The Bike Park at Northstar Ski Resort closed for the 2008 season with the second annual Livewire Classic on Sunday with a strong showing from local youths.

When the racing was done, Nevada City's Graeme Pitts stood on the podium in second place in the Pro category, ahead of 26 other riders. Pitts will be riding for Dark Horse Racing at two more races scheduled this year — the LaGrange Fall Classic in Weaverville in two weeks and the Benefit for Tara Llanes at Sand Hill early in November.

Northstar had to close the trails on Saturday last weekend due to the storms that passed through, making erosion a problem, in addition to the reported 80 mph winds at the top of the mountain.

That left no time for practice on the Livewire course except for a couple of runs the morning of the race if riders were lucky. The park had record attendance by riders who were there both for the race and to enjoy the last day of the season, and the lines for the lift actually made some riders late for their start times. So there was no time for selecting and changing tires to suit the conditions, or any other mechanical problems that might have arisen.

Under these difficult conditions, Frank Piner of Penn Valley earned a second place podium finish in the Beginner, under 24 class. In the Jr. Expert, under 17 category, Trevor Thomassen of Grass Valley finished fourth, David Lowe of Nevada City sixth, and Nate Byrom of Penn Valley seventh.

In the Beginner under 17 class, Jeremiah Newman of Nevada City pedaled to a fifth place finish.