Shits Invitational Flash Race
Written by: Elster Pieterse
Photos by: Alic Mabie, Elster Pieterse, Nick Fischer
Named after the pungent scent of human faeces coming from the sewerage works at the bottom of the hill, The Shit Run is my favourite hill in the Jo’burg area. It’s technical with 3 hairpin corners, it’s fast between the corners and it’s technical. Yeah I said technical twice! It’s not easy getting through those corners in one piece, never mind in front.
I arrived at the hill at 8:05 to see the LongboardingSA gazebo already setup, prizes were on display double elimination race brackets printed out… It was like I had arrived at a formal race! Thanks Lloyd.
The rest of the JLC crew slowly pitched up in drips and drabs. Instead of having any form of qualifying, we decided to seed everyone in the order they arrived.
We were well into our practice runs by 9am which is record timing for skaters on a Sunday morning! A lot of fun was had during practice with many mob runs while we each took turns to drive the shuttle. The more experienced guys made a hasty effort to dial in their lines while the newer guys were skating at their own pace and taking tips from the rest. At 10:30 we all met for a brief riders meeting where Lloyd explained how the complicated double elimination brackets would work.
Luge was to race first with only three entries; Andires was there to defend his title! It was close racing/wrestling between Andries and myself with Berni following closely behind. Shits is a really tight course for luge reaching up to 70kms and having to come to an almost complete stop for two of the hairpins.
Luge Results:
1. Elster Pieterse
2. Andries Haasbroek
3. Bernie Moolman
The stand up guys continued with practice runs during the luge races. Rruns were a plenty, that’s for sure!
Finally we began with 1 on 1 racing for the skaters who do it standing up. With only one person to race against at a time it was a true test of skill and experience. There was no waiting for everyone else to crash and then coming through for the easy win. Either you we at the front or you were at the back. Win or lose. It was that simple.
With the Double elimination racing bracket each rider would have to lose two heats before they were out of the race. That made it a bit more fun for the newer guys especially since everyone would get at least two race heats.
There were some really close heats between Dan and Lloyd (Lloyd used a sneaky push to get back in front after corner 2), Myself and Nick (we crashed into each other in corner 2) and then Myself and Lloyd (neck and neck into the final corner). Lloyd managed to make it through to the finals after not losing once. Dan managed to claw his way back to the finals after narrowly losing to Lloyd early on and beating me in the repecharge final. It was interesting to see the different styles as guys came flying into the corners but at the end of the day it was down to Dan’s insane skill and Lloyd’s extensive race experience that was needed to get to the final.
Dan and Lloyd lined up for the final run with everyone else eagerly waiting at the final corner in anticipation. The first corner was closely contested with Lloyd making it out first and then Dan passing Lloyd on the straight between corner 1 and 2. At corner two they collided with their boards locking together. It was an anxious moment as they struggled to get their boards apart before kicked off to take on the final left corner. Dan got there first with Lloyd hot on his heels. Lloyd nailed a great line and had enough exit speed to pass Dan 10 meters before the line! Exciting stuff!
Skateboard Results:
1. Lloyd Clark
2. Danilo Deletic
3. Elster Pieterse
4. Nick Simic
5. Craig Harvey
6. Connor Robert
7. Graham Gerber
8. Robin Moodley
9. Seb Schneider
10. Alic Mabie
Thanks to all that lent a helping hand and contributed to another successful Flash Race. Seb for the use of your bakkie as a shuttle. The Nicks (Black Sheep) for bringing the foam and a trailer. Aandries for driving the shuttle while the skateboarders raced. Amy and Bernie for helping with admin while everyone else was down the hill. LongboardingSA and Pioneer DJ Institute for sponsoring the prizes.
Here is the video edit by Black Sheep:
Join the Invitational movement by emailing bookings@pioneerdji.co.za
Hope to see you at the next one!
Elster.
