Trial report RTC Inc trial Watersons 6th March 2011

[David Lahey]

Trial report and results for the Rocky Trials Club Inc trial of 6th March 2011 at Waterson’s property, Burua, Central Queensland

Fantastic riding conditions were enjoyed last Sunday at Waterson's property for the first RTC Inc trial for the year. It was cool, overcast and breezy and without rain. Quite amazing conditions considering what has been happening lately with rain.

The day before the trial while we were setting the sections it was very humid, steamy and still. That afternoon a huge thunderstorm dumped 120mm of rain at the property and the access road became blocked at the Clyde Creek crossing which was 1 more deep as witnessed by our local club members (the Evans) who live at that creek crossing.

We were all a bit concerned that the sections had been washed away and only found out that all was well on the morning of the trial when John Sophios went for a dawn recce to the sections on his Yamaha XT500. Clyde creek had gone down enough for the crossing to be passable and despite all that rain, the creek bed where the sections were had not even seen flowing water!! The only change from Saturday was that the billabongs in the creek bed were about 100mm deeper and the soil on the banks was damp/wet. What had saved us from losing the sections was the Waterson's dam upstream of where we set the sections had enough headroom to absorb almost all of the deluge - amazing. I had thought the dam would have been full with all the recent rain.

We had set the sections anticipating either rainy weather or hot steamy conditions so with the perfect riding conditions, all grades sections ended up being quite a bit easier than normal. As it turned out with the lovely cool conditions and no rain, the scores ended up quite low and close, with many places determined by counting cleans.

Darcy Lahey, Timothy Evans and Kevin Evans really went to town setting the Junior sections, ending up with five entertaining Junior sections for the riders to enjoy. Three of the upper grade sections were shared with Junior and there were two upper-grade-only sections up the creek a bit, so the Juniors ended up with seven sections and the upper grades had five sections.

The billabong in section 5 turned out to be quite eventful for a couple of riders. David Cue had his new Beta EVO ingest some water by going a bit slow in the deep bit and Michael Armitage had water problems with a carby vent hose on his Gas Gas 280. There was a hard line-choice decision for the A grade riders - a tight left turn around a clump of lomandra to allow skirting the billabong, or a plunge through the middle with water to about "seat" height. Most A grade did the quick plunge and had no problems but David went a bit too slow for the bow wave effect to keep the water out of the airbox. B grade/Twinshock also had a plunge across that beautiful gravel-bottomed billabong but it was not quite as deep (unless you went a few mm too far to the right of the ideal line). The turns between the trees on the waterworn stones and gravel combined with the water plunge made for a very entertaining section.

Section 9 - furtherest up the creek - seemed to have spectators watching all day. Luckily there were witnesses to have a laugh along with me when I did a trip over the bars at the top of a steep muddy slope and ended up balanced on my head and shoulders with legs pointing straight upwards. Ken Cutmore was very relieved when I started laughing while still upside-down because that meant he wouldn't need to rescuscitate me. I believe I wasn't the only one to go for a tumble at that spot so it is no wonder there were spectators there all day. There was also a reasonably big drop-off over a large root in that same section and the B grade/Twinshock line felt very pleasurable as you launched off the root and landed well downhill on a cross-slope.

After the trial, Angela Sophios and Brett Chivers were helping Junior rider Sarah Chivers try out the C grade line in that section and Angela held up some very muddy spectacles and said to me "I wonder whose there are?" Well I then realised that the reading glasses that were clipped onto my shirt at the start of the trial were no longer there and probably were the mangled ones Angela was holding. The good news was that Angela found them. There was bad news too - they had fallen right onto the riding line!

We had some new riders at this trial with Andrew Lynham riding in a trial for the first time in many (25?) years which back then was also with the Rocky Trials Club. Father and son team Glen and Hunter Pincham finished their first trial with Hunter beating Dad by one point in C Grade.

Mark Reed has made some more interesting suspension and handling mods to his Suzuki RL250 over the break and it was also sporting a new colour scheme - see photo. It was very impressive to ride. I think that might be the third colour scheme in 2 years!

After thinking the trial had been called off and only finding out it was still on by phone contact at about 0830hrs, Mark Casswell from Childers arrived at the trial about when most riders were finishing but with the help of Angela running and scoring for him, competed the five laps on his "spare" bike (TY175JC) in record time. The SWM is in pieces awaiting some renovation work.

Having some sections (1,2 and 5) shared between upper and lower grades worked well despite most of the sections being quite close together. Section 1 had a separate start point to the upper grade start which was not easy to see from the other start location. Kevin Evans acted as a traffic cop there, making it all run smoothly.

This was the first trial for Darcy Lahey on his GasGas 50 and he had a terrific ride for the first two laps with me minding before needing a rest. Later on, Samantha Sophios and Timothy Evans helped him finish the trial riding his OSET 16. The GasGas has superb suspension and plenty of power and worked very well on the rounded waterworn stones and dirt banks at Watersons.

Brodie Matheson and Dad Todd came down from Mackay with Brodie riding their ex-Paton Sherco 125 for his first trial in C Grade from Junior.

Nicole Casey was very smooth in her first trial on her Scorpa 125 and Samantha Sophios would have ended up in a higher position riding her EVO 125 except for a single excursion over the tape near the end of a section. Sarah Chivers once again rode with confidence on her “mossie” TLM50.

Travis Boyle rode in B Grade (from C Grade) for the first time and seemed to be having a good time as usual on his Rev 3. Shayne Freebody also changed grades from last year, riding B grade instead of A on her 4RT.

Drew Wickerson rode his amazing-looking TLR250 in Twinshock class and enjoyed himself despite some vision issues due to recent eye surgery.

Photos courtesy of Kym Chivers and David Lahey

Results

Junior
Timothy Evans (KT250) 0, Sarah Chivers (TLM50) 2, Nicole Casey 3, Samantha Sophios 6, Darcy Lahey 30, Abbey Armitage 74

C Grade
Hunter Pincham 5, Glen Pincham 6, Brodie Matheson 12

B Grade
Angela Sophios 3, Justin Lynham 3, Andrew Lynham 8, Shayne Freebody 8, Paul Lynham 9, Todd Matheson 13, Jacob Armitage 14, Travis Boyle 22

Twinshock
David Lahey (TY175) 8, Brent Chivers (TLR200) 8, Mark Reed (RL250) 8, Ken Cutmore (TLR200) 9, Peter Casey (TY175) 11, Mark Casswell (TY175) 15, Drew Wickerson (TLR250) 18

A Grade
Don Jones 6 (SY250), Neil McLucas 12 (4RT), Michael Armitage 21 (GG280), David Cue 31 (EVO), John Sophios 40 (Rev 3)

David Lahey 10 March 2011

[Reinald]

Thanks David,
Great article, a very steamy day to set sections and for getting the TY going for me..... Thanks to Ang and Brent for helping me find the way a little late in the day :).

A good time to thank the office bearers for last year and for the up coming year...... a great club and every thing is so simple and easy.
Cheers
Mark