Photo Epic: Hellsend Mates Race Summer Series, Rd 2, Banhoek | p/b Lyne Components
Halloween hot laps in the Banhoek!
One month after the season opener at Eden Forest, the Hellsend Bike Shop Mates Race series headed out to Banhoek trails for round two, hosted by Lyne Components. Warm weather, a flat out supertube-style course and a newly added hill sprint challenge, promissed a fun filled evening of racing. To add to the spectacle, the best-dressed competition required riders to race in their attire, which attracted some wild costumes and race suits, in an attempt to take the prize.
Before heading out to sneak in a practice lap or wait at the top, riders gathered in the parking lot to get signed up, collect their boards and tags, and compare one another’s ridiculous costumes. The Mates Race series for this year has been timed using the same system as the local Enduro series, allowing new riders a chance to interact with the system, and familiar ones to get some practice. The timing is managed by Christian Steffens, whose work has been of great help to the series.
Onto the racing, 60 odd riders would take on the Afterburner trail from top to bottom, a flat out, smooth trail with very little, to no braking. The high average speeds, and lack of slow sections made it challenging to find time, and very easy to lose time. Even with the addition of a short punch and two flat turns at the end, we still saw a few riders sharing each second, with up to 6 on the same second in some instances.
With minimal technicality there were still a few key sections. The long, flat start straight being the first, then the loose left turn into the middle jump section, and the final few turns plus finish sprint all had to be nailed to find what little time was available. One attempt, and very little margin for error, precision was going to be key.
Prior to this round the debate for the overall win was a ponder between the formidable Under 18’s on their XC weapons, and the local eBike gang. Youth or experience, human or battery, laatie or oom? Which would prevail on this bobsled-esque battle ground? Everyone waited patiently as the start order progressed, some regretting their choice of costume in the early summer heat that blessed the evening.
Fast, dry conditions saw riders in all categories pushing their limits to find a slither of a split second anywhere in their run. Post-race war stories and highly sought after phone footage revealed scenes of nose-dives, drifts, pedal strikes and all sorts of close calls that riders hung onto in their pursuit of speed. Whether it’s a top-level race, or a few turns in a field with your mates, the stopwatch always tells a story. It’s great to see weekend warriors, newbies, and race snakes all getting after it together. Lekker man.
Once it was all said and done, the top five confirmed the debate, and the overall win went the way of the eBikers, with Chris Wagner taking first place by just over a second ahead of Matt Lombardi. The fastest overall analogue bike was not surprisingly claimed by an U18 competitor, Neil Van Der Vyver, who narrowly missed out on second overall and won his class by two seconds. Fourth overall and third eBike, local meneer Phillip Van Schalkwyk slotted himself between the two fastest analogues. Sven Etsebeth rounded out the top five overall, and took second in the U18 class, just ahead of Alessandro Lenisa. The rest of the top 10 was flooded with Under 18 riders, bar Frankie Du Toit, who took the Women’s win and pipped Joshua Ord to 9th overall.
The Men’s field failed to make an appearance in the top 10 (swak, manne), but it was Mnr Potchefstroom Christan Kirsten who took first in the category, closely followed by Adin Greyling, yours truly and Mackinley Daly, all within half a second of Kirsten. The masters class was won by local weapon Peter Futter, more than a second clear of Sven Milton in second place, and Pieter Henning in third. Futter and Milton both sneaking into the top 20, demonstrating the speed of experience, and flying the masters flag high.
In another display of tight racing, positions 27 to 32 showed a six-rider streak within eight tenths of a second, a mid-pack battle won by Hellsend Bike Shop manager, Dewald Oosthuizen with a time of 1:48.0. See the full results here
Before wrapping up the racing and heading to prize giving, riders had the option of competing in a hill sprint challenge. The idea of a short format challenge was inspired by Dayle from Lyne Components, and would entail riders lining up and racing head-to-head on a narrow, straight, and fairly steep jeep track climb. Those keen to participate were split into electronic and naturally-aspirated categories. One hill, one heat, no prizes, just pain.
After a rowdy start in the analogue category which saw one rider hit the deck (no injuries), it was PG Groenewald who took a clean win ahead of young Sven Etsebeth and racing snake Mark Van Zyl who were narrowly separated at the finish. In the eBike class, Phillip Van Schalkwyk raced ahead of Matt Lombardi to take the win, with Eugene Elliot in 3rd.
Once the racing side of things wrapped up, riders headed back to Hellsend Bike Shop for the usual prize giving procedure which naturally includes but is not limited to, cold beers, good pizza, and stoked faces. Before kicking off the podium ceremonies and prize giveaways, riders were guided through the latest projects and developments from local component company Lyne Components, with a few words from the owner designer himself, Dayle Holmes.
After some prize giveaways from Lyne Components and season partners Devil’s Peak and Pit Viper which included lucky draws, broad jumps for beer, and the best dressed award, riders spent the rest of the evening enjoying some good pizza from Gino’s, a couple of cold ones, and a whole lot of banter.
A huge thank you goes out to everyone involved in the Mates Race series for another awesome Thursday evening. The next event will take place on Thursday the 4th of December, if you would like to enter, get in touch with Hellsend Bike Shop, or click here //
| WORDS: Jordan de Goede | IMAGES: Eric Palmer |