After Saturday’s practice, many eager and anxious racers gathered at Windrock for the first Downhill Southeast race of the year on Sunday. A hot and humid qualifying day would leave many racers planning ahead and packing the shuttle line for practice well before the scheduled 9 o’clock race start in hopes of beating the heat. While making their way through packet pickup and into the shuttle line, a mishap with one of the shuttle busses occurred resulting in the truck finding its way into a ditch with trailer in tow. Although it was an unforeseen bump in the road, no one was injured and many jumped in to resolve the situation and free the truck from its temporary dwelling.
Then, the real excitement got underway with a record-breaking 230 racers taking to the course promptly at 9 am. Many had made the comment that the course was quite slick compared to qualifying, and after witnessing many racers wash the front in corners, it was easy to believe them. With a delay due to the shuttle conundrum, many racers were only able to complete one practice run and chose to use that as more of a track walk as opposed to a practice run. Seasonably challenging conditions were to be had due to the greenery that has engulfed Windrock creating shadows leading many racers to find themselves in unseen holes. Despite the tricky and challenging conditions, racers were simply happy to be back between the tape.
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