Words | Amanda Pearce Photos | Robbie Dalziel
The first round of the MTBNZ NZ Downhill Series was held at 440 MTB Park on January 24th. The NZ Downhill Series this year is split between the North & The south Islands, giving riders plenty of variety to test their skills.
The riders turned up to the track Sunday morning and were greeted with sunny weather. Track conditions for practice were amazing, with a little bit of dust the conditions were almost perfect. Then just as riders were about to head up the hill for seeding runs the weather gods had a change of heart and the heavens opened up, turning the hard packed clay into a giant mudslide! By race run the trail had dried out a little bit was was still pretty slick!
We caught up with some of the racers to get their take on the weekend.
Seth Stylie on the Gas!
Boaz Hebblethwaite enjoying some drier conditions.
Boaz Hebblethwaite - ‘Overall I had a good weekend with lots to take away. Practice went super well and the conditions were amazing.
Just before we headed up for seeding the sky’s opened and the track completely changed to a mudslide, unfortunately when it came down to the final run I misjudged just how slick it was in places and ended up hitting the ground twice.
Plenty to take away from the weekend though and I’m excited for round 3 at Nelson!’
Dan Self getting some laps in before the rain.
Tuhoto-Ariki Pene with his eyes on the prize.
Tuhoto-Ariki Pene - ‘It started off looking like a perfect day to race, not overly hot, track was running fast and it was a little dusty! Towards the end of practice there was a little bit of rain which if it had have stopped there it would have been running perfect.
As we were going to start the seeding runs, the weather deteriorated, turning the track into a slip slide with the hard packed clay!
It wasn’t amazing to do seeding runs in but with a crash I seeded 2nd. Lucky enough it was drying out by race runs but still a slip slide, which tested all riders! I must say race runs were fun and I was stoked to walk away with 3rd place in the first round of the National Series’.
Man down! Seth Stylie almost riding the corner out!
Sliding through the turn, Cameron Beck getting down with the slickness!
Cameron Beck - ‘The first round of the National Series at 440 MTB Park was hectic to say the least.
The fast and rough track changed heaps all throughout practice, and then the heavens opened for seeding and race runs. The dry dusty track turned into a slip and slide leading to heaps of crashes.
I managed to keep things upright in both seeding and race runs, winning seeding and coming home second in race runs, with the top 3 in the U19 being split by only .2 seconds!’
Cameron Beck with a second place in U19 Men after some tight racing.
Tuhoto-Ariki Pene managed to keep it together in race run for 3rd place in Elite Men
The next stop on the MTBNZ NZ Downhill Series is Dome Valley in Auckland on the 30th Jan. Good luck to everyone racing, lets hope the weather holds itself together!
Keep up with all the action of the NZ DH series here