GAS Downhill Club race #1
As both the National and Provincials series bid South Africa farewell for 2010, so the Gravity All Stars DH MTB club series kicked off the weekend of 31 Jul. – 1 Aug at fort Klapperkop on the infamous flat track…
A few GAS boys put in some work on the track the week before, getting some much needed maintenance done after the Nationals left it’s mark on the brand new track. By now the track is semi ridden in and combined with a little more experience on the track the times were significantly faster than those set at the Nationals.
The much anticipated electronic timing system made it’s very first debut as well. Earlier prototypes have been spotted at previous events, but not to the extent to which it’s full potential was utilised. As soon as the operators got their heads around the first fully functional version during the somewhat cautious qualifying runs, the entire field’s race runs were smoothly finished in 25 minutes. The accuracy of a beam system at the start and finish ensures 100% accuracy to a thousandth of a second and zero human reaction time delay.
There were a lot of surprises in terms of podium possitions and it is a clear indication that regular and consistant riding pays off and many riders have made significant improvements since the start of the 2010 season.
The results are as follows:
Start Numb Name Class Qualifiers Final
1 7 Brad Illingworth Elites 1:45.161 1:39.669
2 10 David Hogan Juniors 1:50.729 1:45.847
3 34 Laurentius Potgieter SubVet1:47.890 1:46.143
4 4 Cornel Claassen Elites 1:49.934 1:46.642
5 47 Dustin Rudman Elites 1:47.797 1:46.814
6 21 Marius Snyman Elites 2:20.308 1:47.563
7 12 Patrick Alexander Elites 3:06.140 1:48.420
8 24 Martin Dodson Sports 3:01.133 1:48.484
9 1 Vivian Viljoen Juniors 1:52.383 1:50.145
10 5 Anthony Brookes Sports 1:46.564 1:50.433
11 3 JP du Plessis Juniors 2:12.866 1:51.026
12 20 Marnus Swanepoel Elites 1:53.710 1:52.133
13 17 Nolan Couzyn SubVet1:58.483 1:54.630
14 8 Des Ellis SubVet1:59.981 1:54.816
15 27 Louis Van Sandwyk Elites 2:04.661 1:55.238
16 44 Warren Garbutt Sports 3:25.844 1:56.221
17 2 Damion van Tromp SubVet1:59.247 1:58.873
18 23 Tyronne Minnaar Juniors 2:43.084 2:02.258
19 48 Shuan Portman Sports 2:01.119 2:02.602
20 37 Geraldine van Tromp Sports 2:30.088 2:23.661
21 13 Tynan Usswald Juniors 2:35.393 4:01.568
22 33 Marc Price Sports 2:11.945 DNS
Further updates on the event and the track will be posted as soon as the photos and footage is ready.
Tags: DH, Downhill, GAS, Klapperkop
