Race Report Winter Series Finals (merged threads)

SD and 4X race pics are up! A little warm out there today Back out again tomorrow for the DH!
www.cleghornphotography.com
Enjoy! :wave:

 

RR: Southridge Winter Series Finals

Another great weekend out at Southridge. This was the Winter Series Finals so there was a lot of fierce racing as people tried to get those points for the Series Championship.

Great XC Racing:





Looks like the hard work on the Super D course was worth it. Over 50 Racers this week.



And as always, there was some great action on the Downhill course:





Great race everyone. See you all at Nationals.

Images are up at: http://www.ericfoltz.photoreflect.com

 

Picture purchased! Thanks Jason!

 

i almost ran down the camara man sliding in your pic. they forgot to add me to the list so i was a write in and started at the back of the pack. so i didnt get as fast of a run as i could have but i had fun anyways.
[video=youtube;Z97QXHq1Nmk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z97QXHq1Nmk[/video]

 

thanks!!!!!!

 

mike i think u were going to slow

 

^^^ Gawdammit. Too slow is right! Okay -- first off, I was on a flat section just before the chute where Bryan and Jason were, not on some treacherous vertical part (that came in front of Jason's lens -- gorgeous pic of me -- yeesh! Reminder to self: Don't girn in front of the cam, even for fun -- you always look like a douche, or an old man, or both).

My son Willie had just flown by and I wanted to get down the hill on the road to get another shot of him if I could, so I ran back along the course. I thought he was last, or at the very least since we was rolling pretty fast, I thought I would have at least 30 seconds (time between riders) to make it to the chute before having another rider come up on my tail, but roadkill424 was put out on the course after the young 'uns, and he came up real fast on me, and Willie (who is in front of him for a good section of his vid). I leapt off the trail (as everyone can see, of course), and caused no harm nor foul (at least I don't think I slowed him down...). Sorry for being an id10T.

Pics in my next post.

- shud

 

shud's redemption...

Jason and Eric -- Great pics guys! I had intended to ride up with Willie and follow him down the course once as he practiced, then pick up my full cam bag and get back up to the top. As it worked out, one of the hardest things about the SD race is just getting to the starting line! Damn -- even though we went onto course right at 11, there was no way Willie would have enough time to pre-roll the course and make his way back up the hill without exhausting himself, so we did no pre-roll, and I only had the one 12-24 WA lens and flash with me. I almost left camp without my cam at all, so I lucked out in a way having a cam with me at all.

So, here's my SD race pics, and a few from around the venue (in a following post). I just got my cam back from the shop, and did some quick settings, thinking I'd set it up as per usual (forgot to write everything down before sending it to Nikon -- d'oh!). I think these are generally a bit too contrasty and over-saturated, but still I like how they came out in any case. Enjoy the output.

Here's the flat section I was running along in roadkill424's vid. Nice trailwork guys -- looked like everyone had a great time rolling it:


Jason at the chute:


Bryan up top of the chute where I was shooting:


Eric Carter giving Joe Lawwill's course a compliment as he climbed up it:


Traffic jam of racers climbing the chute:


Helmet cam and houses…


There were a bunch of helmet cams out there…here's another one during practice:


Jason's shot from above of me getting that shot -- I think he popped his off exactly when I did mine. That's pretty cool:


A few more practice runs from the chute…








SD Race!

I shot a pic of nearly every racer, tweaking settings as I went. I like to get some good blur in action shots instead of freezing them completely, but this often means I just get blurry pics. Sometimes they turn out, sometimes they don't.

Here's a selection of pics from the race itself. If you can ID anyone I don't have named, let me know and I will fix that. Also, if you think I shot a pic of you but don't see the pic in this bunch, let me know and I will go back and work it up if I have a shot of you.

Racers...








Great to see so many STR jerseys out! Who is this?


You can see the next racer creeping up from behind…




Excellent CB Iodines!!! Always so blingy...


Jason's boy:


Hard to miss this kid!


My son Willie:


As he was (almost) last, right after shooting Willie's pic, I ran down the trail, jumped on my bike and got down to the road crossing.

Nabbed another pic of Willie below the water tower:


Podium:




Shots from around the venue next…

- shud

 

Great pics guys, I had a lot of fun on the super D! Can't wait till next time.

 

It was great to see so many STR folks out and about at the race. We had a great time.

Willie and Pua:


Willie, Pua and Toby:


My boys and thomaswildchild (glad to see the leg is in good shape, Thomas!):


I saw Nancy and Roger in matching Path DH kits waiting in line for the shuttle, so went over and said hi.

denmo:


Saw surlygal, and she pointed us in the direction of their camp, so went and looked up her hubby Neil. Found him working on bikes (of course!).

1x1clyde:


...and his ultra-subtle bike:


Words to live by:


Great day at the races. I only wish we'd been able to come out for all of them, but Willie was on his high school wrestling squad, and all Saturdays through January and February were taken up with matches and tournaments. Ah, well. Glad he was able to get in the one race in any case! He did well, getting 1st place in the 18- cat.

See you out there...

- shud

 

Good to see you again! And thanks for getting a picture of me before my hair got all messed up!!!

 

Awesome pics Michael!!! Great to finally meet you and hear the Morrison stories!

 

DH race pics are up!!! Hope the racers had a good race and the spectators had a great time watching See you all at the Nationals!
www.cleghornphotography.com
Enjoy!:wave:

 

That turn down is sooo sick!

 

Willie in the chute!!!



Nice! Saw that one (along with others of me shooting some of the pics I put in above) over on your site.

How many frames did you shoot altogether, Jason? You got some excellent, excellent pics! Well done.

- shud

 

Had a great time racing DH, wanted to do Super D but the knees can only handle so much. The Pro/Expert course was fun and just technical enough to keep you on your toes. I had a lot of demons to fight on this one so I knew I had to race it or else. I didn't take all the Pro lines but I had a good run and was proud of my 54 year old self for gettn' it done!!

Congrats Donna on 1st place and to Badkitty for her 2nd place!!!

Jason, awesome photos as always!!!

 

The SuperD was a hike and a half, but so worth it. The course was awesome. I should have only done one practice run. I was so blown out after hiking back up for my race run and nearly lost it pedalling up past the tank. lol

 

Michael thanks for shooting the Super D! You have nice action in your photos - way to go! If you have a link for people to view these photos please post it or email me [email protected] and I will add it to my race report I am submitting to numerous mtb related websites.

Thanks,

-Joe

 

Right there with you, I used up most of my energy doing the dh course 3 times before I managed to find the super d course. Next time I'm just gonna focus on that before I even think about doing the dh. I was fading fast at the water tank, glad that stretch wasn't longer.

 

Apparenty I won the overall for xc in my class without racing this weekend. Did they do awards for it?