Australian National Series Round 2 - Finals' Runs

Finals runs from round 2 of the Australian National Series in Mount Baw Baw Victoria. Full Results Inside
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The finals of the second Australian National round have been run and won! As the day broke, the sun came out and with no rain falling over night it meant track conditions would start to deteriorate, once hundreds of riders commenced practice. By the end of practice, braking ruts were prevalent coming into most corners, often the racing line had been worn in to the depth of the riders’ bottom bracket. Crashes during practice reduced the starting field for the finals in both the Junior and Elite Men’s categories.


The Juniors started the proceedings under a beaming Australian Sun, the sentiment with the crowd was that the winner would come from the last two riders; Troy Brosnan and Connor Fearon. However, with downhill anything can happen and the Junior field was looking strong. Rider after rider came down and took over the hot seat, seeding played its part as there were no surprises coming from lowly seeded riders. Henry Blake held the hot seat after a smooth run on his Norco, Joe Vejvoda came down and beat Henry’s time by two seconds. Next on track was Phil Piazza, Phil made it through the chute and was traversing the lower switchbacks where he washed out on a rutted corner, he would eventually finish in 14th. Next Brandon Yrttiaho took the hot seat aboard his Giant. This left the two fastest seeded riders at the top of the hill, Troy came down with a blistering time of 3.09.24, twelve seconds faster than his seeding time, on a track that had deteriorated considerably. Connor left the gate determined to win and make up for his disappointing first round, looking fast on the track and taking tighter inside lines through the corners than most, he looked the goods. As he came charging down the final straight and through the finish it was too close to tell, everyone waited for the timing board to flash up. When it did it revealed Connor’s time, 3.09.49, Troy had won by 0.25 seconds, talk about a tight finish! Troy was happy with win, whilst Connor was disappointed to come so close but optimistic about the remaining rounds.




Elite Women followed the Juniors, there was a slight reshuffling of the seeding order for the finals. Genieve McKew moved from second to third after crashing in her final, she was still pleased with her result at her first National race. Leonie Picton won by over 8 seconds backing up her win at the first round.





The business end of the day for Elite Men saw hundreds of spectators line the course, air raid sirens, horns and whistles all made for an electric atmosphere! Many people were keen to see how Nathan Rennie would do after seeding third. Rick Boyer, on the back of his maiden victory, claimed he was “keen to roll the dice and see how it goes”. Fastest seeding rider; Rhys Atkinson, was keen to beat his older brother Bryn to be the first to claim an Elite Men’s National Round victory. Rhys said he “didn’t feel any extra pressure at the start”.
Nathan ended up in 15th, over eleven seconds off the pace after crashing in his run. “I came drifting around a corner and in my head I thought I had it, I was about to get going as the front wheel washed out from underneath me”. A cheer went up when Victorian local Joel Panozzo grabbed the hot seat off Aden Wyber by 2.13 seconds. Joel hit a rock with his foot during practice, the same foot which has previously suffered nerve damage and he was worried about it holding up for his final run. His joy was short lived though, as another cheer went up when Tim Eaton crossed the line and went into the hot seat. Ricky Boyer came down aboard his Orange and went almost three seconds faster than Tim, this left only one man in the start gate capable of beating Rick’s time. Either way, the outcome was going to be a good one, Ricky could make it two from two or Rhys could get his first Elite Men’s victory. As Rhys came into view it was hard to tell if he had done enough to grab the top position, the timing clock confirmed he was 2.10 seconds off Rick’s time. Rick was genuinely stoked to make it two from two, Rhys was a little disappointed at a lost opportunity and Tim Eaton was happy to creep up the podium after his 5th place in round 1.



A successful weekend racing wise, just as presentations finished fog rolled across the venue giving quite a change from the sunny conditions experienced throughout the day. Train spotters will note that the three winners were identical to the first round and that the Junior Men put down the fastest times of the day. Will this be the trend in the next round at Mount Buller? We have three weeks to wait and find out!