Christian Conaway podiums in the I Love Downhill New York Race
Conaway leading organizer and fellow racer Chris Hicks down the Windham race course and into Crash Corner.
Conaway leading organizer and fellow racer Chris Hicks down the Windham race course and into Crash Corner.

Fillmore native Christian Conaway, 18, traveled to Windham, New York this past weekend to compete in the “I Love Downhill New York” Street Luge and Standup Speed Board race. Approximately 20 street luge racers entered the contest. Conaway racked up three 1st place heat race finishes and one 2nd place heat race finish. In the 4th round heat race Conaway made an inside pass on David Dean in Crash Corner and stayed in Dean’s draft until he made his move for a toe to toe finish with Conaway besting Dean on the run by 6”. Top racers from the heats advanced to the Street Luge Final race. In that event Conaway and fellow competitor David Dean jumped out in front of the rest of the pack. Conaway picked an inside line which would set him up for the next corner thereby hoping to build his lead over Dean. Conaway hit a pothole in the road and was unable to keep his luge from sliding, at which point the other finalists took advantage of the incident and passed Conaway. Conaway regained control and slowly picked off another racer further down the track to take the third place Bronze podium finish. Taking the Gold was David Dean, Silver Justin Crenshaw with Conaway taking Bronze. “The course was more technical then I expected and the competition was really good” said Conaway. This event was a good warm up for the Maryhill Festival of Speed which Christian will be competing in from 6/27/12 through 7/1/12 in Washington. Conaway has earned podium finishes in the last three events he’s raced, which was 2011 Maryhill Festival of Speed (Bronze), IGSA US Nationals (Gold) and now I Love Downhill New York (Bronze).