Former Lithgow boy Joel Willis has been crowned the champion of the state wide RedAss Downhill series on Sunday.
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Willis clocked the fastest time during the fifth and final round held at Lithgow’s Pony Express track to win the day’s event and the championship.
The elite rider, who now lives in Newcastle, claimed his third win in Lithgow in as many years and was certainly the person to beat.
“It’s pretty good. Bit of pressure though, everyone kind of expects the results out of you but it’s also nice coming home to what once was your home track and feeling comfortable on it and having a weekend with all my buddies,” he said.
“I was putting a bit of pressure on myself to get the three in a row… it’s pretty satisfying after a day of battling in the conditions.”
Saturday’s overnight rain made the course a more technical challenge for competitors but Willis was up to the task.
He managed a time of 2:02.549 in his first run on Sunday and backed it up by shaving off more than a second in the finales clocking 2:01.120.
Daniel Bender was almost seven seconds behind in second place with a time of 2:07.775.
My family all live in Lithgow so it’s awesome to come back and have dinner with them and feel at home.
- Joel Willis
“Great racing in the end, good competition from everyone all over the state so it was awesome,” Willis said.
“[The rain] had a pretty serious impact on the track and made it pretty tough out there. Everyone dealt with it pretty well, I don’t think there were any serious injuries, and a great day of racing all in all.”
Willis also received a boost from his loved ones across the weekend.
“My family all live in Lithgow so it’s awesome to come back and have dinner with them and feel at home… and obviously all my mates are still here so it was really good to come home and see all of them.
“It almost doesn’t feel like a race just because of how good it is to see everyone, yeah it’s awesome.”
Several other Lithgow riders also fared well on their home track.
Ethan Corney was fastest in the under 17s as was Wil Stockton in the under 13s. Pacey Stockton and Zack Hutchison placed second and third in the under 19s.
“I’ve pretty much watched those guys since they started riding back at La Salle Academy. We all went to the interschools,” Willis said.
“It’s awesome to see that the talent is developing, a strong field of riders coming through to back up the next generation will be great.”
Willis will head back into training in preparation for the Cannonball Mountain Bike Festival in Thredbo in December.
“Training pretty heavily coming into that, hopefully get a good result after last year and just keep on training through the nationals and hopefully get to a couple of world cups next year.”