Southridge Park * Fontana, California * January 27th & 28th, 2007
dhRENO racer Eric Opperman wins the semi-pro downhill race at Southridge!!!
Eric raced to the #1 spot aboard his Intense Uzzi VPX! Andrew VanZuyen from Intense Cycles is in 5th place.
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If you want to know how to run a local mountain bike race series the right way, look no further than the Southridge Winter Race Series. Donny Jackson and his crew at the Southridge Racing Club do a first class job of putting on a great race. Fun atmoshphere, well thought out courses and the best organized races that I’ve ever attended!
That’s Donny Jackson at the grill…..
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We had major fun at the Southridge event and everyone had a great race! It was perfect racing weather and a beautiful drive down and back on highway 395.
L2R: Randy, Eric, Steve & Matt
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Southridge Downhill Course Video:
Excellent helmet cam video courtesy of David Bershefsky.
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The course took its toll on man and machine.
Eric got scraped up in practice. He crashed at the same place that David did in the course video! Matt gouged his fork lowers pretty bad at the same rock garden and Randy ripped up his jersey, both in crashes during practice.
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Short Race Video:
Eric flying thru the last rock garden on his race run. He makes it look easy- it wasn’t!
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200+ Club
Hey kids! If you wanna race Clydesdale (over 200 lbs) when you grow up you gotta train. Steve & Randy with one of their many unofficial training sponsors.
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles!
We’re still looking for an acceptable motel in Ontario (just 5 miles from Southridge) as we didn’t get much sleep on this trip either! The last time we raced in Fontana we stayed at an Ontario motel in the drug dealer’s urban jungle. This time we stayed in the middle of LA’s transportation hub. Regular high speed freight trains would scream by at 50 mph, using their air horns, just 100 yrds from our front door. (I didn’t know that freight trains even went that fast until Ontario.)
In between the freight trains, roaring jets would take off and land all night from the busy Ontario airport right behind us. A major truck stop was across the street and dozens of idling semis were literally a stones throw away from our rooms. Then there was the regular, weekend-night-at-a-cheap-motel ruckus: parties, squealing tires, loud profane arguments, car alarms and barking dogs! Interstate 10 with 12 lanes of traffic was a block away but we never even heard it over the din. If you know of a safe, quite and cheap motel close to Fontana please let us know! We gotta get some zzzzzzzzzzz.
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Links:
- More pics at Yahoo Photos
- Coverage at MBAction.com
- Professional pics at Photo Turbo
- Southridge Racing Club the folks that put this series on.
Sunset about 50 miles from LA
dhRENO.com 
Ryan and I will be going to the Southridge races this coming weekend Feb 10/11. Anyone else on the team going? I highly recommend the Hilton hotel in Ontario if you want something nice for a reasonable price – $108 after AAA discount. Beats the strip motels for $80 and they permit bikes in the room.
Thanks to all the sponsors. I’ll be back to enjoy another race at Southridge.
Congratulations!
Good job Eric!!!!
Lets not forget:
Randy finished in 4th place in the clydsdale group, he did pass a person that was in the way.
Matt was smoking at 4th place in sport.
Steve took the gold in the over 200 club, great training routine.
First of all, do not stay at the Rodeway Inn. There is way too much going on outside. As far as the rest of the trip, it was great. Donny Jackson and his team did an excellent job with the times, events and organization. This was one of the best events I have been apart of. DHRENO riders Matt, Steve and Randy rode very well. We all came back with trophies. You need to put this race on your list to do.
I agree, but also the Central Coast Dh races and XC races are equally as fun! They are low key events put on by racers who like to have good fun racing! So the times are always held to schedule and the race routes are great for racing. If you think Southridge is good, then you will love the CCCX races held in Monterey!
Steve O.
If you ever get the chance to go to a race put on by SRC and donny Jackson do so. I would agree with Steve,it is by far the best run ,most fun DH race that you can attend. Donny is one of the best hosts. He makes sure the race starts on time and finish on time. So do your self a favor and go to Southridge and join the club.