There was plenty of two-wheeled action at the top of Mount Gambier on the weekend as the Inside Line Downhill Mountain Bike Club’s State Championships hit town.
Mountain bike riders from across SA and Victoria converged on the Crater Lakes precinct to compete in the championships.
Racers took to the WheelNutz track, which begins at the top near the Centenary Tower, with the riders working their way down the hill while trying to record the best time possible.
The event attracted just over 160 riders during the weekend including around 10 local racers.
Local rider Shane de Jong was pleased with how the weekend went as well as the condition of the track.
“It was a great result overall, everyone was super happy to be there and there was a lot of good feedback on the track,” he said.
“The weather was really good, there was a good amount of rain just to settle everything down.”
Some notable local riders from the weekend included Justin de Jong who finished 7th in the Elite Men category while Shane finished 18th, but came out on top in the E-Bike section.
In the Under 17 Category which had over 60 riders compete, Deegan Watson placed 28th while Finn Mitchell finished one spot behind in 29th.
Brock Bishop had a solid weekend, finishing 12th in the Under 16s while Will Harrison placed 11th in the Under 15s.
In the Veterans Category Jason McKinnon finished on top, beating the second placed rider by 1.10 seconds.
And in the Under 13 Sweep Eddie Cram finished on the podium with 3rd place.
In the overall club competition Inside Line Downhill Mountain Bike Club won with Gravity Enduro Club placing second.
Once again de Jong was thankful for the Mount Gambier City Council and the work they did on the weekend and in the lead up with getting the track prepared.
“It was really good to see so many people down here and the feedback on the race is one thing but also having good feedback on the whole region is really good also,” he said.
Mount Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin OAM also attended the weekend and helped present medals at the presentations.
“It was really cool to see her come down and get involved and it’s good to get a bit of eyes on how many people were down there even though the weather was a bit cold, but to give the council an understanding of what were actually doing and seeing everyone having so much fun is just really good,” de Jong said.
