Written by Lloyd Clark. Photos at the end.
With 26 competitors in the open stand-up category, 7 in junior stand-up, 5 in street luge and 2 in Classic luge it is clear that the South African downhill family is growing faster now than ever before. It was awesome to see the stoke in the riders eyes every time they finished a run without crashing. Mad respect to all the riders who took on the challenging hill this weekend; especially the juniors who showed up en masse and were shredding like animals.
The large crowd of spectators were not disappointed; the tail wind that was present on Sunday made it more challenging for the riders to judge their speed coming into the final left hand corner which resulted in a display of skilful evasive manoeuvres by the riders and some spectacular hay bale explosions. Just about every rider on the hill ended up in the hay bales at some point.
The first semi final was probably the most exciting race of the weekend; all four riders crashed in the left hand corner and it was a scrambled push race for the finish line. In the final it was Richard Dweza who came through in front at an unbelievable speed followed by Glen Phillips, Lloyd Clark and Pascal Weber, the three of which went through the left literally just meters apart. It was with great skill that all four riders made it through without crashing.
The levels of stoke were so high with everyone after the race that it took some time to get the prize giving ceremony going. It was Chris Lubbe’s birthday on the day so he was the first to be called up to the podium for us to sing to him. Next was classic luge, then street luge with Russell Naude taking the number one spot for both. Before the winners of the stand up categories were called up, it was time for the First Timer Award Winner to be announced. It was Donovan Tome who won himself a set of wheels sponsored by First Nature for being the best performing first time racer of the weekend. Next the juniors got their moment on the podium with 15 year old Sam Jakins taking the number one spot. When Richard Dweza was called up to the number one spot for the open category the crowd erupted! This is the third year in a row that Richard has won this race; he is literally untouchable on this hill. Glen Phillips also had an exceptional performance placing second in classic luge, street luge and stand-up.
All in all it was another successful race hosted and officiated by SAGRA. Many thanks to Justin Boast and Anton Pratt for all their hard work that went into making this race possible. Thanks also to Novel Ford for sponsoring the Shuttle. Look out for the next race on the 16th and 17th of April, the Houwteq Downhill Xtreme aka Carnage Corner Classic 2.