Newton’s Nation is a stand alone event held at mount Panorama, New South Wales, in conjunction with a range of other ‘extreme sports’. It also has live music at night, camping and what not but it is the downhill we are interested in. The track itself is quiteA�short, under 1.20 for the fastest riders but with $2000 up for grabs for first place a lot of riders were looking to take care of business!
So what does a track under 80 seconds long feature?! A reasonable size road gap (for a downhill race here in Australia) is probablyA�the most notable feature, this combined with a few corners, some smaller jumps and it is basically over before you know it! At least the riders didn’t have much to memorise in practice and according to many riders what there was of the track was fun to ride.
Conditions were frosty over the weekendA�and whilst the categoriesA�weren’t loaded, with hundreds of riders competing, the depth of talent was good.
With such a short track racing was always going to be tight, just over 1.5 seconds separated first through to fifth in Elite Men. One mistake in your race run and your chances of taking the win evaporated. Saying that, in Elite Men Chris Kovarik managed to put a second into second placed Josh Button. Talking to Josh he saidA�the “competition was good, my run was good…knees alright, still a bit shady but stoked to be back riding!”. With the top five all being so close that $2000 would have been tantalising but to the winner go the spoils.
Elite Men:
1. Chris Kovarik 1:17.48
2. Josh Button 1:18.48 + 1.00
3. Rhys Willemse 1:18.65 + 1.17
4. Graeme Mudd 1:18.87 + 1.39
5. Joe Vejvoda 1:19.09 + 1.61
Under 19 Men:
1. Joel Willis 1:22.67
2. Jai Motherwell 1:23.93 + 1.26
3. Lyndon Nugent 1:24.91 + 2.24
4. Sam McKee-Wright 1:29.08 + 6.41
5. Cameron Ford 1:31.05 + 8.38
It was a solid weekend for Kovarik Racing, with Claire Buchar taking the win ahead of Danielle Beecroft in Elite Women. Our man on the ground, Edwin Emmerick, got some great snaps from the event, we will let them do the talking… Enjoy.
Yet again guys, “Good Pic’s & a Good read”