Sunny skies and warm temperatures greeted the 160 plus riders who showed up for round five of the Fluidride Cup Scotty Graham Memorial Race on Mt Hood. My weekend started on Friday with some epic runs down the nearby Glade Trail at Timberline Lodge with fellow Fluidride rippers Lars Sternberg and Casey Northern and our friend Javier from Chile. As the name of the lodge implies, the trail starts just above the timber line, on a moonscape like surface of decomposed granite and lunar shale. We did two runs down the 15 minute descent basking in the sunset glow with the huge mountain summit looming close behind us.

Saturday, like Friday, offered riders perfect weather for practice. We were stoked to see that there was a strong Colorado contingent present to check out the Fluidride Cup with Mike Kreger, David Camp, and friends ripping the course with all the NW riders.

Sunday dawned with yet another postcard perfect day for riders. Following a short practice session, it was decided that amatuer riders and Pro Women would get two runs each, with the best one counting, and Pro male riders would each do a qualifier to determine start order, then do TWO more race runs with times of each run combined. That’s right; three race runs in one day! Right off the bat, Bart McDaniel (Center Cycles) started the day off where he left off at the last race by posting the fastest qualifier with a 2:22. Lars (Fluidride) qualified second, with Fluidride’s Phil Wiering qualifying third followed by me (Simon Lawton/Fluidride) in fourth.

The racing went much like qualifying, with Bart Mc Daniel taking the win on each run with a 2:22 and a 2:23, besting Lars for the overall at the race by less than two seconds. Talk about close; these two riders are so close that whomever comes out ahead at the finals on the 27th and 28th will hold the first seasonal victory of the Fluidride Cup and take home the cash and cup that comes along with it. Third place went to Nathan Riddle (Fluidride) who just edged me out for a spot on the box, leaving me smiling and in fourth place for the day…stoked! Fifth place went to Mike Kreger who made the long drive out from Colorado – great racing with you Mike!

In the Semi-Pro category, Jarred Hobbs (Team Ashland/Formula) took the win with a time good enough to bump me back to fifth overall in the cash category by a tenth of a second. Nice riding Jarred!

The women’s category saw Joy Mutoli (Mutoli Racing) take the win over expert rider (soon to be pro rider) Dawn Lambert (Speedy Beavers) by one second, posting a ripping time of 3:06 on the technical track. The junior expert category was also tightly contested with Brian Guse (Dirt Corps) edging out young Harrison Phelpps (Downhill Zone) by one second. Jimmy Bass (Wheelsport East) made the trek out from Spokane to round out the top three in a very fast category.

The 19-29 expert class was super competitive, with all three podium spots on the same second. Bryan Crumb (NW racing) took first with Plunder Racing’s Chris Bateman in second, and Psycho racing’s Bryan Kieffer in third.

There are several riders who have made tremendous strides with their racing this season. Two in particular come to mind. Matt Patterson (Dirt Corps) has been cranking up the speed all year long, and with a time of 2:34 is knocking on the door of the pro riders. Matt took the win in the Expert 30-39 category by 7 seconds – Nice Job Matt! Another rider showing some serious improvement is Bones Over Metal rider/owner Mark Brent, who finished less than a second behind series leader Darrell Jamieson (Azonic/Team Sega). In the course of a year, Mark has gone from being almost a minute off Darrell’s times to less than a second. Watch out for Mark, as he’s focused and on a tear!

In additon to the riders who have made big improvements to their riding, there was another aspect to the race that really stood out. Three of the top ten pro riders were 40 or older. Bart Mc Daniel, who won the race is 43, I just celebrated my 40th last week, and was 5th overall, and BMX legend and Mt Hood ripper Darrell Young (Arrow Racing) took 10th overall for the day at age 42. I’m not sure what the deal is, but I have to say my result was heavily inspired by Bart Mc D’s riding of late – so thanks for that Bart! Of note as well is Matt Patt’s time in the Expert 30-39 which was one second faster than the winning 19-29 expert time, and just a couple seconds off the Junior X winning run – get some Matt Patt!

As the sun went down after a long day of racing, I relaxed in the hot tub at our rented diggs, and recounted the day. The next morning, I got up and went back up to the Glade Trail where my brother Tom shuttled me for three more runs before I had to let go of the Mt Hood experience and head back to Seattle. All in all it was a brilliant weekend of racing. Thanks go out to Lars and Casey for showing up early to put the finishing touches on the slalom course, and to Petr, Greg, Tom and the rest of the Hurricane Crew for a well run race.  Thanks also go out to Brad from Shiloh Cylces in Gresham Oregon for yet another great raffle, and to everyone who made the drive to Mt Hood to race, watch, or just hang out. We’ll hope to see everyone at the “Shiloh Showdown” Fluidride Cup Final on the 27th and 28th of this month. See you all soon.

-Simon

Fluidride Cup # 5 Results
Fluidride Cup Overall Points
The Overall Points can be seen here in a web app that Matt Patterson created. While the results should be the same, Matt Patterson uses a slightly different way to calculate the points. Greg of Hurricane Racing (Skibowl) waits until the last race to drop the lowest results. Remember a riders gets to drop their two lowest results, other than the final. Riders who fail to show up for the final will be awarded points from their best three races of the season.