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Near-record time set at Sima Slamfest

Massey Baker wins twice at downhill mountain bike event
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Curtis Vandale performs a back flip during Sima Slamfest at Mount Sima on Aug. 13. Fifteen mountain bikers took part in the downhill racing event. (Tom Patrick/Yukon News)

Turns out plate No. 1 was fitting for Massey Baker to have on his bike.

The 24-year-old placed first in both open men races at Sima Slamfest, held at the Mount Sima mountain resort on Aug. 13.

Baker nearly broke a long-standing record in the process in the main downhill race “Lefty Loosey.” He completed the roughly two-kilometre trail with 335 metres of vertical drop in a time of three minutes, 54.10 seconds.

Baker is just the third rider to break the four-minute mark on the course. He won the event last year as well, but with a time 20 seconds slower.

This past weekend was the eighth edition of the more-or-less annual event since 2008. The mountain bike festival wasn’t held in 2011 because of the construction of a chairlift. In 2012 the AFD Gravity Cup Downhill Mountain Bike Race — which spurred the construction of Lefty Loosey — was held instead of Slamfest.

Two-time Slamfest champ Ben Kinvig, who placed third on Lefty Loosey this year, finished the course two years ago with a time of 3:55. Calgary’s Cody Ratte did it in 3:53 — the course record — at the Gravity Cup in 2012.

Baker also placed first in the “Drop the Clutch” competition, held on a roughly three-kilometre course of a machine built flow trail, this year.

“Our numbers were down from last year and I think that may have been due to the fact that a lot of people were out of town,” said organizer Josh de la Salle. “I think next year, if we do it again, we’ll try to do it on a Wednesday night because Wednesday nights seem to be attracting more people. Wednesday nights we’ve been breaking 150, 160 participants — people at the hill. So we’ve been getting more people out during the week than on the weekend.”

Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com

Lefty Loosey

Open men

1st Massey Baker — 3:54.10

2nd Phil Beausejour — 4:03.46

3rd Ben Kinvig — 4:05.96

4th Josh de la Salle — 4:07.20

5th Julien Revel — 4:08.18

6th Sam Reimer — 4:12.95

7th Liam Mather — 4:13.96

8th Tyler Tukendorf — 4:23.88

9th Curtis Vandale — 4:54.57

10th Nigel Sinclair-Eckert — 5:31.13

11th Francis Belanger — 5:56.41

Open women

1st Ziggy Reimer — 5:58.83

2nd Egle Barnes — 6:04.65

3rd Jaylene Goorts — 6:04.98

4th Rebecca Mann — 8:51.73

Drop the Clutch

Open men

1st Massey Baker — 7:26.56

2nd Tyler Tukendorf — 7:30.41

3rd Sam Reimer — 7:31.95

4th Curtis Vandale — 7:35.46

5th Phil Beausejour — 7:39.53

6th Liam Mather — 7:49.38

7th Nigel Sinclair-Eckert — 7:59.37

8th Francis Belanger — 8:31.10

9th Ryan Soucy — 10:39.55

Open women

1st Jaylene Goorts — 8:27.81

2nd Meagan Wilson — 8:28.94

3rd Ziggy Reimer — 9:02.81

4th Egle Barnes — 9:06.57

5th Rebecca Mann — 9:39.19

Youth

1st Sapphira Oettli — 17:18.11

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Tom Patrick/Yukon News Curtis Vandale performs a back flip during Sima Slamfest at Mount Sima on Aug. 13. Fifteen mountain bikers took part in the downhill racing event.
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Whitehorse’s Massey Baker roars to the finish in the Drop the Clutch event. (Tom Patrick/Yukon News)
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Whitehorse’s Massey Baker roars to the finish in the Drop the Clutch event. (Tom Patrick/Yukon News)