The IGSA North American Championships will be held November 18-19, 2006 at Frank G. Bonelli Park in San Dimas, California.  Come to the Los Angeles foothills to race and spectate with competitors from across the globe, each out to grab some glory under what we hope will be sunny Southern California skies.  Downhill skateboard racers from Europe and Canada are registered to race against along present and past IGSA World Cup and World Champions, nearly guaranteeing a field of well over the 30+ skaters that competed in the races at Bonelli on November 4^th.   Seismic Skate Systems just stepped up to sponsor the DH Skateboarding class, to the tune of $500 and packs of their new 85mm SpeedVent wheels for the podium!  That's not all:  Garland Restoration will sponsor the Gravity Bike class with a $500 purse!  Expect to see the luge and inline skate fields expand, too! 

 

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This race will be bigger than previous events at Bonelli, includes “Continental Level” points for race winners and will be on a longer, modified version of Via Verde.  Parking will be in the same area used for the  California DH Series races on the “Via Verde course”, but the pits will be on the section of road usually seen in our photos of the Finish Line.  This race will use the top 2/3 of the regular Bonelli Via Verde course, but makes a hard 90-degree right hand turn at its fastest point that will require serious, strategic braking and a lot of technical skill. After negotiating the corner, the racers will head on down a straightaway to the lakeside finish line. This course was used in the early 1990’s for Roger Hickey’s organized gravity car races and will certainly add dimensions of skill, danger and strategy to the racing at Bonelli, as the corner is tight, off-camber and inconsistently surfaced.  One competitor, experienced on this hill told us, “(t)hat corner is going to be a wad-fest if racers don’t brake effectively or hit that line too wide!” 

The two-day event was originally planned for three, but has been reduced to accommodate budgets and concerns by the County Parks authorities.  So, IGSA will conduct registration and technical inspection in the afternoon on Friday the 17th for those who want to get it over with so they can maximize their practice time on Saturday morning. After that, or just instead, all gravity racers should know that  the famous Glendora Mountain Road (GMR) is only about a ten minute drive away from Bonelli and will be closed to vehicular traffic on the 17^th.   There are riders planning to skate, luge and bike there during the day, so get into the Forums on the ‘fish and hook up with them if you’re interested!

That’s not all:  in the afternoon, it’s the Badlands Skate Crawl.   All racers are invited to join the trek to three of the best skate parks in California, all located within 10 miles of Bonelli Park. Upland and its famous 22’ full pipe, Montclair and Chino with its clover leaf pool. We will meet in the pit area on Via Verde in Bonelli Park at 4:00pm to figure out carpools and leave at 4:30pm. The plan is to skate Upland from 5:00-6:30pm, Montclair from 7:00pm-8:00pm and Chino from 8:30pm-10:00pm. Afterwards, everyone will head to a local restaurant for pizza and beer (please, don’t order anything with the word “lite” in it). This is a great opportunity to skate some great parks and have some laughs with your fellow racers. Silverfish and other skate media will come out and capture all of the action.  So put down your speedboard, tilt over that gravity bike, take off the skates and grab a pool-board!  You won’t want to miss it!

IGSA is working on organizing a “Racers’ Party” on Saturday night.   We’ve heard that Marcus Rietema is looking for soap-sud guns and will break out his collection of rave tunes on his 6gb iPod, or that could possibly be a terrible rumor we just made up.  Maybe we meant that Bob Ozman called the other members of his former band, Spinal Tap, and they just need a drummer…  No, wait, it was that Danny Connor hosed out his tent and ordered kegs… er, anyway it comes out, the North American Championships should turn out to be a crankin’ racing scene, big party and great time for all involved!  It’s certainly shaping up to be the biggest race to happen in the Los Angeles area for several years.

Complete details along with registration and entry forms are available at IGSA, click here for them .  Entry fee will be $100 for the first class, $25 for the second class and $15 for each additional class. Riders 17 and under will receive a 50% discount on their entries.

SCHEDULE of EVENTS:    Fri 11/17 Registration and Tech Inspection (Pit Area) 1:00pm- 4:00pm Badlands Skate Crawl 4:30pm- 10:00pm Sat 11/18 Registration and Tech Inspection (Pit Area) 8:00am-10:00am Practice Session 9:00am-12:45pm Qualifying (Single Run) 1:00pm- 4:00pm (Order: DH Skateboarding, Street Luge, G-Bike, DH Inline, Classic Luge, Fairing G-Bike) Athlete Party (Location TBA) 8:00pm- 2:00am Sun 11/19 Riders Meeting (Pit Area) 8:00am- 8:30am Morning Warm Up 9:00am-10:30am Gravity Bike, Classic Luge, DH Inline Races 11:00am-12:00pm DH Skateboard Race 12:00pm- 1:30pm Street Luge Race 1:30pm- 3:00pm Fairing Gravity Bike Race 3:00pm- 3:30pm Awards Ceremony 4:00pm- 4:30pm