As a warm up for the National Downhill Series' first round starting next week, Paarl played host to the first Western Cape DH race for 2012. And warm it was. With the mercury already pushing 30 degrees celsius at 9am, it was going to be a tough day. Saturday's practice saw only a few riders pull through, most likely due to the heat, but in the end a field of around 50 riders took part in Sunday's race run.
The track was dry and dusty as could be expected, but nice and fast with the quickest race run time through the speed trap at 46.9kph by Stefan Garlicki. Apart from a couple of changes around midway through the track, it was the same as for 2011 and similarly, the podium featured the same 3 riders as last year.
Top spot went to Andrew Neethling, only 0.4seconds quicker than Johann Potgieter. 3rd spot went to Stefan Garlicki.
Top 10 overall:
1. Andrew Neethling - 1.48.10
2. Johann Potgieter - 1.48.50
3. Stefan Garlicki - 1.48.98
4. Jonty Neethling - 1.52.20
5. Adi van der Merwe - 1.52.92
6. Darryn Stow - 1.54.23
7. Theo Erlangsen - 1.56.04
8. Dane Olsen - 1.56.85
9. Adriaan Smit - 1.59.45
10. Gary Barnard - 2.00.34
