IGSA California Downhill Series | Finale

On Saturday, December 2, the sixth and final race of the 2006 IGSA California Downhill Series was run under beautiful, sunny, Southern California skies. As always, racing on the Via Verde course was fast and furious with a number of heats requiring video review to determine the winners.  Riders were clocked in excess of 50mph the entire day with good drafting skills being the key to success.
In Downhill Skateboarding, Brent DeKeyser won a close race over John Rogers.  At the last minute, Sector 9 stepped up to sponsor the class, and sported a deck and completes for the entire podium!  Roland “Lit” Sumile ran one of his best races to date and earned a very respectable third place, his second trip to the podium in his first year of racing.  Sumile was stoked to have managed a podium of both of the courses in the series.


With his second place finish, John Rogers clinched the 2006 California Downhill Series Championship with a total of 1134.99 points.  Andrew Sawyer, displaying a notable late-season surge in speed and style, earned second place in the Championship with 1023.99 points with Sumile following close behind in third with 1011.48 points.


An exciting new addition to the event was a Junior Downhill Skateboarding class for riders 17 and under.  There were five skaters in the event, each of whom raced in a three-heat format, earning points for each finish.  Nick Natividad won the race with Riley Meehan finishing second and Joshua Natividad in third.  All the skaters were really stoked to have their own class and the crowd of spectators and racers gathered to cheer for them as the Juniors ripped to the line in close formation all three heats.


Although she didn’t race in the season finale, Judith Rogers earned the Championship in Women’s Downhill Skateboarding and told the Silverfish reporters she’s hoping to have”Downhill Divas Isabelle Caudle, Carly Richardson and Lynn Kramer to race with next season.

In Street Luge, it was Mike McIntyre who took the win with John Fryer charging down the hill to finish second on the podium on his first race at Bonelli.  Brent DeKeyser  leapt off his speedboard and onto his street luge to finish third for the day.  John Rogers finished in fourth and added the 2006 Street Luge Championship to the one he earned in Downhill Skateboarding.


Rogers earned a total of 1110.11 points for the season; McIntyre finished the Championship in second with 1094.19 points; Tyler Wendtland earned third with 1091.70.  Christian Conaway won the Jr Street Luge race and Championship, too.

Both the Garland Restoration Gravity Bike class and Championship were won by Mike McIntyre, after a day of great racing.  Noah Rutherford, posting fast times right behind McIntyre all day, finished second in the race and also in the Championship points, with Tyler Wendtland taking third in the race and Jon Williams finishing third in the Championship.



The Jr Gravity Bike race and Championship were won by the 9-year old speed demon, Tabitha Collins.
Scott Peer won the Downhill Inline Skate race, and George Merkert took the Championship honors.  Tyler Wendtland won both the race and the overall Championship for Classic Luge after a season of domination and podiums.  In his final two heats, Wendtland hit 51mph at the finish line, a new record on the Silverfish Longboarding Radar Gun for classic luge!  Christian Conaway won the race and the Championship in Jr. Classic Luge.  Fermin “Hot Rod” Rodriguez took the victory on Saturday, riding his beautiful, ¾ fairing bike and clinching his series Championship in Fairing Gravity Bike.


A special thank you goes out to the sponsors of the 2006 Season including Garland Restoration, GFH Boards, One West Clothing, Silverfish Longboarding.com, Abec11 and Sector Nine.  Also deserving a big thank you are our Starter, Art, Corner Marshal, Anthony, Truck Driver, “Mo”, and Nini, who handles the registration.  Now there will be a break for the next few months before the 2007 California Downhill Series will resume in February.



On behalf of the entire team at Silverfish Longboarding, congratulations to Marcus, Bob and the IGSA team for a fun and successful 2006 racing season!  They put in a lot of effort to make the SoCal racing scene a reality for gravity racers, designing courses, planning the season and setting haybales at midnite (once in the rain).  They put out safe, well-run events with insurance, medics and an open, party atmosphere in the pits.  They  let us run the Speedboard/Inline challenge races (tie-breaker in ’07!!) and loan leathers helmets and advice to new racers –including the deadly new class of SoCal speedboarders from Silverfish.  This is the kind of stoke we’re all about, and it’s been worth the time and effort to support IGSA, especially when we see the resurgence of Speedboarding throughout SoCal!   2007 promises to be another great season, and we’re already daydreaming about the Maryhill Speedweek.   See you all in February, on the hill!

Written by Silverfish

To see the Silverfish Race Day Gallery:  GO HERE.
 
To visit IGSA, GO HERE .