August 7, 2007 (Barrie, ON) – For many the Civic holiday long weekend Aug 4/5/6 weekend means going to a cottage and relaxing on a beach somewhere. Well to be honest this weekend wasn’t far off, over a month without rain turned the former Canada Cup DH course into a sandbox.

Nonetheless most said they prefer this to a rain soaked mud pit and I’d have to agree. A brand new lower section aptly called “a lesson in high speed off camber” became the nemesis of many and it is quickly turned into a high and low line section, where those up top were gaining seconds over those in the low line. Luckily Team Commencal/Dropmachine.com was there to put on their 2nd FREE DH clinic of 2007 to more than 20 riders who wanted to spruce up their skills and knock seconds off their race runs. Many thanks to Team Commencal/Dropmachine.com, especially Matt Zdriluk and Brian Serneels.

The women were the first down the course and Sheila took another win in her career, followed by Collingwood local and XC racer Stephanie Adams, Kristen Courtney took 3rd.

Women
1. Sheila Morris (Gravitesse, Barrie) 1:58.451
2. Stephanie Adams (Kamikaze Racing/EMD Serono Cycle Logik Racing, Hamilton) 2:15.320
3. Kristen Courtney (Toronto) 2:21.097

Junior Ex boys were screaming fast, pulling in times that would have had them taking the top 5 spots in senior expert and 3rd in Pro. Matt Zdriluk (Team Commencal/Dropmachine.com) continued his performances from the nationals in BC by posting the win in Jr EX and the 3rd fastest time of the day! He was followed by Kyle Griffiths in 2nd and Andrew Gotuaco narrowly behind in 3rd.

Junior Expert
1. Matt Zdriluk (Team DropMachine/Commençal, Beamsville) 1:44.715
2. Kyle Griffiths (Fergus) 1:47.609
3. Andrew Gotuaco (Sweet Pete’s , Collingwood) 1:47.869

Finally the Pro Men made their way down the slopes, would anyone beat Zdriluk’s time? Yes! Justin Brown (Cycle Solutions) pulled out a screaming time of 1:42 putting him ahead of Drew Pautler (Sweet Pete’s) by .600 seconds, Ondrej Neumann (Sweet Pete’s) rolled in at 3rd.

Pro Men
1. Justin Brown (Cycle Solutions/Angry Johnny`s Racing, Brampton) 1:42.026
2. Drew Pautler (Devinci — Québec, Brampton) 1:42.629
3. Ondrej Neumann (Sweet Pete’s , Mississauga) 1:45.512


For Full Results click here.

For Series Overall Standings click here.

Next up is O-Cup 4X #2 at Milton’s Track 2000, Aug 18th and after that it is the prestigious Provincial DH Championships at Camp Fortune, anyone can race this event so I look forward to seeing you all at “the Dump”.

I can’t thank enough our amazing support staff, Lee Allen, Kris Somers (MC/DJ), Allan Hawley and his timing staff, Pro Patrol and Horseshoe staff (Kris and Rowley) and of course the amazing volunteers and sponsors:
Cycle-Solutions.com Bike Store, Ventana and Foes, FHRTrading.com, Norco Performance Bikes, Want Beverages, Commencal bikes, Kenda Tires, Titec Components, BMO, CIBC, Dropmachine.com, Privateer Racing, Hydro One, YODO bike, E-13, Atomlab, Azonic and Axis Racing Gear.

See you at DH Provincials

Peter Appleton

For all results and Ontario Cup DH/4X racing info go to
www.sirbikealotracing.com