Mulally and Bourque lead Gravity East Series

The 2009 Gravity East Series is almost ready to ride into the sunset.

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Plattekill hosting final round this weekend, October 9-11

As racers prepare to battle the trails at New York's Plattekill Mountain for double points and season championships at this weekend's Gravity East Finals on October 9-11, it's useful to not only look at the who's on top of the chart, but also how they got there.

When the chairlift was turned on at Massanutten, Virginia, back in the beginning of May, few realized the impact the sophomore year of Gravity East would have. Since then, 94 men and women have scored points in the pro downhill classes alone. A total of 1,620 entries (up 32 percent from last year, with one race still remaining) have pulled to the start of at least one Gravity East race this year in both pro and amateur categories. The best of the best, however, have been Dawn Bourque, Karen Eagan and, of course, Neko Mulally.

After her win at last week's race at Mount Snow, Eagan has a commanding lead in the women's dual slalom standings. With only a 10th place finish needed for Eagan to clinch, the season title could be decided in qualifying.

On the downhill side of the women's standings, Bourque missed the first three races of the season before going on a five-race win streak, eventually finishing with six wins and a second place out of seven races. Bourque needs only a fifth place finish to clinch the Gravity East trophy, but first she needs to show up and survive a run on the treacherous trails of the mountain nicknamed "Splattekill". Eagan is waiting in the wings. The likely dual slalom champ has shown she's capable of winning the championships in both disciplines when she beat Bourque, and everybody else, in the downhill at Blue Mountain, Pennsylvania, two weeks ago.

The star of this Gravity East season, though, is unquestionably Neko Mulally. With 300 points in the dual slalom championship, compared to just 133 for second-place Kyle Sanger, the only way Mulally can lose the championship is if his competitors can keep him off the property, since Gravity East rules require attendance at the finals in order to be declared season champion.

Sanger may have some help from the downhillers in setting-up a blockade to keep Mulally out. Though currently sitting in third place in the downhill standings behind Jason Memmelaar and Alejandro Ortiz, Mulally has the virtual lead in the standings because of dropped races and only needs a 23rd place or better to clinch both Gravity East Divisions.

When taking into account dropped races, Ben Hulse and Zach Faulkner move up from sixth and seventh, respectively, in the official standings to third and fourth respectively. Hulse, however, hasn't shown up for the last three races. Will he attend Plattekill and try to take home a share of the US$5,000 season's point money being awarded?

Of course, Gravity East is more than just pros. A total of 23 amateur class championships in both downhill and dual slalom will also be awarded. And, like the pros, attendance at the finals is a requirement to win the championship.

Plattekill first opened for riding in 1995, when Missy Giove was still World Champion and Neko Mulally was wearing diapers. Since then, Plattekill has been host to tens of thousands of visitors and countless races.

Plattekill's Marketing Advisor George Ulmer described the downhill course as "loose and steep," and said racers can expect "a lot of shale and drops with good flow on natural terrain".

For more information on this weekend's Gravity East Finals at Plattekill, see www.GravityEastSeries.com and www.Plattekill.com.

Complete standings are below.

Results

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