Sunday ’ s post vintage and nextgen racing would move back to the established Shady Acres track . While built with modern MX racing in mind , the course is by no means a triple-jump , stadium whoops , affair . It is still quite approachable in its nature and when larger leaps are encountered , they are built for the average rider rather than pros . Tim spent considerable time grooming throughout the weekend and incorporated sand and wood chips as alternative terrain throughout the course . Tim fought a good fight against dust throughout the day , but unfortunately it was a losing cause as the bright sun and dry summer won out in the end . Despite the dust , and in mimicking the grass track action Saturday , the racing on Sunday was competitive and action packed as well . The tabletop along the spectator area was certainly a favorite !
The cross-country races followed the same course each day , and if you ’ ve been here before the overall layout was familiar . The property is limited to several wooded areas with plenty of available trails that adjoin the farm ’ s various fields and pastures . The nuance of each year ’ s course is the manner and order in which the trails and fields are connected with a Zdybak stamp of approval . Leaving from the ample starting area adjacent to the full parking area ( probably a dozen states represented here as well ), the course heads onto the MX track for a few turns only used on lap one before barreling across the open field toward the first woods section . Here , the course winds along an off-camber hillside in a chain of sweeping turns where you can clip along at a good pace despite the growing emergence of roots . It is not long after and riders are returned to the starting area and through scoring for the first time as the layout requires a partial lap one to situate the course properly . Immediately after scoring , the participants make their first pass through the dairy barn , Shady Acres ’ trademark feature . Exiting the barn , the course hits some high-speed grass areas to between the two farm ponds to enter the woods section at the far east end of the property . This is the tightest and most technical trail found in the course . A vein of rock runs through the center of this area and produces a couple challenging sections . Proceeding across the farm ’ s driveway , the course enters the pasture section where a winding path is cut through the tall grass that encounters some embedded rock , several small stream crossings , and accompanying mud and ruts . A full throttle blast across an open field reintroduces the riders to another patch of woods with a few sections of fresh singletrack cut for the ’ 22 event . There are plenty of elevation changes through the back half of the course and the flowing
VOL . 7 ISSUE 9 - SEPTEMBER 2022 // PAGE 111