"Gotta Thunder" report
 

Great weekend of racing.

The courses were super fast. The top of the first course was a long section of fireroad that was laden with jumps.

Comming out of the gate you hit a little kicker between two trees
that very much want to pitch your rear tire over your head.
http://www.descenders-on-dirt.com/thetrees.jpg

Apon landing you need to crank a 45deg. right turn and start pedaling. Then you come upon a rock jump (the one in my other thread) that causes your rear tire to just fall away if you do not center yourself just right.

40yds. after the rock you encounter a set of doubles with no lip on the take off or you can opt. for the 4' kicker on the right, this was the faster line if you could hit it with speed.
http://www.descenders-on-dirt.com/the1kicker.jpg

The dbls were very small but far enough apart that even the fastest of racers were casing the second(no pic).

The kicker on the right was on the side of the hill so it was actually a hip jump and you had to land on a slope then back to the road. There were 4 of these kickers all in a row and only the first one had the dbls. next to it so even the beginners had to hit them.

2nd hip
http://www.descenders-on-dirt.com/the2kicker.jpg

3rd hip
http://www.descenders-on-dirt.com/the3kicker.jpg

The fourt hip jump is around the bend so we did not get a pic.

Once you finish with the kickers you have a 10' table jump then it is WFO the rest of the way.

Pedal, pedal, pedal for about 75'yrds. then you drop in to a very steep section with very soft, rocky switch backs. Super high speeds through here though (for switchbacks appx.15 to 20mph).
This section leeds you into a long semi-steep flat hill about 1/8mi. No brakes allowed here. Top speeds in my class are pushing 60mph.

The hill
http://www.descenders-on-dirt.com/thehill.JPG

At the bottom of the hill you need to clear 4 logs so you better brake check your self because there is a 90deg. turn after that which leads you into a 8' high table.

The logs
http://www.descenders-on-dirt.com/thelogs.JPG

The Table
http://www.descenders-on-dirt.com/thetable.jpg

There is a short little tech. section after this jump and then a long high speed section to the finish.

The Second course was also high speed with some jumps but with the wifee carrying a little one she was unable to get to the 2nd course so we only have a pic from the top.

Not much to write about on this course. It started out of the same gate but after the jump through the trees you make a left, then hit a nice right with a nice berm ...
http://www.descenders-on-dirt.com/theberm.jpg

... then you hit a dbl. that was plowed so the beginners could hit it with out killing them selfs.

I took sixth but the time diff. from first to me was 5 sec. I would have done better but I wrecked and got tied up in the tape and the course marshal had to actually cut me out before I could get going again. Oh well.

Any ways, we had two guys with broken backs and one of them was air-lifted off the hill. Team BB cancled the race and some did not get to do their final run. They have decided they need some course changes:confused: (the course was not that bad, actually it is very tame).


Slainte:beer:

Cool pics.

Sixth, not bad, a hecka lot better than I could do.

L8R

Thanks for the report, great reading. I wouldn't tell the two riders who broke their backs that it was tame, they might be offended.

By the sound of it you would of won, had it not been for the tape incident.

Good luck for your next race, keep us informed.