Take a look at Team Defiant Racings results at the Sequatchie Downhill Race in Tennessee:
Defiant Racing headed to Sequatchie Tennessee for the first Downhill Southeast race of 2023. Racers converged from various parts of the Northeast and Southeast anxious to kick off the 2023 DH season. The crew at TCC put in a lot of hard work to update the track from last season. With its narrow almost single track feel, steep shoots, road gap and S turns, the track definitely put the riders to the test. Racers practiced in dry conditions on Friday and Saturday and the course was in great condition for sending runs on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday night, the skies opened up. Race day brought a whole new track as heavy rains overnight soaked the course. Sunday morning practice was muddy but still had grip as racers prepared for their race run. But as the day progressed, the conditions upped the challenge. All of our riders made the best of it and ended up rather enjoying the challenge. For this race we had Titus Nicholson, Collin Bourque and new Defiant Racing Jr. Chris Liebig.
Titus Nicholson was running fast right out of the gate on Friday. On Saturday things continued to progress well for him. Titus was going fast on track and managed to find some good lines. Unfortunately Titus sustained an injury during his seeding run late on Saturday. A high speed crash off the road gap ended his weekend early with a knee injury as he decided it would be best not to attempt racing. He was forced to sit the race out on Sunday for a ‘DNS’ on the results sheet. Titus is getting checked out to carefully plan his return to racing. We hope to have him back on the bike and racing soon.
Collin Bourque is coming off a fairly successful season with placing 3rd in the overall for U16 in the 2022 DHSE series and is now stepping up to the highly competitive CAT 1 17-18 Jr category. Working on finding speed on this new track he managed to grab P3 in seeding on Saturday afternoon. Pushing through the muddy conditions on Sunday, Collin then managed to secure a P2 finish and is stoked to make the podium in his first race of the season. We look forward to seeing him race the Tennessee Nationals at Windrock Mountain March 23-26th.
Chris Liebig is a new rider to the Defiant Team this season, but no stranger to racing. Chris completes in the ever growing and quick Cat 1 U16 group. Chris and Collin dialed in their lines together in practice all weekend. A mistake during his seeding run had him sitting P9 going into race day. All his hard work in the offseason paid off come Sunday as Chris was able to grab P3 and secure spot on the podium. We look forward to seeing Chris progress throughout the season. Chris will be back in action at the Tennessee Nationals later this month.
