March 7-8, 2009
Fontana, CA
With only the finals left in the Winter series this was going to be the race to set the stage for what the overalls could be. "EC" Eric Carter has a firm hold on the overall with winning almost every race in the series. Waylon Smith although currently tied with Jason Memmelaar has a pretty solid lock on second considering the winter series uses your best 5 of 6 races. It could still come down to the finals to see who gets second and third. 4th is currently KHS rider Logan Bingelli and Jon Buckell 5th with myself in 6th. However I did not do the first race of the series so providing I can put a solid finish in at the finals chances are good I can end up 4th. Rich Houseman is currently 7th who is in the same situation as me with missng the first round which means he has a good chance of taking over the 5th spot if he can finish well at the finals and most importantly finish in front of Logan which as of yet I don't think he has done.
Once again I was able to take the win in the XC, but it was not so easy as I was feeling some heat from second place finisher Saliamonas who took advantage of a crash I had during the first lap. It took me the rest of that first lap to pull it back together. I felt pretty rough out there but in the end I had a better finishing time this week than last.
The downhill was a detour from the previous few courses that kept the pace fast. This time there were numerous tight loose turns that killed all your speed. Courses like this mean big braking bumps and turns that are hard to keep your speed in especially when staying clipped in on the pedals. So for the first time in a reallylong time I opted for flat pedals. I actually had fun carving the corners with a foot out. However I still managed to pull a dope move mid way down and completly missed my line and shot off on the edge of the trail and had try and ride through some rocks I would normally just launch over. At the finish I was totally wiped out and thought at best I would be 10th. But as results were posted I was listed in 5th which tells me the other guys behind me must have some similiar issues. Hopefully next time I can save a little more energy for the DH and be a little more on point. My 5th was barely a second off of first so everyone is really close except for EC who was almost 5 seconds ahead of 2nd!
The plan for next time is to stop counting the seconds and just put in the very best run I can.
-Joe Lawwill
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