On the 14th June 2009 Coffs Downhill hosted another cracker event on a chilly winter morning. The clouds stayed away most of the day and the Mt Coramba State race track had that winter morning glow about it………simply put: It looked fast!
Shuttles went to plan (as awesome as ever) and the fourteen riders who enetered got as many runs in as they could before the first of two timed runs was to start around midday. Our all conquering defending race winner T-Roy had to watch from the sidelines due to the lack of wheels and no cohesion between his back muscles and the rest of his body (Cheer up bud, it’ll come good). Several whispers were heard across the hill about a new winner on the day to challenge T-Roy’s dominance………….only time would tell.
The junior guys stepped it up again and posted some great times. It is fantastic to watch these young guys muscling their bikes down this mammoth hill and talking amongst themselves about what lines to take, what to jump, where to brake etc. They are our future stars and we love having them on board. Keep it up guys! The results for the juniors are:
Michael Crilley 4.53.40
Joel Anderson 5.15.21
Jake Bromley 5.25.21
Nick Crawford 6.07.02
Liam Ellis 6.19.53
The open class had some regulars and some dark horses. Cam, Frank and I had agreed that the track was prime and the race times would be fast. I knew that in practice I was riding fast enough to be in control and have a fair bit more in the tank for race runs. Cam said the same and the challenge was issued.
Frank hadn’t hit the hill for sometime and erased the memories of his last visit by putting in good clean runs all day.
Our out of town locals (Matt and Mitch) are getting the track dialed and figuring out the quick way to get down safely.
Young James is enjoying his time in the open category by also posting consistent and quick times on his new dually.
The Hayden VS Jordan battle raged on and this time it was Hayden who rolled in front of his foe in a tight race.
Our timing system isn’t as accurate as some of the multi million dollar Casio machines but it does work just fine for what we do. I had a major discrepancy with the way I conducted the start of my timed runs. Al and I have a stop watch each and we start the watches at the exact same time. The first rider then leaves at one minute and each rider goes one minute after the other. I wear a wrist watch so I can look at it to start my timed run. I start the counter on my watch at the exact same time that the last rider leaves the gate. I then leave three minutes after the last rider (I go three minutes later as it is the juniors and I don’t want to catch them and ruin their run). So I count the last rider in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and start my wrist watch at the exact time I say go. That means I leave three minutes (……180 seconds) after the last rider. I got my helmet, got my gloves, pushed my bike to the start area and waited for my three minute counter to end. Here is the problem: Our stop watches count minutes and seconds (60 seconds to a minute), my wrist watch (super high quality $16 job from Target) counts seconds in the hundreds instead of sixty seconds. For example, that means when the time is up to one minute and twenty seconds on our stop watches my wrist watch shows 89 seconds. I stuffed up by not applying my A grade maths skills and I have left the start line at 160 seconds on my wrist watch thinking that when I hit the sixty second mark after the hundred it means it is three minutes. I have bolted my thinker back on and realized I should’ve gone at 180 seconds……………. My apologies people, I was bamboozled as soon as Al said my time and I have racked my brains ever since trying to figure out how I could have gone under four minutes on the longer version of this track. Rest assured it is only my time that was incorrect on the day as I had my brain failure with my wrist watch only. My times that I was told on Sunday are actually plus twenty seconds.
With that brain meltdown out of the way, here are the open results:
Dozer 4.07.06
Cam Moon 4.13.30
Dave Gibbs 4.13.77
Hayden Elks 4.23.24
Jordan Collou 4.25.18
Frank Hall 4.32.99
Mitch Riddel 4.39.68
Matt Reid 4.42.68
James Price 4.58.99
Cam Moon (the silent assassin) is on it and you lot should be scared. Follow him and watch his superb control and awesome cornering skills, it will impress you. You would have all seen his drifts at the finish area but you should make an effort of watching the rest of his run!
Thanks to Al and Caroline from Ventoux Cycles for providing the usual stuff that makes our day easier. Thanks to T-Roy and the Bromley’s for their huge efforts, thanks to our drivers and spectators and thanks to the riders for enjoying their day. I have some exciting things in mind for future events so stay tuned!
I’ll ask you guys to read the thread I started about some of our rules when racing. It is common sense stuff and we need everyone to adhere to it.
