Photo by: Scott Harrison Photography 2012
words by Andi
Friday Day 1: Seven hours on the road stuck in 401 traffic to get to our final destination for the weekend. Treasure Cove cottages, about a fifteen minute drive from the race course and it's totally pitch black. Two coyotes run past our car as we're about to park, an interesting start to an epic weekend.
Finally meeting up with another rider we headed into town for a brew or two, happy to run into a few familiar faces. Liz Kinnish and Patrick Switzer greeted us at the Acoustic Grill, a very quaint yet local filled bar bursting with loud personalities and hilarious cackles of laughter. A few rum and cokes down the hatch and it was back to the cabin for some late night fishing and rest. Tomorrow was practicing and qualifications and there was no way I was going to be too hurtin for that!
Saturday Day 2: Maybe it's just me, but I'm always very leery waking up on pre-race or race day, I always lie very still and try to notice if there is sunlight outside or the dreaded sound of rain. Lucky for everyone, it happened to be one of the most beautiful mornings I've seen in a while. Sun shining, dew on the ground. Shit, it's 9:00am and were running late! RUSH TO THE HILL
So with the same ol riders meeting out of the way it was time for the first bus load of riders to head to the top of the hill. For anyone who showed up fashionably late, the trip to the top was filled with nervous anticipation of what the rider-made chicane in the straight was going to be like. I mean, we are bombing through that section at over 70km/h!
I was truthfully expecting to have to slalom through hay bails, needless to say I was mildly surprised coming out of the chicane to see that the straight was nothing to worry about.
Having the main chicane repaved a few days before the event really made the race different this year. Such a switch in pavement going from the body shaking, foot numbing first part into butter smooth black pavement of the chicane. Seeing as PEC is a lot of riders first race I suppose that was nice of them to repave that section and make it a little easier. In all honestly I prefer it how it was before, you really had to stay on the ball (so to speak) when navigating your way through and past all the potholes and bumps.
Practice runs ran smooth with the not so massive surprise of Patrick Switzer leading the way with a qualifying time of 1:21.226, Yet again KILLIN IT! Niko Desmarais of Kebbek boards was not even a second behind Switzer with 1:22.526 and Quinn Finocchio and Luke Melo both pumpin out a quali time of 1:22.836.
The first day of runs and qualifications were great, one of the things that makes PEC so special is how many runs you get in on a closed hill. It's amazing that by the time I hit qualifications my legs were pooched from all the runs I had earlier. No complaints coming from over here, I qualified a total of ten seconds faster than last year! As with every year, riders headed over to the skate park to get a little session in before the dinner and during the autograph signing. For those of you who have never been to Picton let me tell you, they have one of the nicest outdoor skate parks I've ever had the privilege of skating! Straight up killer park! Onterribles own Eric Jensen of Comet boards ripped that park like there was no tomorrow!
I would be insane not to mention the surprise mini-screening of the currently un-finished and un-released Escarpment Surfers documentary. If you are an Ontario rider and you don't know who the Escarpment Surfers are, you are TOTALLY BLOWING IT!
Sunday Day 3, Race Day: Maybe not my smartest move to drink as much as I did last night, Oh well. 8:30am and time to head into town. An hour looking lineup at Timmies caused us to actually be on time today. De ja Vu! riders meeting, gear up, switch wheels, jump in bus, to the top of the hill!!! I don't know what those bus drivers were drinking that Sunday, but whatever it was, it worked! Those buses ran so smoothly. It's really amazing to be able to come down from a run, get right on that bus and get to the top in five minutes to do it all again. They kept this pace all day and from a riders point of view it really couldn't have been improved upon, three buses seems to be the magic number!
Racing was underway and man were the riders looking strong. The race was going to be an epic one this year for both the men and the ladies, and nobody was getting off with an easy medal or trophy. Crash corner was filled with spectators, photographers, parents and the OPP and everybody was excited for the race to begin. In Ontario we don't have a Striker on the microphone, but we have something those kiddies out west don't. We've got a smooth Lion to serenade the spectators as the riders charge down the hill and man does he do a bang up job!
Riders were in it to win it and that was obvious after witnessing a few of the race heats. The riders that went down didn't just go down easily, they went down and out with a bang and poof of hay! The bails were harder and the riding was so close with riders being eliminated with less than an inch between them. For the Junior 1 Logan Whyatt looked to be the man to win, and by that I mean towering over the other Juniors by at least a foot and my guess of over 50 pounds. The kid is a solid rider and if he keeps it up he's gunna be some tough competition in the future of open class! Logan killed it all day winning every heat to be the Junior 1 champion. Junior 2 was intense! These guys are damn good racers and to think, they are under 18? That's just nuts. These guys are giving the pros a run for their money. Quinn Finocchio nailed it! His riding was rather impressive all weekend starting with him qualifying in the number three spot and finishing with him winning the Junior 2 class. Womens downhill was intense this year because there were actually females racing. Cindy Zhou came to PEC as her first race and proved with a number one Qualifying time that she was gunna be tough competition for past winner Andi Leslie. Other Newcomers to the race scene were Michelle Poirier and Diane Shaher making the womens heat 4 strong. Diane took a nasty spill and deserves all the credit in the world for continuing to race against what paramedics were telling her. The ladies raced amazingly and Cindy managed to snag her first IGSA win.
Onward with the open class! The crowd had a favorite and his name was probably mentioned a total of a million times that weekend. He was going for a hat trick being the only rider to win open class at PEC. His name is Patrick Switzer! Impressive racing seemed to be a theme of the open class with Jakoop, Cam Brick, John Barnet, Niko and a ton more riders giving Pat a run for his money. At the sidelines riders were joined by more and more friends and fallen riders as the anticipation for the finals grew. The crowd started to grow around the finish line and photographers started heading down to the bottom for that perfect photo. Smooth Lion informed us all on who was heading into crash corner. Was pat going to take it again?
Pat came into crash corner with Niko following in close behind, they both come clean through the corner. Barnet is next with Cam Brick right behind, Barnet just clips the hay, but with Brick so close there was no avoidance. The two smash into each other with Barnet giving Brick a good clean kick to the face mid fall. Patrick Switzer takes it again with Niko Desmarais in second, John Barnet 3rd and Cam Brick 4th.
As a racer and I'm sure I speak for most riders when I say this, Thank you to the Parks family, volunteers and to all sponsors for making this event happen!
See you all next year!
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