Race Report: WP Downhill Series Round 3: Jonkershoek

This past weekend was spent organising and racing at the third race in our local downhill series at our home track, Jonkershoek.

Eager to get to the finish
Photo by Gary Scholtz

Not too long ago, in January, one leg of the National Series was held there, so we were quite familiar with the track. This race was incredibly muddy and wet and my race run there was spectacularly disastrous and introduced me to the concept of ball-rides (thank goodness, I'm a woman!). Because of these memories, I have managed to avoid this track for a few months even though we ride in Jonkershoek about three times a week.

As it was my first time on a DH bike, I tried wearing a neck brace, but soon removed it as it felt a bit uncomfortable
Photo by Ewald Sadie

For the most recent race, the track was tweaked a bit, and a new top section was added to make it more exciting on race day. Bennet Nel, from Ace of Spades, did an amazing job on fixing up the track and adding some new interesting features. Unfortunately the nice and smooth, newly built top section quickly turned into a dusty mess on race day after the riders started doing practice runs.I guess this is part of racing!

My favorite pic of the day! Hanco on his race run.
Photo by Ewald Sadie

With the (not so new) concept of one day races, the morning was spent doing practice runs. As race organisers, there was no smooth sailing to be had at this race as so many unexpected issues arose. One of the big trucks that was to be used as a shuttle vehicle, suffered a mechanical problem on its way to the venue and this lead to riders having to wait longer for the available shuttle vehicles to make their turns. At the previous races we received complaints that practice time was too long and that riders were getting too many practise runs in which tired them out for their race run in the afternoon. This however was not the case for this specific race, where most riders managed to do an average of two or three practice runs.

Hanco on the first run for the day, making sure all the marshals are at their spots and that the track is race ready
Photo by Ewald Sadie

Racing started quite a bit later than normal and this caused some of the spectators to leave. It however, did not curb the enthusiasm of most riders, and they attacked the track with fury.

On both of my practice runs, I had problems with my feet clipping out from the pedals causing me to lose my footing. I was very happy when that didn't happen during my race run. As the women's category was the second last one to go down, I spent quite a while watching the other riders get owned on the track, especially on the new top section. I think this affected my race run as I was over cautious on spots that was frequently crashed at. I managed to make my way down without incident, but I feel that I could have gone a bit faster.

All Hanco is thinking here is: "where is that shuttle truck, does the timing work, are the marshals doing their job" ;)
Photo by Gary Scholtz

Hanco let me use his downhill bike for this race, choosing to rather ride on his Commencal. When practicing in the week, he really enjoyed the track on his lesser travel bike. As chairman of the committee, he spent the morning sorting out problems and didn't get a chance to practice so his race run did not happen under ideal circumstances. He decided to just have fun and flow down the track doing almost a gravity run.

Checking out my lines
Photo by Ewald Sadie

I think overall, and looking past all the logistical nightmares, it was a good day and all the riders enjoyed the track!

You can view Ewald's race report with photo's here.