Gravity East Series Kicks off This Weekend
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (derailedonline.com) - Gravity East embarks on the fourth season of its rock ‘n roll downhill race series at Virginia’s Massanutten Resort during this weekend, April 30-May 1. For Gravity East, “rock ‘n roll” isn’t just a metaphor or a shameless marketing ploy to attract aging (or aged) masters riders. Racers in the eight-race series must roll everything from monstrous rock and boulder gardens to speed sections that have riders topping out at nearly 50 mph on some of the fastest downhill schusses anywhere in the world.
It’s a combination that requires excellent equipment, so it’s no surprise that manufacturers have lined-up to be a part of the series. Nearly every major manufacturer sponsors a team or rider that competes in Gravity East races, and some see so much value in the series that they support it directly, sometimes in addition to their sponsored riders. Gravity East’s sponsors include, Kenda Tires, e-thirteen Components, Hayes Bicycle Group, Sun Ringle and FTW Industries, which have donated one FB10 DH frame and one S-10 Slalom Frame which will be raffled off at the Gravity East Finals in October. Mad March Racing is again sponsoring 4th place for Category 1/2/3 racers (and running its well-respected clinics at selected Gravity East events) In addition NEMA clothing not only continuing its big dollar contingency plan, it’s also providing Championship Jersey’s and other clothing for class winners.
Neko Mulally, who won last year’s Gravity East Championship on his way to a full-time spot on this year’s World Cup, said, “No other race series would prepare me better for 2010 in the World Cup.” Mulally recently confirmed that he will compete at this weekend’s Gravity East Season Opener at on the former World Cup course at Massanutten, Virginia.
Last year, the first under the direction and ownership of DHD Marketing and Promotion, Gravity East quickly grew from a regional series to one of national prominence. Not only were rider numbers up, but so were the number of mountains wanting to be a part of the series. The success of Gravity East has seen the return of gravity racing to classic venues from mountain biking’s first golden age that hadn’t seen a downhill race in years. Sugarbush Vermont reintroduced itself to the mountain bike community with a Gravity East race in 2008, and this year Killington Vermont joins the Gravity East Series as it hosts its first downhill in nearly six years. They join some of the greatest venues in gravity riding and racing. Massanutten has hosted the UCI Downhill World Cup and Seven Springs has been the site of numerous championship events through the years. New Hampshire’s Highland Mountain Bike Park is devoted 100% to mountain biking, hosts numerous national events and photo shoots, and is the prototype of mountain-bike-only parks around the world. In New York, Gravity East racers will go big as they compete at Whiteface and Plattekill mountains. The massive Whiteface Mountain, an Olympic venue and one the largest mountains in North America, hosts one of the continent’s longest and fastest downhills, while Plattekill has one of the largest network of lift-assisted trails in North America. Further south is the amazing new Vertical Earth Mountain Bike Park on eastern Pennsylvania’s Blue Mountain, the site of this year’s $5,000 Gravity East Finals.
It’s a schedule likely to scare away posers and pretenders, but it will likely attract true gravity riders like paparazzi to a pop star. “I may be showing my age a bit,” says Gravity East’s Director (and aging Masters rider) Dan McDonald with a smile, “but it’s like the (Rolling) Stones said, ‘It’s only Rock and Roll, but I like it’.”
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Posted on Apr 27, 2010 21:51:06 -0400 by Brady.