The Australian Championship this year was held at Pacific Park about 60kms from Sydney. Simon and Paul had the unenviable task of driving the bikes over. They drove 40 hours straight and got over safe and sound Monday, while Neil and Myself had the difficult and long 4 hour flight! We had a great lead up to the event this year, getting two solid days practising at the venue and a full day on Friday just chilling out and preparing the bikes.
The word around the paddock was that the sections were pretty tough, and they were right! This year we had to do 3 laps of 15 sections. Which is fine if they’re easy but 3 laps works out that you only have 8 minutes allocated to each section. The sections were difficult because they were really long and we only had a 90-second time limit. I started off well, even though I was getting fives in nearly every section but I also realised everyone else was having trouble. Neil also started off really well. His first lap of 45 points placed him in 4th place only 3 points off the lead. Through out my first lap I had some big crashes and thanks to Paul and some impossible catches my bike came out unscathed. Unfortunately on the second lap I dislocated my shoulder ending the weekend. The worst thing about my shoulder was the fact I didn’t even crash to pop it out. In the section I had to jump off this rock but I didn’t quite give it enough, my bike landed hard on the front wheel causing my shoulder to twist awkwardly and pop out. I almost cleaned up Paul as I came barrelling down the hill but thankfully Paul grabbed me and slowed me down enough not cause any more damage. Just like the last three nationals one of us ended up in hospital! At least I did it in the trial unlike Paul last year crashing on his head at 100kmh (I still don’t think he has recovered) Neil unfortunately had been caught out on time and only had 1 hour to finish his last 2 laps. Neil’s last 2 laps of 53 points hurt his chances pushing him down to 7th, but the highlight of the day was the fact Neil was the only rider to get through section 12. (Pictured at the top of page)
Day 2 started off with some good news that they only had to do 2 laps. Neil started off really well with a few cleans to give him a confidence boost. The sections were tamed off a little but they were still bloody hard. He finished off his first lap with 33 points, which moved him up a few places. His second lap was awesome, only 26 points and only one 5 for the whole lap. That’s a really good effort on those sections. It paid off in the end with Neil finishing on 3rd only one point ahead of Kevin Zarczynski. Alex also had a great weekend finishing in first place in junior. It is extremely hard to ride all weekend on easy sections and not make a mistake. It was close after day 1 with the top 8 riders separated by only 4 points. Alex on day 2 did a silly dab on his first lap but managed to keep his concentration to get the win. Alex certainly deserves the win, lately he has been putting so much effort in which you can see by his last 2 wins in A grade in Perth, Neil and Lewis are going to have to watch out. Josh Austin also had a good ride, the sections were a lot harder then previous years but the scores were still really close. Josh after day 1 was tied with forth place and only 1 point off 3rd. On day 2 Josh improved on his first lap but unfortunately got clipped for 5th place by only 1 point.
A big thanks to Simon and Paul for 80 hours of driving just to help Neil and myself ride the titles, and again a big congratulation to Neil and Alex on their great results.
Class Results:
Open Solo: 1st Colin Zarczynski, 2nd Jake Whitaker, 3rd Neil Price
Junior: 1st Alex Nolan, 2nd Lachlan Gibson, 3rd Zachary Vlamis-Hale
Junior: 1st Alex Nolan, 2nd Lachlan Gibson, 3rd Zachary Vlamis-Hale
