Trail Bike Adventure Magazine

ORC Nowra

Sunday, 17 August 2008 23:30

Heres pics from around the ground. Heres pics from around the ground.

 

Friday, August 15
It’s Friday night and I’m in a motel in Nowra set for the final two rounds of the Australian Off Road Championships. I'll blog as I go, same as last time, so's youse can follow my progress/misfortunes.

I actually entered on the XR and it was bitter blow when I finally conceded at lunchtime yesterday that I wouldn’t have the bike ready.

I switched my entry to TBAM’s long-term CRF250X. Prepping the XR re-ignited all my love for the bike, and I’m really disappointed I couldn’t ride it this weekend. I was especially stung when I arrived at the track and Geoff Ballard learned I entered the XR he'd built. His smile lit the place up and he said, “That bike has such a history!”

It’s an electrical problem, by the way. It surfaced once the lights were fitted, and I just can’t figure it out.
In any case, here I am, once again on a superb, modern bike with everything well-sorted. This’ll be my first ride on the CRF this year and, despite the absence of the XR, I’m looking forward to it. I fanged it up and down the footpath yesterday, and after a couple of weeks on the XR, this bike feels like a missile.

The track is tight and the surface hard, but still with enough loose dirt on top to make it look premium. My son and I raced here quite a bit in the mid-’90s, and it looks as though nothing much has changed.
More tomorrow night.

Saturday, August 16
I had such a great time today. My times were crap compared to everyone else’s, but I rode well by my standards.

This morning’s loop was a shortish, tight, winding bush trail and the CRF gobbled it up. I still can’t believe we can buy bikes as good as these straight from the dealer showroom.

A fall on the second lap cost a few seconds, but no biggee, and it’s the most fun I’ve had on a dirt bike for a long time.

The changeover meant we Clubmen went onto the track the Pros and Experts had been using in the morning, and there was plenty of murmuring about how rough and rutted up it was. Even Lyndon Heffernan told me it was wild.

When a guy with that kind of résumé says it’s rough, a guy with my kind of résumé poops his pants.
As it turned out, I didn’t think it was that bad. It was no billiard table, for sure, but I’m certain I’ve raced on lots tougher.

The CRF started to play up in the afternoon. First it refused to idle, then it was getting hard to start. I can’t help but suspect valves. They’re exactly the same symptoms as last year’s bike.

At the finish of racing it was reluctantly kick-starting, so I’ll front up tomorrow and just hope it gets through the day.

I couldn’t help but smile at Coffs riders Pete Bellew and Dan Ralph. They’d set up camp in the pits and were so obviously enjoying being at the event, it was very motivational to sit in their pit and drink coffee.

Geoff Ballard rode a bog-stock WR250R. I mean seriously bog-stock. Ridiculous rear-guard extender, rego plate, horn, pillion pegs…the works.

I’m sure I saw him on his WR-F in full race livery on the last lap.

AJ Roberts cleaned up today, from Hollis, Bewley and Kearney.

Tomorrow’s the sprint format again, instead of GNCC (spewin’). On the one hand, sprint means rest time between laps, but it also means it will be extremely difficult to get any pics. We all race all day at the same time. With GNCC, the pros and experts keep going for an hour after the squids finish. I really like the GNCC format. It's a serious challenge for me, and I like that.

Not much I can do about it.

Off for a shower now.

Sunday, August 17
Frigging cold this morning, and it'd been bucketing rain during the night, and I decided not to race.
I’m a little wary of the bike, and the sprint format means lots of starts. GNCC would’ve meant starting it once at the beginning of the day, and once at refuel.
So I jumped on the camera for a few pics.
A few things I really enjoyed seeing:
• Lawrie Alderton, 71 years old, rolling up to the start on his KTM
• Heffo out for a lap
• Oyster Bay – and all-round – legend Steve Clarke winning a few laps from GB on Saturday
• How the juniors are all so keen! They just about need to be restrained while they’re waiting for their turn.
• The Clubmen wander back to their pit and have a drink and maybe a rest. The juniors sit there at the start line, refusing to get off their bikes no matter how far away their next lap is.
• Jason Cater and Ben Burrell shaking the crap out of a mate’s van to wake him up Sunday morning
• Some of the cold-weather fashions.

Chris Hollis took the series win and AJ Roberts the final round, so the number one plate will be with the Yamaha rider next year.

Nothing much else to report today. I’m just about to start trying to organise my day and week, catching up on everything I let go while I finished the previous issue, and digging in to the material I have here for issue #24.

TF