Steyn City Night Race
Written by: Lloyd Clark
Photos by: Mitchel Porteous
Steyn City is a new development project happening in the Northern suburbs of Johannesburg where they have built roads but not yet buildings, creating a temporary heaven for downhill skateboarders. Members of the Jo’burg Longboarders Club have been skating the spot every Thursday night for the last while and there has been talk of hosting an event there ever since Elster first found the spot in late 2014. When it gets dark, the road is perfectly illuminated by LED street lights, regardless of whether there is load shedding or not. There is nearly zero traffic on the hill at night too, so it was a no brainer that the theme should be “Lumo” and the race would be after dark.
On Saturday 30 May 2015 the time had finaly come to see who was truly fastest at this location. Skaters started gathering in the late afternoon to get familiar with the hill before dark and to help sweep the track. The street lights came on just as it was getting dark and the skaters climbed in the shuttle to head up the hill for the first offical practice run. So many practice runs were had and everyone was having so much fun that we almost forgot that we were there to race!
With only five groms being present and one of them sitting out of the race after a nasty crash in practice, the remaining four were put straight into one heat. The heat was run twice though, just to give the guys more racing experience. In the final, Connor came flying into the corner way in front but fell sending his board flying away from him. Jason came into the final corner smooth and steady as connor scrambled to get back on his board and push around the circle towards the finish line. Jason gave a few pushes to try and catch Connor but it was Connor who crossed the line in front by just a meter.
There were a total of 14 opens at the race so it was necessary to have some sort of seeding process. It was decided to have a single qualifying run with everyone in one heat, the catch being that racers would have to push around a traffic circle before heading down the hill. The push around the circle spaced everyone out quite a bit but there was still all kinds of carnage at the bottom corner! Luckily no one got hurt and the spectators enjoyed the entertainment.
The racing was done with the typical 4 man per heat format with the top two finishers progressing and the bottom two being eliminated. In the final it was Alex, Danilo, Nick and Elster. Alex held his lead after his strong push off the line. Elster came from behind and tried to drop a late footbrake and make a pass before the final corner but fell as he put his foot back on the board. Dan was right on Alex through the final corners but couldn’t make the pass and crossed the line less than a board length behind Alex with Nick close behind in third.
Final Results:
1. Alex Meyer
2. Danilo Deletic
3. Nick Simic
4. Elster Pieterse
5. Lloyd Clark
6. Nick Fischer
7. Robin Moodley
8. Wesley Antonites
9. Kyle Vermulen
10. Craig Harvey
11. Callan Daniel
12. Alic Mabie
13. Dev Simpson
14. Graham Gerber
Both Classic and Street Luge were run at this event. Elster won Classic and Andries won Street but both races were tightly contested by these two.
Overall it was a successful event with no major hiccups and loads of stoke among the riders. It was awesome to see a few newbs come out of the woodworks to participate and some of them just to spectate. Looking forward to the next one at Steepways on 27 June!
