I have been sitting on this one since 20th December. Christmas was busy, New Year hectic and as I type this, I’m sitting at Sydney International Airport waiting for a flight to Los Angeles. 20 minutes till boarding, I’m going to knock this Rob McWhinnie race report out very quick. Check back for rad photos.
Words by Rob
Quilmana or kill-mas-gnar was only discovered 6 months ago and the tar was laid only months before that. Why this is important? Because here in Peru good roads that you can hit 90 on and are not 3000m high are hard to come by!
Yesterday APDS the local race organisation put on the first Downhill race here and the last for the 2011 championship. If you havn’t seen any footage of Killmana then check out Luca and I hittin it with speed last month.
After waking up on a beach in Asia surrounded by rubbish and a rotting carcass of what looked like a bloated donkey, Ishti, Maga and myself headed down south to get breakfast and a good car spot for the days racing, feeling a bit shady after last night’s prom that we crashed I decided to ditch my leathers until racing started. You got to understand we are in the desert with no shade and solid tail wind, so practice got under way and all the fastest riders in Peru had turned out, I was stoked to ride with the guys again, each year they get quicker and better, practice lasted 3 runs and we had a massive bus with aircon to get back up to the top.
The track consists of a steep push in leading around a left hander into a 2km straight, then a slight double s bend in to a fast right hander, a second straight of about 2kms with a little kink then two top speed left handers and a roller coaster drop to the finish, its fulltuck the whole way, drafting and position is key and a good gangster lean wouldn’t hurt. In qualifying its a bit of the case of whos got the best tuck, I was wearing just my skins and a pair of shorts and got a good time of 1:57 placing me 6th while 1st Felipe got a 1:54, must have been the scull cap that slowed me down.
Murphys Law, as soon as I said to the organisers how smooth everything was running for a change some arrogant drivers decided to break the road block and a convoy followed them, straight up the hill while the girls where still doing qualifying, well fuck it was just mayhem for a few minutes, we had to watch as the first girl came tucking into the 1st of the final lefts only to find not just a truck, motorbike and taxi but a donkey cart too!! I freaked out knowing that Maga was coming next, flipped a shit a blew up in the organisers face, calling them everything under the sun, Maga came over the horizon and made her way down but not before having to tackle a truck overtaking another truck on her way, luckily she’s the best footbreaker this side of Europe and survived, she was pretty shaken up at the bottom so was Rafa the previous girl who was almost in tears.
At that stage I was furious that the organiser had risked my wife’s life and thought about boycotting the race, after a short walk to calm down and a quick safety meeting I decided 6th place was too good a position to throw away, Maga felt confident to go down again so I guess no harm was done, racing started quick and I got positioned with my good mate Jr (Cortez) we had been riding here the last few times together and I knew his lines, we made it though to round 2 and had a hot heat with 2 other fast riders, every one pushed off hard and I drafted Jr before the first corner and held the lead down to the last corner when I heard the awesome sound of 3 riders hitting 90 drafting you getting closer and closer, then the sound of thunder, WHAT !! I turned around and the biggest dust cloud was covering the track, Jr had got a wobble right behind me and spooked out the other riders, I drifted out and ate desert gnar big time, Jr felt bad about what happened and ended up giving up his 2nd place to old mate who crashed.
Round 3 I was up with Aldo, this guy is like Benbro , big, calm, solid and fast, the plan was to just sit in his draft all the way down and smoke the others but I couldn’t resist dragging him on the straights, the 2 behind caught up close at the end but we had it in the bag.
The semis weren’t going to be so easy, we pushed off hard and just as we dived in to the first left a motorbike was coming up the track, 2 of the guys airbraked but I was on the outside and stayed in tuck, for the rest of the race the lead changed hands 6-8 times, it was what I had been missing for so long while off injured, really fast really tight and really rad racing. I had a good position in 2nd for the last corner and maybe I drafted too early, so I found myself on the inside of the corner, Aldo dived in and I had to break tuck to hold him off, that was it the 2 behind me pounced and I claimed 4th, stoked with a amazing run I was happy with it but old mate who got 3rd called a rerace cause of the motobike and we got to do it all again. This time Aldo lead the whole way almost and at the finish line myself and the other 2 where lined up all with our arms stretched out and screeming to go faster, 2nd place was taken away from me by inches and 4th was inches behind that.
Such a good time on a great hill, the finals where made up of classic riders, Felipe took the win Aldo Carella got 2nd, Jorge Mestanza got 3rd and my old mate of 45years Fico Larco took 4th, you might remember he was on the Redbull podium last year and still shreds.
In the girls final Ishti pushed off way too hard and stacked it which left it open for Marisa Nunez to sail home and take the win, Ishti had 5 seconds on her (and only 4 I think off me in the qualifiers) and was tottaly bummed, while Rafa Malaga took second for the KATA crew.
16 year old Andres Canales was the stand out rider on the day, beat me by 2 seconds in Quali and raced in the under 18s to take the win against South America’s fastest grom Gustavo, stoked for ya buddy.
Hop’s notes: I have photos but no time to upload. Check back in 24 hours for the photos
