Coffs Harbour to be Downhill capital this weekend

More than 250 downhill mountain bike riders are expected to race at this weekend’s RedAss Downhill State Series race at Mt Coramba just outside of Coffs Harbour. Riders from the local Coffs Downhill club will be able to use their home track advantage over racers arriving from as far as Canberra, Sydney and also a large number of Queensland riders will participate.

The local elite riders Samuel Collins from Moonee Beach and Matt Everett from Sapphire Beach will have a clear advantage on the track at Mt Coramba that they helped to build over the past years and that is hailed by riders as a highlight among the venues of the annual RedAss NSW/ACT Downhill State Series.

Says Coffs Downhill president Garth Roberts, “Our local guys will fly down the track – maybe even onto the podium!”

The local riders will have a strong elite racing field to compete in, including last years top elite riders with Greg Palmer (Miami, QLD), Lindsay Klein (Norman Park, QLD) as well as Brendan Moon (Engadine, NSW) and Brad Kelly from the Central Coast.

Also at the start line will be junior downhill world champion Ben Cory from Canberra and current state series leader Graeme Mudd from the Central Coast (NSW) as well as world cup racers and last year’s first and second in the U19 category, Joe Vejvoda and Jack Moir, respectively.

Event schedule
Riders will start arriving at Mt Coramba on Saturday with compulsory training runs commencing at 9 am and finishing at 4pm.
On Sunday after a training session in the morning qualification runs for Elite and U19 categories will start at 11.30am.
Final race runs on Sunday are expected to start around 12.30pm with the ceremony planned at 4pm.

Round 3 of the RedAss NSW/ACT Downhill State Series will be run in Lithgow in August and then be heading to Canberra’s Stromlo Forest Park in September and to Thredbo’s downhill mecca for the final round in November. The State Championship event will be hosted by the Central Coast Ourimbah MTB Club on 6 October 2012 at Ourimbah State Forest near Wyong (NSW).