Race Report Fontana City Nationals/Cal Gold State/Triple Crown/Kenda Cup West #3

Race Report: Fontana City National 2011

Went out to hang and take pictures. looks like a good time all around. The DH course looks super fun (and pleasanty gnarly!), XC folks lucked out on weather and it looked like a good race. 4X was more exciting than it has been in a long time, with lots of heats, good racing action, lots of crashes (without injury), and general shenanigans. SuperD, while late, looked like a ton of fun (and there was a HUGE turnout for it).

I took shots of all the races today (pro XC, SD, 4X, and DH practice). I'm tired from running around the hill all day though, so I havn't sorted through XC yet. here's some of my favorites from the rest of the day though:

DH:






4X:




Lopes on his way to the SD win:


the rest of the pictures will be available online at www.Bluefirepictures.com and will all probably be uploaded by monday evening or tuesday morning. there's a lot of shots from this race, so be patient!

 

how are the girls doing? nancy? lala?

so this morning it looked like nancy was hurt. i hope not. then "we" (i say we because im pretty sure everyone in that spot got photos of lala, mfoga prob. having the best one) got these photos of lala going huge on the otb bandwagon. surprisingly she got right up and kept on going. hope she feels good though.

 

I hurt just from looking at those pics. Hope the aches and pains don't last too long.

 

OUCH! I felt that over here. Glad she was able to get up and keep going.

 

lala should have stuck with the session 88. lol.

 

Nice shots Bry!

Kaylee's BF Adrian went out and raced DH for the first time today. He took 2nd in the 18 & Under Sport class! Not bad for his first DH race, racing on MY Kona Operator, which is too large, and sprung way too stiff for him! :lol:

I can imagine what he's gonna do on a bike that fits him! :bang:

 

wow! awesome shots! care to share what equipment you used to take the pics?

 

+1 on what monstertiki and f/2.8 said...

OUCH! Looking at those pics makes me wince and hurt! If that was me, I probably would just be lying there.

 

Uggg...I cringe when I see outstretched hands, dislocated fingers suck trust me. Please remember to ball your fists people.

Hope you gals are ok and any wounds are superficial.

 

ouch, hope she is ok. #1 rule of bedrock drops, stay off the front brake, you do not want to pass your bike. +10 for riding. Another +10 for the very nice fork

 

ouccchhhhhh. hope you're okay Lala. that pics almost look worse than seeing it in person...

 

Race was great today, but my truck was broken into and they stole my wallet and iPhone. Saw that someone else had their window broken. Crazy thing was that we were parked across from the police station. Really sucks.

 

Lala was fine and in good spirits, I stopped by incycle tent to show her the sequence I got and she was showing the whole team.

 

I hope you were at the top of the DH course for the Sport class. That first big jump gave me some BIG air...I hope someone caught it on film, cause it cost me a couple of seconds (at least) heh heh!

 

Maxwell, we saw Adrian rolling around. we were actually commenting on the blingness of his bike :lol:

Tandem: I'm shooting a Canon Rebel XTi, mixture of a 28-135 f/3.5 and a 70-300 f/4 canon lenses (not L-series, both are IS and USM). not exactly a bling setup, but it definitely gets the job done. don't get me wrong, if I had some spare coin, I wouldn't mind a 7D with a few choice L lenses...

Rich: Sorry, I was shooting towards the bottom today. Wanted to be able to get over the the gnar on the pro/ex course and stake out a spot easily.

but yeah, here's some hilights from today. I don't know who all won, I was tired and hungry so I took off.















sick head-to-head DH racing action on the sport line:

 

wait a minute....lopes was in fontucky?????

let me check, yup, hell just froze over!!!

I raced XC and had a blast. Good dirt or what!!

 

Wilkinm- that sucks, I know when I was leaving around 4 there where some shady look teenagers hanging out around the cars.

 

Was there a real reason to post the pics here? I don't quite understand. I'm sure she wouldn't want them here. She's out there riding her you know what off and now she up for critque? Maybe it's me but maybe just a written report would have been better.

 

So, This weekend was AWESOME!! It was my second time at Southridge and my first time racing in over 20 years (looks like I still got it!)
My birthday was on saturday but I was still in the 43-50 Sport class (I'm 47 now). Thanks to Hz for the encouragement to come out (we're in the same class).
This weekends DH course was WAY more fun than 3 weeks ago, more technical, more of a DH course.
So I'm videotaping every run all weekend long (Chris posted one to STR but I cant find it), So I'm doing my race run, really pumped up- got mega air on the first jump (just couldn't control myself), and everything is going great- smooth flow, people cheering, adrenalin flowing, I clean the upper section without incident, burn up my quads on the wall and in the rock garden my front tire washes out and BAM, I'm down- Ok, get up finish the race, bleeding forearm and bruised ego for falling on a section that gave me little concern all weekend long, and I still scored a 3rd place, 7 seconds behind Chris. YEA, I'm STOKED!! So now I cant wait to get home to see the video and calculate exactly how many seconds I lost on the fall so I can play a game of Shoulda-Coulda-Woulda....DANG IT, only my 1st 2 practice runs came out. The race clip shows up on the computer and is a bigger file than the other 2 with all of the waiting time on the starting gate- but it wont open or play- WAH!
In the end, I had an excellent birthday weekend, a great race, a great time with friends (and seeing many old BMX buddy's from more than 20 years ago), looking forward to the next one. Many thanks to Chris, Johnny, Gene, Tink, and anyone else I may be forgetting. I'm hooked!

 

Crashing is part of DH, it happens to everyone....it's all part of racing.