Beech Race #3 and Dual Slalom at Lees McRae College

Ben Calhoun & Luca Shaw - exiting one of the mud boggs

Race Report by Luca Shaw

 

This weekend the team traveled to Beech Mountain for the third race in the Beech Mountain triple crown series. Everyone on the team was able to attend except for Eric and Lauren. When we arrived we were greeted with a brand new course and some heavy rain. The new course was wide and steep and very, very muddy. It rained non-stop for most of the day leading up to the race. By race time the course was covered in thick mud. People were having trouble putting together a clean run but fortunately everyone got down safely.

 

Junior Expert

1st- Jay Fesperman

2nd- Will O'brien

4th- Luca Shaw

6th- Walker Shaw

 

Pro

2nd- Chris Herndon

4th- Sam Pensler

6th- Ben Calhoun

7th- Tim Price

 

Sunday was the day of the Lees McRae dual slalom. The course was a little damp in the morning but perfect by race time. Since there were only four racers in the Junior Expert class we all decided to move up to Pro creating a very deep Pro class. Everyone had fast clean qualifying runs and the brackets were made. Jay, Walker, Luca, Chris and Timmy all made it out of the first round. Only Walker and Chris made it out of the second round. Going into the semi final, Chris won his bracket advancing him to the finals and Walker took second advancing him to the small final. Walker rode an amazing race in the small final and sealed third place in his first ever Pro race. Chris also rode outstanding and took the win in the final.

 

Pro Slalom

1st- Chris Herndon

3rd- Walker Shaw

 

Beech Mountain Race 2 and Lees McRae Dual Slalom

Surprisingly good Downhill course provides all GROM Jr. podium, two GROMs in Pro and GROMs stepping up in Dual Slalom.

North Carolina GROM racers ventured back to Beech Mountain for the second downhill and dual slalom races. GROMs Ben Calhoun, Jay Fesperman and Will O'Brien went to Boone on Thursday evening to particpate in a trail work event at Rocky Knob, Watagua County's new park that will include a new cross-country, and possible downhill, trail. Unfortunately, the work event was canceled due to heavy rain. Friday brought a quick trip over to Beech Mountain to check out the downhill trail.

The crew was still working on the new trail and the GROMs were able to assist slightly with trail clean up. However, they did get a a trail walk in and a chance to prepare themselves for the fun riding that would come their way on Saturday morning.

Satuday did bring fun and great riding. The weather was perfect with early morning overcast skys followed by a sunny afternoon. GROMs Luca and Walker Shaw arrive early and ready to ride. Practice was open until after 1:30 and racing started about 3:00. By that time there was a good crowd of spectators gathered to watch the racers finish the course.

Downhill Results:
Juniors
1st - Luca Shaw
2nd - Walker Shaw
3rd - Jay Fesperman

Open/Elite
1st - Christopher Herndon
5th - Ben Calhoun (podium went 5 deep - Ben's 1st Pro Podium)

Dual Slalom

Sunday took the team to Lees McRae for dual slalom racing. While the field of racers was smaller than at the downhill race (GROMs Luca and Walker had headed out for BMX camp in OH), there were still some really good races. 
Juniors
1st - Jay Fesperman
2nd - Will O'Brien

Open/Elite
1st - Christopher Herndon

Race Report: Beech Mountain Race 1 - July 10 & 11, 2010

Dual Slalom - Jay 2nd and Will 3rd - Good times had by allby GROM racer, Jay Fesperman

(July 12, 2010)  This past weekend we raced at the first race of the Beech Mountain series. Our team had a low turnout with Walker and Luca already in Colorado and Sam and Lauren unable to attend, so we only had 4 riders. With heavy rain the night before, the Beech Mountain downhill track was muddy and slick. Specialized hooked us up with some Storm mud tires that tracked extremely well on the rutted, muddy trail. With practice and the race on the same day, we had limited time for practicing the track. It was cool riding with our coach Christopher Herndon and learning his fast line choices.

            The trail had dried out a lot by race time, which made it super fast for racing. We all had clean race runs with Ben taking 5^th, Will taking 4^th, and me taking 1^st. After our runs we went up the trail to watch the Pros in a gnarly section. Christopher was scary fast, and we were sure that if the rest of his run was clean he had won. When we got to the bottom after his run we learned he had won by 4 seconds! We were all stoked on the day and we couldn’t wait for slalom the next day.

            Sunday morning started out with the Dual slalom track being tacky from the dew the night before and it got drier and dustier as the day progressed. It was a cool track, with many berms, a  5- pack roller set and some fun jumps. We all were having a great time riding the track and before we knew it qualifying started. Everyone had clean qualifying runs and felt good going into the head to head racing.  The racing started out with Ben racing Nathan Swartz, Will racing teammate Eric Vest and me (Jay) racing Reid Dressler. Will and I placed third and second respectively. Christopher placed first in the pro class on the track that he had built for collegiate nationals a few years back(Lees McRae College). We all had a great time at the Beech Mtn race number one, and were excited to head out to the U.S. Nationals in Colorado the next morning.