Two for two, Nelson Club DH Champs round 1

After a bit of a hiatus the downhill scene returned to Nelson today with the first round of the Club DH Championships series being held on the Maitai Face track under clear blue skies.

It was obvious on Saturday everyone had been keen for the races to return with a lot of people out shuttling the track to get some early practice in and we were no different with a full load of people on my truck getting about 7 runs in by the end of the day. With some heavy rain on Thursday the track was still pretty damp and with the top section being pretty fresh it didn't take long for some massive (awesome) ruts to appear! (which sadly got cut out on Sunday morning before practice)

Race day morning started out very frosty on what I would say has been Nelson's coldest morning all year but once the sun finally made its way over the hill it was an awesome day and after a couple of good quick practice runs in the morning I was feeling pretty happy with my lines and confident for a good result.

After a slight delay due to the organiser's radios going flat the race finally got underway and with the track dropping straight off the road and into the action it made for some good viewing while we waited for our runs. Some of the juniors were a bit worrying after watching the likes of Reuben Olorenshaw, Reece Potter and Tim Adams tearing apart the first few turns I knew there would be no time for messing around on the short track!

My good friend James Rennie made the trip up from Christchurch to represent for the Red Dog Racing/22 motor sports crew and after i gave him a bit too much cheering going into the first turn nearly lost it mere seconds into his run but managed to hold it together just!

After waiting for nearly the whole field I was 2nd to last down the hill and after a near off track excursion in the same place as James I managed to put together a solid run and take the win on the short track with a time of 1.35 min with a comfortable couple of seconds over 2nd place.

Iv'e got a five week break now until the next round of the Nelson Club Champs at the end of July but in the mean time Katie and I are off to Samoa for our honeymoon so it will be a good excuse to relax and have a break from training for a couple of weeks!