Justin Victor Race Report Paarl National DH #1 - 22/01/2023

On Thursday, after collecting Dani (Danika Botha) in JHB and heading to OR Thambo to fly to Cape Town we met Beani at Cape Town Airport.

After building bikes and packing the bakkie we set out to have our first meeting at Leatt. After that we went for the First Track walk of 2023.
Nervous excitement was at an all-time high, it was great having the team there to compare lines and see things from 3 different perspectives before even putting wheels to track.

Friday Morning we smashed out a couple laps, got the flow of the track and getting used to the heat and very different terrain to what we are used to here. Lucky after Day 1 practice we had Robbie help us all with fork and suspension set up (doing things I wouldn’t have done without his help. THANKS Robbie!!!)

Saturday we redid the setups with Robbie’s advice and headed straight to the track.
We did our first run 3hrs after the youth categories were allowed on track so it was completely blown out and super rough.
It was incredible how my bike soaked up the chatter of small braking bumps and bit the powdery turns, so much so that I was at pace on my 2nd full run. The confidence it put in me was amazing!

Sunday Race day. The First Race of the season is always a battle of nerves. A quiet off-season amplified this substantially! We opted for one run before seeding as a practice and the track was even more blown out, meaning that we needed to ride more inside lines (being a bigger guy I normally struggle with inside flat turns but I made them stick).

Seeding was great. I rolled down in 2 minutes flat and was super chuffed as I shaved 2 seconds from my 2022 time, which was on a longer blown out track. And knowing I had a lot more to give in the race run.
Race Run:
Man oh man, I took off out that start gate like a startled baboon. I was on pace but 2 turns in I ran a little off course, carrying a lot more speed than I did all weekend, forcing me to brake hard and almost stop into the next turn. After that I put in a few super hard pedals, to try claw some time back, and not hitting the tech sections too hard! I rolled down in a 1:58 (my actual goal for the weekend was a sub 2 minute) and 2nd SubVet, losing by a mere 0.4 seconds.

Overall, I’m extremely happy with my riding. The bike was absolutely incredible and the Öhlins RXF38’s gave me the confidence to really push the envelope in the race!

Thanks so much for the support this weekend Robbie, the adjustments we made to the suspension made a world of difference. I’m excited to see how the telemetry set-up works and gain even more understanding into suspension setup.

And thanks for the ongoing support, it truly is a privilege to be a part of the brand and the RBC family.

 Justin Victor - Organic Athlete Gravity Team