Peter Matcham proved once again that the old guys can still fly, celebrating his 42nd birthday by winning back the mountain bike title of King of the Downhill in record-breaking fashion at Hog Bay Park on Sunday.

After the first downhill run, held in December, just four tenths of a second separated Matcham (1:03.48) and title holder Brian Steinhoff (1:03.87) going into the second and final run of the competition on Sunday.

Junior 15-16 category rider Kyle Smith, with a time of 1:08.93, was the only other of the 30 racers with a realistic shot at the title had Matcham and Steinhoff faltered.

Conditions for the first 26 riders were dry and cool, allowing for some much-improved times over their first run but then the rain came for the last five riders, including contenders Matcham, Steinhoff and Smith, adding an element of uncertainty over just how fast they could go on the now wet course.

Smith was the first of the contenders to catapult himself down the hill and improved his first run time by more than four seconds, finishing in a fast 1:04.15 and giving him a good shot at the title.

Steinhoff followed and blazed through the course to break the existing record of 1:00.43 in the process with a time of 59:86.

Matcham, at the top of the course and having no idea how the others riders had fared, then threw caution to the wind, rocketing his bike to another course record of 59:77, eclipsing Steinhoff's mark set a minute before by just one tenth of a second.

Matcham's combined time of 2:03.25 gave him an overall winning margin of just half a second over Steinhoff's combined time of 2:03.75, with the younger Smith finishing third in a time of 2:13.08.

In the day's cross-country event, which followed immediately after the Downhill, things went according to form in the Open category.

MacInnis Looby put in another dominating performance followed by a game Steinhoff who managed to stay close for much of the race but faded near the end, finishing second, two minutes behind in a time of 37:37.

Chris Conway placed a strong third, closing the gap in the latter stages of the race and finishing just over a minute behind Steinhoff in 38:59.

Those results tightened things up at the top of the Point Series Championship with just three races remaining.

Steinhoff leads on 113 points, Looby's second on 110, having competed in fewer races, Matcham's on 104, followed closely by Chris Conway on 102.

In other categories on Sunday, Kyle Smith continued his dominance of the 15-16 juniors, finishing in a time of 34:18, followed by Geoffrey Smith in 36:18 and James Adams in 41:06.

In the Novices, Mannard Packwood managed to hold off Llewellyn Bean by just 37 seconds in a time of 32:14 with David Chapman finishing third in 37:38.

In the closest race of the day, the 13-14 junior boys, it was a virtual photo finish with Conner Burns edging out Matthew Godfrey by half a second in 31:11.08 over eight laps of the short course.

The 11-12 boys was also a tight finish with Tim Fox continuing to dominate, finishing in a time of 27:43. Alex McManus won the battle for second in 29:24 over Ricky Sousa Jr in 30:07 with Geoffrey Burns (30:13) and Thomas Godfrey (31:11) finishing third and fourth respectively.

Wenda Godfrey was the only female competitor racing but gave the Novice men a run for their money, finishing her nine laps in 40:20 as did Ian Fox, the sole Veteran competitor, who finished his nine laps in 38:02.

The next race is at Ferry Reach Park on Sunday, January 27, at 9 a.m.