Jackson Clinches Conehead Cup '09

Jackson Shapiera dominated the Canberra leg of the Conehead Cup with wins in both the Stromlo dual-slalom and the Ainslie Ditch. Rival Steve Daddow had a tough weekend with two fourth places and two bad slams, while B-rad Pearson finally put his all-round skating ability into effect with a sixth placing at Stromlo and a second at Ainslie.

With four wins and two second places in his six races, Jackson has built an unassailable lead in this years points race. Wih just one race left this year, there is nothing his rivals can do to catch him. Second place is also locked up, with Steve Daddow well clear of the rest, but third place is a four-way fight between Haggy Strom, Nathan Paff, Paul Shaddock and B-rad Pearson, to be decided at Pump Station on October 4.

Stromlo Dual-slalom

Thirty-seven skaters from Adelaide, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, the NSW Central Coast, Sydney and Canberra took on the Stromlo course on Saturday. The morning's practice session was filled with confusion as people struggled to unlock the mysteries of the "gate" in the course, but most had it worked out by the time racing began.

The early rounds had no surprises, except for the march of B-rad, who took out Dave Robertson, Brad Sterritt and Colin Beck before finally becoming overmatched against Steve Daddow.

Nathan Paff and Paul "Shadow" Shaddock resumed their rivalry, with Nathan's narrow win putting himself into a matchup with Jackson for the right to a second-chance run in the final, and sending Shadow into a sudden-death race against Steve Daddow. Shadow beat Daddow for the first time ever, while Jackson's win over Nathan consigned Nathan to a rematch with Shadow for the right to race against Jackson in the final. Nathan beat Shadow a second time, and then had the daunting prospect of having to beat a relatively fresh Jackson twice to win.

A tired Nathan threw everything he had into the final but fell just 0.24 second short, with Jackson taking out the race undefeated. Shadow was third, Daddow fourth, and the ever-consistent Paul Carey getting
his best result of the year with fifth.

Special mention for slalom newbies Scott Taylor (22nd) and Owen Davies (25th) who looked at home in their first race, and for Joel Blackall who was unlucky not to break into the top 32, from where he would have likely met up with fellow junior NACCOID Imi McMillan.

Ainslie Ditch

Sunday morning saw some tired heads assemble at the infamous Ainslie Ditch. Just as on the day before it was thirty-seven riders who were willing to take on the teeth of doom, in a jam-format race with every rider getting six timed runs.

Glenn "Ditch Master" Mills seemed intense and focussed, while fellow ditch-master B-rad pronounced the course "too easy", despite nearly everybody else struggling to negotiate the final four cones where accumulated speed met a sudden tightening of the cone spacing.

Shadow took the early lead, but soon it was Glenn Mills, B-rad and Jackson who filled the top three spots. The headwind picked up throughout the day, but it didn't stop people posting faster times as they began to feel out the course. Jackson led by 0.5 second at the end of the third run, and the race was still open, but Jackson's fourth run shaved another 0.5 second off to give him a comfortable lead, and then his fifth run shaved a further 0.5 second off, leaving everybody far behind. B-rad kept improving his times, overcoming Glen Mills to gain second, while Steve Daddow suffered a nasty slam in a desperate attempt to crack into the top three, failing by just 0.004 second.

There was another episode in the Alex vs Blackwood show, with Blackwood's final run cutting two seconds off his best time to beat Alex and sneak into 10th place. Ben Hay produced some smooth runs to get 6th place, and Canberrans Henry King and Owen Davies produced some fearless attacking runs. Phil Bond had the worst slam, closely followed by Steve Daddow and Neil Willington.

Stromlo Results

Ainslie Results

1. Jackson Shapiera 2. Nathan Paff 3. Paul Shaddock 4. Steve Daddow 5. Paul Carey 6. Brad Pearson 7. Colin Beck 8. Scott Guthrie 9. Mick Codner 10. Dave Robertson 11. Brad Sterritt 12. Nick Sable 13. Sean Mussett 14. Neil Willington 15. Glenn Mills 16. Ross Scutts 17. Gareth Fitzgerald 18. Mark Winfer 19. Imi McMillan 20. Paul Parry 21. Ben Hay 22. Scott Taylor 23. James Hopkin 24. Phil Bond 25. Owen Davies 26. Karl Eastaway 27. Hamish McIntyre 28. Arran Pratt 29. Harry Ludi 30. Boyd McMillan 31. Marek Keller 32. Wayne Humphries 33. Joel Blackall 34. Fin Pratt 35. Ryan Nickles 36. Kathy Finn 37. Tim Blackall

1. 19.66 Jackson Shapiera 2. 20.64 Brad Pearson 3. 20.851 Glenn Mills 4. 20.855 Steve Daddow 5. 21.11 Ben Hay 6. 21.23 Paul Carey 7. 21.33 Neil Willington 8. 21.56 Nathan Paff 9. 21.96 Dave Robertson 10. 22.11 David Blackwood 11. 22.25 Owen Davies 12. 22.265 Brad Norris 13. 22.266 Paul Shaddock 14. 22.369 Ross Scutts 15. 22.371 Alex Martin 16. 23.05 Ryan Nickles 17. 23.17 Henry King 18. 23.28 Karl Eastaway 19. 23.57 Brad B 20. 23.65 Rhys Coy 21. 23.76 Brad Sterritt 22. 23.83 Dave Miller 23. 23.86 Cons 24. 24.55 Sean Mussett 25. 24.61 Jake Scutts 26. 24.77 Gareth Fitzgerald 27. 24.95 Gabriel Gwynne 28. 24.99 Paul Parry 29. 25.02 Hamish McIntyre 30. 25.14 Paul Bell 31. 25.63 Nick Sable 32. 25.79 Boyd McMillan 33. 25.82 Scott Taylor 34. 27.06 Harry Ludi 35. 28.28 Tarun Charker 36. Scott Guthrie 36. Wayne Humphries

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Credits

* The timers: Dave Robertson, Simon Henderson, Nathan Paff and Sean Mussett.
* The coneheads: Pip Shapiera, Cons and Will.
* The timing system whizz: Arran Pratt
* Dave Pang for organisational thoroughness and MC’ing at Stromlo and the Skatesman.
* All of CROSS: Neil Willington, Paul Parry and Ross Scutts for all their preparation and work throughout the event.
* Shadow for the number-crunching.
* My chauffeurs: Nathan Paff and Blackwood for going out of their way.
* Everybody else who helped out throughout the weekend, setting things up, pulling things down, running and fetching things etc. It was truly a group effort.