I hate having to write negative reviews on an event so I was stoked to be racing in Tauranga this weekend! Tim Lawton and the Tauranga boys had done a stellar job on the race setup and had smashed a wicked track out of a pretty small hill.

//George Brannigan
FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS HERE

The track was full of dusty powdery off camber turns, roots and all sorts of other goodness. Everyone was pretty stoked on the track I think and despite being a little cattle class the transport ran pretty smoothly and kept the 150 or so riders flowing up the hill nicely. There was definitely no shortage of dust up in the trees with more than a few riders coming down covered head to toe. It was an awesome track for spectator access and the bottom area of the course offered plenty of excitement and spills with a beautiful dust hole on the corner just before the last chute. Not quite sure there were 3000 spectators there though.

//Scolsy
FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS HERE

It was a bit of a weekend for come-backs. We had Matt "Hillsie, hillbilly" Hyland back on a big bike in elite, Byron Scott who was later arrested for burgling master's class and even Vaughan Woolhouse crawled out of the woodwork, winning under 19, only to break his ankle later at the jump comp. And even James Baron made a comeback to drunk spectating! I also heard there was some guy from china racing?

The racing was pretty tight through most of the classes with one crash pretty much putting you out of contention. It was good to see the world's largest hobbit, Cam Cole on top of the podium in Elite! Former team mate Luke Strobel was looking pretty competitive, posting the fastest time in seeding, however, crashed out in race run. Sizzle also lived up to his name, got too excited and blew it before the finish line!

//Sizzle goes down
FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS HERE

Eddie masters provided some entertaining commentary throughout race day, hobbling around on his kankle. I'm pretty sure eddie has at least 5 different nicknames for each rider!

FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS HERE

After the race everyone flocked to the finish area to see a bunch of guys in tight jeans doing stuff most of us wouldn't dream of on a bike. And of course, the one thing everyone was waiting... and waiting to see, Donny's backflip.

//Donny
FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS HERE

Little brother Scott was also having a crack at a 360, which he did finally pull off!

//Donny Junior
FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS HERE

Additional entertainment included a drunk muppet that had never ridden a downhill bike before dropping into the last chute and the first of the finish area jumps and he was stoked with him self (and rightly so, he cased the s*!t out of the jump, but made it - I did see worse from some people racing!) So who knows, mabey we'll see this guy racing next time (sober I hope)

FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS HERE

FULL GALLERY OF PHOTOS HERE

A top event, congratulations to all involved and other REO's, take note. I'm sure I said this to a few people over the weekend, the last few times I've been to a downhill race I've come away thinking, so this is why I don't race downhill anymore... but after this weekend, damn it, I'm going out and getting myself a downhill bike!