VicDH Round 6 – Bright

Bright is the home of the final race for Victorian Downhill Series. Now we know you have seen all of our coverage from Bright of the Australian National Championshipsa�� So we wanted to make this one a little different, no one enjoys seeing the same thing over and over, so we sent Jason out with a challenge! He has to shoot the entire track with a 300mm lens, for anyone who has been to Bright, you will know ita��s not really an open track, so thata��s quite a challenge (a 300mm lens is super zoomed in if youa��re wondering why a 300mm would be hard!).

Bright has turned on the weather again, though there was an awesome storm Friday night, the track didn’t seem all that effected in a negative way at all. By the time practice started on Saturday the track was in unbelievable condition, with more and more riders passing over it, it became tacky, and there was no dust! A rare sight at Bright, and a really strange feeling, we almost missed the dusta�� Almost!

With the track being so sticky riders were gathering confidence at rapid pace! Some getting carried away, and the track put them back in their place, with many small crashes and off track excursions. As the sun started to lower through the trees the track started to dry slightly, but not to the point where everything was dusty. Riders who have ridden here before, either for champs or in free time were enjoying the improved track conditions, the new riders were loving it too, the steepness a little daunting for many riders though.

Sunday morning arrived and there was a heavy dew around, it didn’t seem to penetrate the trees though. However, the track did generally get slightly moister, keeping everything super grippy. We had a chat with local, Aiden Varley before practice and he claimed the track would be dry and dusty by race runs, surely this local knowledge was an advantage. As riders rolled down throughout practice it appeared Aiden was right on the money, with the track drying quickly and catching a lot of riders out, with the crashes becoming more and more theatrical throughout the morning, with some providing quite a scare for both the riders and us spectators watching.

As qualifying came around the track was almost dry, not to the point of inhaling kilograms of dust but still very dry, this meant some of those ruts were becoming very slippy and extremely deep. Qualifying seemed to run seamlessly and we saw no crashes of extreme measure nor mechanicals.

With qualifying complete racing started. Some of the loose rocks and wayward roots began playing havoc with the bikes as riders pushed harder and harder, many finding their way to the bottom with mechanicals, especially broken chains and derailleurs.

 

At the end of the day the results ended up as follows:

 

Men

1. Liam Panozzo

2. Dean Lucas

3. Oliver Zwar

4. Rhys Atkinson

5. Ricky Clarke

 

Women

1. Tegan Molloy

2. Ellie Wale

3. Sarah Booth

4. Liching Li

5. Carrie McLachlan

Well that wraps up the racing for the Victorian Downhill Series, a big thanks to Jason Stephens Photography for their hard work, let’s not muck around they killed it with the 300mm challenge this weekend!

Images and report:A�Jason Stevens Photography

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