Thursday started with finishing work early and a 7 hour drive to Timaru. The weather was not looking good for the Lewis pass so we made the decision to drive down the coast. 7 hours and a lot of corners later we arrived in Timaru. We woke Friday to an overcast day. As we arrived in Dunedin it was on the verge of snowing, I wasn’t really surprised as the four races i have done there have all been wet. We got a motel sorted and headed up Signal hill to where the race was being held to check out the track. It had changed quite a bit since last time with some sick berms at the top going into and extended slightly less savage rock garden. After that it carried on along the old track for a bit then into a new section with 3 nice doubles and then back out onto the ridge. It was then into the old nationals track from 05/06 which started with yet another rock garden and then into some pines. A nice big step-down in the pines halfway thru and then into the new bottom section. This has all been done by a dozer and was super fast with big burms and big jumps, perfect for spectators with the bottom 30 seconds of track visible from the finish line. We had seen enough so we headed back up and got the bikes. 1st run down was the most fun I’ve had since Whistler mud riding. Every corner was fully sideways and out of control and somehow i got to the bottom without falling off. Nick and Raz weren’t so lucky with a few crashes each. A few runs later and it started raining so we called it quits.
Saturday was race day. We woke up to an overcast day which soon turned to sun with light winds. First few practice runs were pretty chaotic with groms going down left right and center. By race runs the track was perfectly tacky.
My 1st run started good but soon into it I slid from a low line and came to a stop. The rest of the run was good and i came down with a 304 putting my into 3rd, Eddie Masters was 259 and Hayden Donny McGregor 258.
2nd run down was good, making it thru the line i had crashed on 1st run but my luck ran thin towards the bottom as i was exiting a burm slightly too sideways and hit a tree head on with pretty high speed. I bent my bars so the rest of the track was pretty un co but still managed another 304. Donny showed us all how to ride posting a 253 way ahead of the lot of us! This guy is going to be on form this season and will be definitely be one to watch! 
I ended up 3rd at the end of the day which wasn’t bad considering. Donny in 1st and Eddie in 2nd and Tim Mackersey in 4th a fraction behind me.
After the race there was a top 10 shootout with the top 10 riders from all categories all doing 1 last run with $100 cash up for grabs for the winner.
I crashed yet again. Eddie was 2nd to last down the hill and took the top spot. With only Donny left we all thought he had it in the bag but about 10 seconds from the bottom he had a huge over the bars and lost it. Better luck next time mate!
We then headed to prize giving at a burger bar in town which was great with a lot of spot prizes.
Thanks to Donny, Eddie, Sheryl, Ant and everyone else for making this race happen and run so smoothly and bring on south island cup in Feb!
We then drove to Timaru to stay the night there.
6:30am Sunday morning we were on the road to race number two in chch.
We arrived about 830 and i was straight off to the shop to get my bike sorted from the previous day’s mishaps.
I didn’t get that sorted until 10:30 so only two practice runs on a track I had never ridden before.
The track started just below the airstrip on the port hills and ran through the gum trees for half and then into the open. It was very fast and flowy with some huge burms and some pretty cool jumps.
My 1st race run was going well until about hallways down I hit a high line over a rock a bit fast and out of control and landed off the track. I was going through the long grass about 40kph trying to slow down and hit a rock. I sailed through the air doing various flips and then rag dolled down a bank onto the 4x4 road about 20 meters below the track. I got up pretty dam sore with a folded front when and blown tyre so it was a long ride out for me.
2nd run didn’t go much better with another crash in the top half of the track. After that I pushed it a bit hard trying to make up time and just kept making more and more mistakes. I finished about 9th at the end of the day. Not to fussed as i had a awesome weekend with some wicked riding on new tracks which is always good.
Cheers to bike HQ yet again for the use of the van and the race organizes who it wouldn’t be possible without.
Until next week.
Reuben Miller
www.bikehq.co.nz
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