IFR · news · Mar 07, 2018

Tight Racing in Bright for National Champs

Alpine Victoria is home to several incredible mountain biking destinations, but Bright holds a special place in the hearts of Downhill Racers across the country. Steep, dusty, loose, rocky and off-camber with around 450m descent from the start area (which is also used by paragliders) to the pine-forested valley floor below.

With Jack looking to defend his national sleeve, and Dean ready to throw down on his local race trail, it was sure to be an exciting weekend for Intense Factory Racing and a number of M16 Pilots across the wider race field.

Jack chasing down Elite Women's veteran Tegan Molloy during practice. Come racing, riders would appreciate the extended time gaps to improve visibility on the ~4-minute course. Straight off the back of muddy testing conditions at Team Camp, most of practice was spent tuning the guys' suspension and bike setup for Sunday's main event.

As part of the Intense Cycles display, we also provided demo experiences of the 2018 Primer, Tracer and Carbine on some of the great all-mountain trails of Bright's Mystic MTB Park.

Are you keen to demo a new Intense? Join our mailing list at the bottom of the page for updates on the 2018 Demo Calendar.

IFR Rider's bikes, Intense Australia Ambassadors and demo fleet taking over; Intense Cycles brand stoke was strong this weekend in Bright.

Dean Lucas dominated Saturday afternoon's seeding, clear of SA's Connor Fearon by more than 6 seconds. An over-the-bars excursion for Jack would put him back in the start order, but not far; promising an exciting race for the fans and teams alike on Sunday afternoon.

Shannon Hewetson finding grip aboard his M16C on one of the many dirt chutes of the Mystic DH trail. After seeding 9th, an off during racing would see Shannon's podium hopes dashed, but we congratulate him for a solid weekend of racing and wish him a speedy recovery.

After taking a flat in Seeding, Troy Brosnan held the hot seat with a clean race run well into the pointy end of racing. As Jack sprints to the finish line, nothing is guaranteed!

A valiant effort by Jack saw his finishing time of 3:46.87 - just 0.00.09 from claiming the National sleeve for a second consecutive year from Troy.

Stealing the show, however, was a determined yet defeated Dean Lucas, slightly weight reduced after leaving his seat and seat-post halfway down the trail as a result of meeting a tree head-on. Amazingly, Lucas completed his race run with no seat and retained a spot on the podium to take 5th place, 0:11.59 seconds off the winning pace.