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NPS Round1

Crash Test Dummies Round 2 Pictures by Zipzooka and Repo. By Docrex.

Well I feel like a news reporter, reporting on some kind of national disaster. Having looked around on the forums it’s obvious there are a lot of disgruntled riders having spent a lot of money to get there and travelled stupid distances. When so many things happen in one weekend it’s really hard to think of anywhere to begin so I guess the best place is the beginning.  I turned up on Saturday morning at 7:10am as I had been informed from one of the riders onsite that the camping was already looking limited.  As I pulled into the field at speed to try and avoid getting stuck I managed to get a whole 6 meters in before coming to a complete stop due to the shear depth of mud.  Luckily for me a couple of people were awake and came to my rescue and pushed me to the nearest patch of grass. I decided here I would stay for the remainder of the weekend, it really wasn’t worth getting any further in you only stood more risk of been hit by sliding vehicles.   I decided to go and have a look at how the course was fairing after a Friday evenings riding and it soon became apparent that we were in for one HELL of a weekend.  Having been there a few weeks before on an uplift day and having a really good days riding, apart from the uplift waiting times, I  noticed they had changed the course  considerably in the middle to avoid some boggy off camber section which is laughable when viewing the alternative. After my first run on the new section which was a series of large rock step downs followed by tight turns for more step downs, I arrived at the same location to see the tape had been changed and with out rambling on about it too much every time I got to this section it had changed.

Race Video

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Again when on my third run I stopped and asked the commissioner  if this was the final line that the drop was staying out and was assured it was. Then when I got to the bottom finally after paddling my way through the muddy, grassy, cloggy, shitty mess that they were calling a track. I got to the bottom and heard rumours of seeding being cancelled and practice extended due to course changes. I hasten to add no actual confirmation from any official source or any announcements about track changes were made.  So I thought I’d go back up and have another run.  Just as we reached the start the thunder started and the heavens opened with a nice lashing of hail stones. Racing down the track hardly being able to see I came along to find the line no longer going to the right but instead miles away to the left. NICE!!!! Really I started to get the feeling I was paying to run a track in and the old feeling came back to haunt me CRASH TEST FRIGGING DUMMIES……. I’d had enough for the day and decided to retire to my camp and have a well earned rest, when looking up the hill I realized yet another course change was taking place a whole 120meter course change to exact, the icing on the cake…….  I awoke the next day nice and early to get a couple of runs in on the new course before the race and had a really fast up lift only waiting around 10 minutes,  which was the best all weekend, most of the time it took up to an hour to get in the trailer. I saw somewhere on one of the posts on a forum saying the tractors could only go one way at a time, he was obviously wasn’t a rider as the tractors where running both ways and for the size of the hill, really were doing their best to make it as fast as possible. They could have done with a couple of extra tractors on hand but until they stick a cable car in here uplifts will always be long, It’s the nature of the game. Although when it came to the race runs the tractors where all sat idle at the bottom of the hill waiting for riders this made me laugh nobody wanted to get up the hill early before their run due to the wind and rain which did ease off in the afternoon and became rather bright for a time. MORE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Pictures supplied by Zipzoka Another slant on the weekend will be online later this week from other source.