Thanks again, see you at the next event for Coffs Downhill!
Shuttles went to plan (as awesome as ever) and the fourteen riders who enetered got as many runs in as they could before the first of two timed runs was to start around midday. Our all conquering defending race winner T-Roy had to watch from the sidelines due to the lack of wheels and no cohesion between his back muscles and the rest of his body (Cheer up bud, it’ll come good). Several whispers were heard across the hill about a new winner on the day to challenge T-Roy’s dominance………….only time would tell.
The junior guys stepped it up again and posted some great times. It is fantastic to watch these young guys muscling their bikes down this mammoth hill and talking amongst themselves about what lines to take, what to jump, where to brake etc. They are our future stars and we love having them on board. Keep it up guys! The results for the juniors are:
Michael Crilley 4.53.40
Joel Anderson 5.15.21
Jake Bromley 5.25.21
Nick Crawford 6.07.02
Liam Ellis 6.19.53
The open class had some regulars and some dark horses. Cam, Frank and I had agreed that the track was prime and the race times would be fast. I knew that in practice I was riding fast enough to be in control and have a fair bit more in the tank for race runs. Cam said the same and the challenge was issued.
Frank hadn’t hit the hill for sometime and erased the memories of his last visit by putting in good clean runs all day.
Our out of town locals (Matt and Mitch) are getting the track dialed and figuring out the quick way to get down safely.
Young James is enjoying his time in the open category by also posting consistent and quick times on his new dually.
The Hayden VS Jordan battle raged on and this time it was Hayden who rolled in front of his foe in a tight race.
Our timing system isn’t as accurate as some of the multi million dollar Casio machines but it does work just fine for what we do. I had a major discrepancy with the way I conducted the start of my timed runs. Al and I have a stop watch each and we start the watches at the exact same time. The first rider then leaves at one minute and each rider goes one minute after the other. I wear a wrist watch so I can look at it to start my timed run. I start the counter on my watch at the exact same time that the last rider leaves the gate. I then leave three minutes after the last rider (I go three minutes later as it is the juniors and I don’t want to catch them and ruin their run). So I count the last rider in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and start my wrist watch at the exact time I say go. That means I leave three minutes (……180 seconds) after the last rider. I got my helmet, got my gloves, pushed my bike to the start area and waited for my three minute counter to end. Here is the problem: Our stop watches count minutes and seconds (60 seconds to a minute), my wrist watch (super high quality $16 job from Target) counts seconds in the hundreds instead of sixty seconds. For example, that means when the time is up to one minute and twenty seconds on our stop watches my wrist watch shows 89 seconds. I stuffed up by not applying my A grade maths skills and I have left the start line at 160 seconds on my wrist watch thinking that when I hit the sixty second mark after the hundred it means it is three minutes. I have bolted my thinker back on and realized I should’ve gone at 180 seconds……………. My apologies people, I was bamboozled as soon as Al said my time and I have racked my brains ever since trying to figure out how I could have gone under four minutes on the longer version of this track. Rest assured it is only my time that was incorrect on the day as I had my brain failure with my wrist watch only. My times that I was told on Sunday are actually plus twenty seconds.
With that brain meltdown out of the way, here are the open results:
Dozer 4.07.06
Cam Moon 4.13.30
Dave Gibbs 4.13.77
Hayden Elks 4.23.24
Jordan Collou 4.25.18
Frank Hall 4.32.99
Mitch Riddel 4.39.68
Matt Reid 4.42.68
James Price 4.58.99
Cam Moon (the silent assassin) is on it and you lot should be scared. Follow him and watch his superb control and awesome cornering skills, it will impress you. You would have all seen his drifts at the finish area but you should make an effort of watching the rest of his run!
Thanks to Al and Caroline from Ventoux Cycles for providing the usual stuff that makes our day easier. Thanks to T-Roy and the Bromley’s for their huge efforts, thanks to our drivers and spectators and thanks to the riders for enjoying their day. I have some exciting things in mind for future events so stay tuned!
I’ll ask you guys to read the thread I started about some of our rules when racing. It is common sense stuff and we need everyone to adhere to it.
Thanks again, see you at the next event for Coffs Downhill!
