Nema and Leatt's Scotty Laughland takes a podium at the Irish National Downhill Championships. Find out how he got on below:The past weekend saw the National Champs for me in Ireland. For those of you who don't know I was born in Belfast and lived there for a couple of years whilst my Dad was working for BP. I made the decision a few years ago to have a Irish license and haven't looked back. I've made a great group of new friends and really enjoy going back across for the races they hold there, but this was the big one, it was National Champs weekend!
Dad, Mum and I got the ferry across on the Friday morning and got there late afternoon in time to set the pits up and do a track walk. The track looked great; rock and technical up top, fast bermy middle section with; jumps, fast tree sections and flat loose turns before dropping through the gully to finish. A good time for elites would be sub 2.20.
Practise went well, I did 6 runs with several of them being full ones. The majority of the regualar top 10 boys had been up for a bit of sneaky practise the weeks before so I gave it a good walk and found some new lines to experiment with the following day!
Race day!!! We awoke to another great day, slightly more overcast but blue sky a plentiful, I headed up and was first rider down, I put in two good runs and my new lines were working well. Seeding I put down a solid run and came in 6th, I made a few little tweaks to my forks and I was set for finals determined I could put in a 2.14.I left the start and got a bit to wild blowing my feet off the pedals I got them back on and carried on, with a messy top section I was determined to nail the bottom and that I did. I came into second and eventually finished 5th on a 2.19 a little dissapointed but on the podium!
Thanks to everyone at Epic DH for putting on a great event! I now head out to Europe for 6 weeks non-stop racing! Can't wait, I'll keep you posted!
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