2012 Razorback Games, Hog Hill. 30th June -1st July

Ferdinand Lindner, GS at Hog Hill
Pic courtesy of Andy@sidewalkmag.com

With skateboarding once again overlooked by the IOC there was only one thing for it, organise an alternative event for the Slalom, Downhill and Longboarding community – The 2012 Razorback Games was it!  The event was run by the UKSSA in partnership with London Longboards. After a very wet start to Saturday the weather gods eventually smiled upon us and by the time skaters started to arrive at Hog Hill (Redbridge Cycling Centre) the sun was shining and the temperature rising.  With over 100 riders registered in the various disciplines and favourable weather conditions it promised to be a fantastic weekends skating.

 Saturday’s slalom racing got underway with the Dual Hybrid qualifying. Some 35 riders took part including five of our German cousins from Berlin andCologne.

As is the norm for an ISSA “Prime” sanctioned events the course was set by a home racer – Louis,  and one of our visiting riders Ferdinand. The course was a fairly challenging one, made a little tougher by the humidity and baking sun. Once the qualifying was over the riders were bracketed into A and B groups, the 16 fastest racers making up the A Group.

In the A Group the testing course was providing some great fast racing with Ferdinand Lindner from Berlin, Daniel Vogt and Sebastian Vorhoelter from Cologne giving the best of British a run for their money.  Soon the field was whittled down to the last four riders, two Brits and two Germans would slug it out for top spot. All Pavel teammates to boot!

The consolation round was between veteran UK racer Paul Price and Daniel Vogt and in the final Louis Selby was up against the lightening fast Ferdinand. Both races were intensely close but Daniel just managed to edge his way past Paul Price to take third place while in one of the closest finals seen Louis beat Ferdinand  by just 0.3 seconds to take 1^st place and the Gold medal.

Louis vs Ferdinand, Hybrid Final. Photo by Andy Turner

The only injury on our side of “The Hill” on Saturday was sustained by Nutsac’s son Cameron who dislocated his knee when stepping of his dad’s board which alas meant Jim missed out on racing but got to see a lot of Romford A & E Unit! Heal well Cameron. 

The B Group was run on Sunday morning and saw a number of relative newcomers to slalom on the hill including Hyde Park regulars Patrick Dumont and his sons Amaury and Cyprien. The Final saw Tim Neal take a well earned 1^st place from Pig City old boy Tony Lord and in the consolation round Mark Phelps beat Amaury to take 3^rd place and his first slalom podium – super stoked!

The Giant Slalom really sorted out the men from the boys…sorry and girls (Ella!) and featured some really tricky sections which made for some great racing and quite a bit of rear wheel drift! Pig City racer Dominic Barette came a cropper when after a little too much tightening lost a wheel, the moment was captured superbly by Patrick Dumont in his photo below.

Dom Barette "3 wheels on my wagon" Photo by Patrick Dumont

Ferdinand had looked really fast in practice and was really blazing; Paul, Sam, Sebastian and Louis were hot on his heels but were no match. With the cone penalty set at 0.3 just one cone could make all the difference to a racers final position. But it was the on-form Berliner Ferdy who would take the Gold, Paul Price the Silver and despite recording the fastest raw time of the day (21.90) one cone penalty was enough to drop Sam Gordon into the Bronze medal position.

Sam Gordon powering throught the GS course. Photo by Andy Turner

Prize giving done and another great weekend of fun and racing at Hog Hill over we said goodbye to our visitors and headed for home. The next scheduled event at Hog Hill will be Hogtoberfest in late October, organised by Timmy Peters, to which we have been invited to race at. Keep an eye out for news on that in the usual places in the coming months.

To the victor the spoils, Ferdinand Lindner Overall Winner. Photo: Rob Ashby

 Thank you once again to Michael and Octane for proving race support and sponsorship, ramps, timing and oodles of schwag for prizes, to Sam for all of his organisation and overseeing a very smooth sign up, thanks also to Donald and Pavel Skates for their sponsorship, T-shirt printing and prizes, Lush/Cult for donating prizes and sponsorship, Dan Gesmer and Seismic for providing race spreadsheets, Paul Keleher and Nigel Allgood for timekeeping services, Louis and Ferdinand for course setting, our German cousins for making it over and bringing the T-shirts over from Donald, and to Edwin, Martin, Paul Coupe, Tim, “Snake hips” Slaven, Harry and Mark, Gav, Dave, Rich, Jason and all the spBSA Crew for assistance with set up and breakdown – it makes all the difference.  Finally big thanks to Ian Coles and all at Redbridge Cycling Centre for hosting us again and a special thanks to Sylvia and her team for feeding and watering us – and letting us stay late on Saturday so we could finish the A group.

 We now have a bit of a break in the race program although I will be in negotiations with Brands Hatch in the coming weeks. They have given me some dates in August when we can use the GP loop, possibly for the British Championships? We are also looking at a possible return to Cyclopark for a late season race in either September or October? As ever news of any forthcoming events will be posted in all of the usual places.

 2012 Razorback Games Final Results

Special Award for Outstanding Performance – Amaury Dumont

Octane Sport “12^th Place Prize” (Penny Skateboard) – Paul Keleher