The Illawarra MTB Festival at Greenvalleys MTB Park hosted two of Rocky Trail’s flagship gravity events: The Fox Superflow, sealed by Stan’s offered two different race tracks on the Saturday and the fastest race run on each counted towards the final result. With a social shuttle and practice day for the downhillers on the Sunday, the RedAss Downhill State Series Finale was on Monday.
Luke Meier-Smith: U17’s rider clocks in fastest race time in Fox Superflow
In the Fox Superflow, Blake Nielsen from the Blue Mountains took out the Elite Men’s category in 7:05.3 but it was the U17’s racer Luke Meier-Smith from Comboyne just South-West of Port Macquarie who clocked in the fastest race time of the day in 6:50.4 ahead of U19’s Ethan Corney (+2.3 sec) from Bowenfels and Sydney’s Josh Arcus (+10.04).
Blake Nielsen is the RedAss Downhill State Series Elite Men’s winner 2019
Josh Arcus also took out the overall RedAss State Series win in the U17’s with a second place behind Luke Meier-Smith in the final race on Monday. Blake Nielsen placed third in the Elites for the overall series win as well. The RedAss Downhill race elite winner was Pat Butler from Cooranbong. Just recently returned from competing in a series of World Cup events overseas, the 18-year old clocked in a race time of 2:00.73, four seconds ahead of Jason Capenecas from Wongawilli. He said that he had enjoyed racing back home, however, that the trails felt “much shorter and dustier” compared to the European and North American trails in the World Cup. In the U19’s, Ethan Corney raced for the event and overall series win in 1:58.73, which was the fastest time of the day.
Em Parkes wins gravity events at Greenvalleys; Cassie Voysey is the Elite Women’s RedAss Downhill State Series winner 2018
Two women dominated the weekend’s gravity results: For the Fox Superflow in the women’s elite category, Emily Parkes from Canberra won by 24 seconds ahead of 16-year old Cassie Voysey, the up and coming gravity and downhill junior from Engadine. With the 2015 National State Championship title under her belt in the U23 female division, Parkes has a strong background in cross-country endurance racing and said that she enjoyed her recent switch to the more technical and adrenaline-fuelled gravity scene. On the Monday, the two women repeated the podium result in the RedAss Downhill State Championship Finale: in her downhill racing debut, Em Parkes clocked in a 2:24.78 ahead of the overall State Series Women’s Elite winner, Cassie Voysey who came second in the final round with a gap of 2.35 seconds.
The RedAss Downhill Series will return in 2019 and for the Fox Superflow, sealed by Stan’s one more race will challenge its racers at Awaba MTB Park near Newcastle in November.
Photos: coming soon.
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