Downhill Midwest at Spirit Mountain went down this last weekend and was the finale for both the Downhill Midwest Series and the Downhill portion of the Lake Superior Gravity Series!! For the LSGS series, both the women and men came into the weekend with ties for first place! So it was expected that the riders were going to be trying hard all weekend to bring home the big checks!! With $1,000 on the line, riders were putting it all on the line!
This being the inaugural season for the Downhill Midwest series it was fun to finish with a race at Spirit Mountain!
Cat 3 got to race Happy Camper from the Happy Hub again, same as last year.
The Cat 1&2 trail was similar to the round last year, with a few tweaks. Starting with the roll in into Wrecking Ball, but at the end of Wrecking Ball the “rock jump” was left wide open. And rider took advantage of that, taking a bit of a different route across the mound. Which was more of a huck to flat than the normal jump.
Then into Calculated Risk riders went. Utilizing the left entrance into the Terrarium feature, but with a new, more direct, cut across back into the Terrarium. This entrance made a very straight line into the main feature. Giving riders all the speed they wanted! Maybe even more than they really wanted… Many riders crashing at the bottom trying to make the corner out of the section.
This year riders got to rip their way through the Talladega Berms before exiting Calculated Risk into the “Downhill Midwest” section from last year. With a bit of a different entrance and a more open tape job, making more line choice and speed available to riders. A bit more area was opened up and a new exit was used this year. Riders seemed to enjoy this section more this year than last year.
Then out into a couple of grass corners and into the bottom rock garden of Calculated Risk! Some wide tape at the exit, than a few “too easy” grass corners round out the course. With the finish line being right at the bottom of the lift.
Riders were treated to some fog on Friday morning for track walk, but that quickly dissipated and the weather for the rest of the weekend was perfect fall. Chilly in the mornings, warm in the afternoons. Just awesome temps for being out on the hill!
Saturday saw seeding runs go down. With some fast times showing up! Lilli Regenold was able to put 6 seconds into the competition for her seeding run. While Rocket Altmann was squeaked out a second over second place!
After seeding riders went to check out the new final hits on the black jump line! A big drop into some booters! These jumps really rounded out the line so well and are an amazing addition to the mountain!
There was rain predicted for Saturday night. Which had some riders nervous, but none of that rain seemed to fall on the mountain. So the trail remained fast!
Sunday started out with Cat 3 racers taking to Happy Camper!
Riders of all ages came out to tackle the course. With little rippers as young as 6 putting down race runs!
One of the highlights from the Cat 3 racing was the twins, Jake and Pete Kurth putting in almost exactly the same runs. They ended with 2:25.68 and 2:25.88 respectively. Only two tenths between the nine year old twins!!
The battle of the two top hitters in the male 12-16 group raged on as well. With Jack Smith IV getter the better of Levi Hansen by 3 seconds with a 1:42.
After Cat 3 racing concluded, Cat 1 and 2 racers got to take to their course for a practice run before their race runs.
Riders really decided to push it in their race runs compared to seeding!
Most racers put in faster times than seeding by pretty large margins! Some by as much as 12 seconds even without crashing in seeding!
With that extra push, came extra crashes. Multiple people were caught out in corners throughout the course on their race runs.
In the end, Lilli and Rocket were both able to back up their seeding run wins!
Payton McKeown was able to get within 3 tenths of a second of Rocket on the race run!
With this being the Finale of the Downhill Portion of the Lake Superior Gravity Series as well as the Downhill Midwest Finale, there were a lot of awards to get through!
Overalls for DHMW were handed out. With the series being only 3 races, and races being so far apart, not many people attended the whole series. It was still very exciting to see those who showed up be honored for taking part in the series! Christy Hammerstrom was able to create some very fun awards for the overalls this year! Thank you so much to her!
There were also prizes from sponsors like Broken Spoke and Ski Hut handed out at the awards!
If riders had raced all three stops of the Downhill Midwest Series they were entered into a drawing for a SR Suntour fork! One for men and one for women. Alesia and Corey were the winners of this awesome prize!!
As stated earlier, the men’s field was tied for LSGS coming into this race. Payton was able to win the $1,000 overall prize! Originally we all thought Kaden had second place locked in. But Rocket wasn’t far behind! And with him winning this race and Kaden finishing 4th, they tied for 2nd in the series! Rocket was officially awarded the 2nd place using the place at the final round as the tiebreaker!
Lilli and Mara battled it out, back and forth, all season long! Lilli was able to secure the win over Mara this weekend to take home the $1,000! With Christy Hammerstrom rounding out the women’s podium!
Onyx Racing made some amazing medals for the age group categories for LSGS as well!
Both series’ were such a blast this year. Lake Superior Gravity Series will look very similar next year (as always). While Downhill Midwest is working to maybe bring some new locations into rotation! So keep your eyes pealed for that!
Thank you to all the Downhill Midwest sponsors for making this race and the series possible!
Thank you to the Lake Superior Gravity Series sponsors for making the series and payouts possible!!
See you all next year!
(or at the final LSGS Enduro, Marquette Fall Enduro, this coming weekend!)
-Alex