Race Report: Southridge Winter Series #1, Fontana CA January 8, 2012
Downhill Racing for the year kicked-off at the Southridge Winter Series this past weekend. Race #1, of the five race series, was held at Southridge Park in Fontana, CA. Racing took place throughout the weekend, with cross-country racing, Super-D, and four-cross racing on Saturday, (along with downhill practice). Sunday had downhill practice in the early morning, with racing getting underway shortly thereafter.
McKenna made the 1-1/2 hour drive up to Fontana on Saturday morning to check out the course, and get some practice in. The course was the same one she raced in October, so she was pretty familiar with it, and got comfortable and up-to-speed fairly quickly. Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, but the high-wind advisory warned of a difficult day on the hill. McKenna started off Sunday with a safe, cruiser practice run, trying to see how the wind would affect her. It was blowing hurricane speeds at the top, but as soon as she left the start ramp, it seemed to not be an issue. That is, until the "wall". Along this pedaling section, the tremendous headwind slowed her to a mere crawl as she pedalled in vain to maintain speed. She knew she would have to give it her all if she wanted to get a good time.
Once again McKenna took the shuttle to the top to get ready for her race run. Her category was the last on the start list, and McKenna would be the last rider down. The starter counted her down, and she was off. Pedalling into the first right hand turn, which had a slight drop, you could see she was on a mission. McKenna was able to ride the entire top section without a problem. As she came into the lower half, just after the road crossing, there was a series of rocky sections which had to be navigated. McKenna made a quick left hand turn, and as she was dropping down the first rock face, flipped over the bars, and fell to the bottom of the rock pile. This crash broke her rear brake lever, which in turn made her crash again on the next rock section. Thankfully, all this was near the end of the course, and she pedalled her hardest into the head wind along the wall.
McKenna crossed the finsh line in a time of 5:16. Visibly upset, but physically fine, she was most concerned about what she did to her bike. Her mechanic assured her it could be fixed or replaced, which cheered her up. She starts the series out with a first place and 100 points toward the Winter Series Overall. Race Results, Upcoming events, and Series information can be found here: http://southridgeusa.com/index.php The next race will be in 2 weeks. McKenna would like to thank all her family, friends, and fans for following her racing exploits. Big Thanks to Ryan and the crew at Troy Lee Designs for the new race gear, and Frank at Trito Imaging for making it look awesome.
You can check out McKenna's crash sequence in her race run here:
