Today in the desert mountain in Membrillal Ecuador it was a little more greener than yesterday's practice day. The vibe of the mountain was strong yesterday but today it feels much more alive with life. You could see a bit of orange and yellow from flowers, as well as cotton falling down from the surrounding leafless trees each time the wind puffed.
Race to qualify was the selected qualification process for this 1st ever World Qualifying Series race in Ecuador. As mentioned in the previous post 2017 IDF World ranking was used for qualifying seeds. It was a 3 round, 4 man heat. 36 heats to see how seeding for tomorrow's race day will come together.
The first round along with the first left were trying to take names, 3 Did Not Finish (DNF) in the first round suddenly gave all the riders a wake up shake. The first left your are probably hitting about the 70s while going sideways, it is not for the faint hearted at all!
In the 2nd round of qualifying the 3rd heat had a close finish with La Leonera Semi Finalist and King of the hill of the last local race here in Membrillal, Ecuador Esneider "Disyembre" Osorno (CO) just barely beating local Gustavo Campi (EC). Towards the end of the round Santiago Espeche (ARG) crashed hard on the first left and was needed to be sent to the hospital after treatment at the finish line. He is resting now but is unlikely to take part in tomorrow's repechage round.
Winner of the last race Daniel Engel (USA) was top seed for qualifying and after 3 straight wins in qualifying rounds will be taking pole position for tomorrow's race. Seeded 2nd for tomorrow is Felix Feddersen (GER) followed by Juan Duran (ARG) at 3rd. And putting a strong shift for qualifying once again is Yan Bertinati (BRA) who is seeded 4th. All of them got 3 1st place finishes, tie breaker was separated by 2017 rankings.
Tomorrow comes race day and along with this wild world will come some out of this world racing.
Notes:
- There have been a couple of kids this year who have been testing the chances of the wild Juniors in the Open category (Nick Broms and Cole Trotta). In South America, the next 4 races can give someone a chance and that opening falls strongly on another one from Medellin, 17 year old Anderson Maldonado (COL). Like the 2 other wild kids, he is insanely fast! Maldonado's only 2nd finish in qualifying was against Harry Clarke (AUS) whom he will be in a heat with from the start of the first round of Open category.
- The battle for 2nd in the World - Daniel seeded 1st, Harry 5th and Pepe 7th.
Sunday Race Day Run Down
- Practice #1
- Rider up lift #1
- Repechage Round #1
- Rider up lift #2
- Repechage Consi
- Repechage finals
- Rider up lift #3
- Open category round of 32
- Rider up lift #4
- Open category round of 16
- Rider up lift #5
- Open category Semi Finals
- Practice - Juniors, Women's Masters and Luge
- Rider up lift #6
- Finals (Juniors, Women's Masters and Luge)
- Consolation Finals (Open)
- Finals (Open)
- Rider up lift #7
