Trail Bike Adventure Magazine

Coolum MX

Saturday, 01 August 2009 16:07

The track looks premium, but word from the riders is it's rough. The surface is loamy, brown earth and the track is wide with sensible motocross-type jumps (as opposed to supercross jumps). It was kept moist all day so there was very little dust, but it's not easy to pick a line when there's 50 jabillion of them running all over the place, and it's sapping the power from the bikes something fearful.

The weather today was superb, with clear sunshine and temperatures in the high teens and low-20s. Tomorrow is forecast for the same.

Qualifying was interesting for those of us not used to it, and there probably aren't too many surprises after the 20-minute sessions. The top 10 Pro Open contenders and the Top 10 Pro Lites contenders rode a separate qualifying session for the first gate choices, and Luke George, Mitch Hoad and Ryan Marmont get first pick in the Lites, while Jay Marmont, Cheyne Boyd and Cam Taylor were the three fastest Pro Opens.

For an old geezer like me, the vets class is the most exciting thing since the upside-down fork. At the top of the list are Darryll King, Glen Bell and Peter Melton, and the whole field is a list of great names from the past,including Lydon Heffernan, who managed a fifth today (no qualifying for Vets). "It's a really tricky surface," said Heffo. "It's sandy on top, but hard underneath and the bike's really unpredictable. It's pretty hard work, but it's a lot of fun, and it's great to have the older guys involved."

Here are a few pics from around the ground, just to give you an idea of the track and conditions. Racing tomorrow kicks off at about 8.30, and I'll do my best to update the blog each Pro moto, and pics whenever I can get enough free time to sort and resize them. No matter what happens during the day, I'll have a sizable gallery up from the Pros' and Vets' classes tomorrow night.