated its 20th anniversary. Racing back then involved riders hurtling down the fire road and using stopwatches as timing, for part of the 20 year celebrations riders were invited to bring out their old bike and blast down the fire road again! This all took place after the formal racing was done for the day.
Old school riders and rigs!What a beast! Scored off Gumtree with owners manuals and all, talk about find of the century!Ben Anderson put the bike to good use and took home the ‘win’.There were some classic rides getting around the pits.It was good to see them getting used though!
There are a few more pictures from the weekend’s racing action we thought we would share with you, these feature more modern rides!
Just hanging…Troy Brosnan having a dab.
Sucking in the air!The views from the top of the track certainly were impressive!The last big corner lined riders up for the finishing jump.Various riders were showing various amounts of style over this final jump. Cam Ryan showing plenty!
Downhill is an individual sport and racers are always looking to get into the right head zone before they fire out of the start gate.
That wraps up another successful 2014 South Australian season bring on 2015!
Images in this article from RFPhotographics like them on FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics and from stock images (Henry Blake).
Willunga is a beautiful part of the state and it wasn’t even too windy!
The South Australian State Championships were held over the weekend at Willunga, a location about an hour south of the Adelaide CBD. State Champs is always a big race but this time it also coincided with the 20 year celebrations of Inside Line as a club! That is A�a huge achievement, considering how young the sport is for Inside Line to reach 20 years would make it one of the oldest clubs in Australia let alone the world! We will touch on this and the celebrations a bit more in part 2 but for now we will focus on the racing!
There was a new track on offer at Willunga. It was essentially an entirely new track to the west of the older tracks. Yes, it was dusty thanks for asking!There was a lot of interested people come Saturday morning who were keen to see what Ben Anderson had built for the week.The top part of the track was what had people talking, riders pedalled into a few wide open corners before they reached this rocky chute! If they succesfully managed to negotiate they would be greeted by a tight left hand turn before the track got steep again. After this steep section there was a series of rock drops before the course opened up into some wide open (and grassy corners) before a few jumps lead riders to the finish!
Almost….But not quite! The overall consensus was that the new track was a welcome change and whislt it had it’s challenging sections it was good fun. So that’s a big tick to the course builders!Conditions over the weekend were good! There was a little bit of wind on Sunday afternoon but it didn’t deter the crowds.There were a lot of brakes that got a good work out over the weekend!In fact we think there was a good mix of technical sections and high speed on the track.World Cup (and Championships) speed! Troy Brosnan was on hand to defend his title and was the obvious favourite!Troy was sporting some pretty cool modifications, the joys of being one of the best in the world!Suns out guns out! Connor Fearon was on hand but he was relegated to spectating injuries as he is still recovering from his crash in Norway.However after a solid season there were a few local riders looking to push Troy all the way, in fact riding across all classes was good with some of the younger riders going faster than we thought!
Heading into seeding and it was two old hands topping the men’s time sheets, James Chambers in Under 19s and Troy Brosnan in Elite. For the Women it was Cami Miller taking the number 1 spot, the track was wearing in quickly though so finals was going to be interesting. The remaining classes all had their race runs and it was good to see a variety of old faces come back to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the club. Some of the stories told were quite amusing,including how timing was done by stopwatch with riders setting off at predetermined intervals down the track!
Ian ‘Buffalo’ Jones had a good weekend overall despite a small mishap in seeding.We will focus on some of the other racing classes and action in part 2 of the report so check back for that!Under 19s were flying, it was Drew Gartery who took the win just ahead of James Chambers! Darcy Grooby crashed and finished the order, this race had it all!And the emotion of winning was there! With a very happy support crew on hand to witness it.In Elite Phillipa Rostan took the win over Cami Miller followed by Moira Love and Laura Kelly. Moving into Elite Men and it was Connor Clancy in 5th, Angus Maddern 4th, in third was Cam Ryan who always has fun, it paid off for him here! Second was Ngari Jenkins who always does well on this track!Rather unsurprisingly it was a flying Troy Brosnan who took the win by some 2 seconds.Podium celebrations were in full force!Overall a very fitting weekend of racing for the clubs 20th anniversary!Thanks to sponsors there was a range of give aways all series which meant there were lots of happy campers.All the winners!That’s a wrap for the season, we still have another report to come.
That wraps up part 1 of this event coverage, tune back for part 2 where we will include a variety of pictures from other classes and some of the other events that happened on the weekend!
Images in this article from RFPhotographics like them on FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics and from stock images (Henry Blake).
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!
Check out the compression! The g-out was highly entertaining….
At the recent South Australian State Champs the final chute into the finish line saw riders entering with quite a lot of speed, needless to say there was a lot of suspension compression going on! Check it out, enjoy;
