TSG Gauteng DH Provincial champs venue change
The weekend of 26 and 27 June 2010 sees the Gauteng DH provincial season draw to a close with a slight change to the venue…
The idea for the champs race this year was to hold it on the course to be built for SA Champs in July. But due to the negotiation process between the different government bodies being a lot slower than anticipated and last minute changes being made, the track will unfortunately not be ready for the provincial champs.
Instead we decided to have the race at Helderkruin DH track. In a way i think it is poetic justice to a certain degree, seeing as last year’s race was the plagued by unforeseen dilemmas. Who would forget the pouring afternoon showers that flooded the finish line, or the roaring crowds cheers as Ryno flew down the finish gauntlet, only to find out that the timing system decided to pack up. So fittingly, this year will see the return of the provincial champs at Helderkruin with an all new electronic timing system and a few new changes to the track. There are some other ideas for further changes to the track and anyone willing to lend a hand and spare an hour or two are welcome to help with some track maintenance on Saturday 19 June.
The race setup and program are as usual:
Practice on Saturday 26 June from 10:00 – 16:00 with pre-entries from 12:00 – 15:00
Race day on Sunday with last minute practice and line entries from 8:00 – 9:30 and race runs from 10:00.
June 17th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Northern Gauteng has seriously done DH a terrible injustice by failing to have a track ready at this point. I am bitterly disappointed.
June 18th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
I feel your pain boys. over 2 years of talking with City Parks and still no spade to dirt progress yet. Don’t stress pocket rocket, life’s (and you) too short
. I am going to test the new and improved DH track tomorrow, so for a change I will be able to lend a hand in the work too…
June 19th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Agree Brad, it seems like only National events are considered important (by provincial bodies like Northern and Central Gauteng) and all the time and resources goes into that, whilst the Gauteng DH riders are left on their own. GAS is organising all the events and we get zippo support from either bodies (oh except the 50 cent medals we issue). Until the Provincial Bodies (both Northern and Central) enthusiastically support DH it will remain an uphill (in stead of Downhill:) ) battle to develop our riders and to be competitive against the strong KZN and WC provinces. Ironically, also the Gauteng Provincial XC races have been either cancelled or postponed this year indicating that XC is also not taken serious. We should probably convert to Marathon races as that draws the crowds, sponsors and attention of the Racing bodies… On the positive, at least Gauteng is starting to make DH podium at Nationals, so even the little we do seems to help at least.