http://www.hilltopgrasshopper.com/

This was an all kids mountain bike race at Hilltop Reservation in North Caldwell (yes, that IS in Essex County). Great weather, great event, great showing and great race!

I got some awesome pictures I’d like to share with all the kids that raced, they are totally free. Feel free to do with them as you please. The prints ordered off my site are very cheap as well, or just download your full size photo.

http://gtluke.smugmug.com/Biking/2010-Hilltop-Grasshopper

The kids are awesome, this is why I love this sport.

All the pics:

http://gtluke.smugmug.com/Biking/2010-Taconic-909-Challenge

And another Maddawg race that goes flawlessly and super super fun.

Check out the “Bonus” pictures for after race photos and some of you lucky mid pack riders will get a cool wide angle shot of yourself for free. I was trying to get a 2nd shot of a friend of mine and I used you riders to set up the shot nicely, so about 20 of you will be happy Leave a note on the blog or on your picture if you got a freebie.

Anyway, pics:

http://gtluke.smugmug.com/Biking/2010-DarkHorse40

Cover shot goes out to Dr. Hott, aka Mom who I was trying to get that 2nd shot of.

2010 KVSP

All the pics:
http://gtluke.smugmug.com/Biking/2010-Kittatinny

Good showing and MTBNJ rider Maurice KILLED it out there, taking 1st place in pro by a HUGE gap.

All the pics:

http://gtluke.smugmug.com/Biking/2010-LewisMorrisChallenge

http://gtluke.smugmug.com/Biking/2010-Tymor

Did some more live blogging with the rest of the guys here: http://www.mtbnj.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17121

Good showing today for the season opener at the Waywayanda Spring Cleaning.

I also did some live blogging of the event on MTBNJ, we are going to sort out some details to expand on this so hopefully next race will be even better. http://www.mtbnj.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16771

Finally got a great one of Utah to use for the story

All the pics are here:

http://gtluke.smugmug.com/Biking/2010-Waywayanda-H2H-1

http://gtluke.smugmug.com/Biking/2010-Singlespeed-a-polooza

One again we are back in beautiful Sullivan County NY for another Rally New York event. The spring rally is a completely tarmac event held on two familiar stages and one new stage.

The weekend started for Dave and I on Friday morning with the long trek up to Walton to pick up our press passes. We met up for the weekend at the Days Inn Motel in Liberty NY so we could carpool from there. It was a pleasant and scenic drive except for my Hyundeath had a really bad misfire from bad plug wires, and of course I waited for the last minute to order them so they didn’t come in on time. After reaching Walton picking up our passes we decided to get the breakfast offered at the restaurant who was hosting the Rally HQ (West 38 Restaurant, Walton, NY). My western omelet was awesome and Dave enjoyed his eggs. We had a few hours to kill so we drove back to Liberty and checked into our room. It was very kind of the motel to let us check in about 4 hours early. Dave took a nap, I made fun of Dave snoring.
We then headed over to the Parc Expose at the Sullivan County Government Center, in Monticello to see all the contestants in prime form.

All of the pictures:
http://gtluke.smugmug.com/RallyAddict/2010-Spring-Rally-NY/Expose/11881882_hjwtR

Highlights:
Bill from Broken Motorsports

Donnelly

RobEVO

Another Donnelly

After the expose Dave and I headed over to our first spot. This was a unique rally for the RallyAddict team as it was just Dave and I attending. At every other rally we have company who isn’t equipped with a press pass so we always have chosen the spectator areas as the start to our shooting locations. This time we headed right to a no-spectator zone at the corner of Chalet and Thomsonville Road and started snapping pictures. We arrived to catch the 3rd stage.

All the pics:
http://gtluke.smugmug.com/RallyAddict/2010-Spring-Rally-NY/SS3-Concord-Pond/11882643_bbtCK

Highlights:

Erika on 3 wheels

3 series screaming

Mazda love

SS4 was the same stage in the opposite direction
All the pics:
http://gtluke.smugmug.com/RallyAddict/2010-Spring-Rally-NY/SS4/11884017_9Kpy9

Highlights:

oops!

After this passing of the cars, light was getting dim so we decided to check out the official spectator spot in the amphitheater like setting of the Concord Resort golf course. Strange to see the old Concord Resort completely torn down into a pile which is slowly being removed. The golf course gives some pretty wild views of the rally cars, very interesting. We mainly just enjoyed the rally for this stage and left the cameras alone. Dave did manage to snap a few though:

That was it for the night for us, we headed over to the Liberty Diner by our hotel and grabbed some food. I wish we had made a different choice on locations, but any food is great after a day of rally. We turned in for the night and decided to skip the first stages in the morning since there was a 4 hour gap between pairs of passes, we’d just catch the 2nd pair at noon instead of 7am.

I woke up Dave and made him accompany me to the continental breakfast at our hotel. I had 2 bagels, a bowl of cereal, a jellied English muffin, a pastry, 3 cups of tea, 3 cups of orange juice and a cup of apple juice. Dave had a cup of Tea, I think there is something wrong with him.
After that we hung out for a bit and headed over to the stage. This stage was way back up in Walton NY, John Meredith. We chose the no-spectator area again at the corner of Dunk Hill Spur and Palmer Hill Rd. It’s an almost 180deg turn with a huge elevation change, the Evo’s came through at a staggering pace with some fantastic skill behind the wheel.

All the pics from SS11:
http://gtluke.smugmug.com/RallyAddict/2010-Spring-Rally-NY/SS11/11885036_XDVfJ

Here’s my view:

And here’s Dave’s view from on the top of the hill:

McCormack coming in a little injured looking, but not injured performing

Billy coming through at breakneck speed

SS12 was the same passing
All the pics:
http://gtluke.smugmug.com/RallyAddict/2010-Spring-Rally-NY/SS12/11886266_W74ue

Honda doing a sweet burnout

After this stage Dave and I agreed not to wait another 4 hours for the cars to come again. We should have timed ourselves a little better and used this break to go get lunch in Walton and then came back again. But we had our fill of rally and had a great time. It wasn’t pouring rain the entire time which was a break from the usually Rally NY events. Just some snow flurries on Stages 11 and 12.

Dave and I were trying to figure out if any cars had dropped out and we knew at least 1 focus had, but it’s still fantastic how many cars were still in it after stage 12, good work guys! On the way home, about 100 miles from the rally I spotted the missing Focus on rt280, about 1 mile from my house. Crazy.