Trial report for RTC Inc Club trial 29 May 2011 Seeonee Park

[David Lahey]

This time at Seeonee Park, we went back to the “hidden valley” area to the East of the camp ground for the first time in a few years. Hidden Valley is a section of the Limestone Creek valley bounded by the main Yeppoon Road on the South side, and a steep ridge to the North. The rain during the past couple of years has seen this creek flowing year round. Because the creek has been flowing for so long, the algae growth on the rocky creek bed is in a very healthy state. All but one of the upper grade sections included riding these slimy rocks, which was quite a novelty for most of the riders.
The same abundant rainfall for the past few seasons also meant that there was a huge amount of vegetation (2 metre high thick grass, lantana and rubber vine is the sort of vegetation I am talking about) to be cleared away to allow access to the area, and to allow riding anywhere away from the rocks in the bed of the creek, and for somewhere to park the cars. The mammoth clearing effort for this trial was performed by RTC Inc club members from Rockhampton during the weeks preceding the trial. The effort and results achieved were greatly appreciated by the riders on the day. Thank-you guys.
Due to the severity of the terrain down near and at the creek, the Novice sections were set on the ridge between the car park and the creek and also required lots of clearing of vegetation.
The upper grade sections were very well thought out and proved to be a challenge all day, due to the depth of the water being just enough to prevent being able to see any of the underwater terrain, and the tenacious nature of the algae making grip almost non-existent from the start to the end of the riding. These factors made for much more footing and many more misadventures than are normally seen at our trials, and is reflected in the scores.
Section 3 was the only dry upper grade section and it was a great relief to have great traction and visibility of what the tyres were doing, apart from the dozens of devilishly located loose stones that moved downhill through the slope in the section as they were ridden over.
There were a few DNFs including Peter Deloub riding Brother Rick’s Gas Gas 280 which had motor problems. Angela Sophios did a sort-of backflip crash in the dry section and ended up with a damaged knee just after Glen Pincham suffered a mishap in the part of section 2 with the deepest water, also hurting himself. John Sophios worked on the dewatering of Glen’s bike for quite a while and eventually got it going again.
Tim Stone had his first go at riding upper grade sections on his TY175. The bike looked much more sorted than at his first trial with more ergonomic shaped bars and lower gearing and probably other things I missed seeing. I think the upper grade sections being a bit more challenging than normal made it a pretty steep challenge for Tim.
I didn’t get to see the Novices riding but Wendy and Angela told me that the sections were quite challenging, and were pleased to see Samantha Sophios maintain confidence through her laps. Timothy Evans rode well to win and went and had a go at riding the upper grade sections after the trial – good to see. Darcy rode his Gas Gas 50 at his first trial after getting the cast off his broken arm, but only managed to finish one lap.
The three A grade riders went around together and looked like they had a fun day, all finishing quite close in scores with John Sophios winning A grade for the first time in many years.
I greatly enjoyed riding with Mark Casswell in Twinshock and found the sections nicely challenging. I rode the first lap on my KT250 as a test ride for the Lowmead trail ride the next weekend then changed to my TY175 loan bike as it had newer tyres than the KT which made riding the slime rocks easier. Marks SWM motor played up a bit but otherwise suited the conditions well.
The physical nature of the riding and the unseasonably warm weather meant that many riders needed a break in riding to recover and were pretty tired by the end. Mark and I both started to cramp up before the last lap and we weren’t alone.
One bonus of having the creek flowing so nicely was being able to have drinks from the creek. While it was nice and cool and clean, I found out why it was called limestone creek - it tasted very mineralised.
Results
Novice - Timothy Evans 9 (KT250), Riley Hunt 29 (TY175), Samantha Sophios 46, Dylan Allen 73, Darcy Lahey DNF
C Grade - Kevin Havik 63, Kane Havik 63, Hunter Pincham 64, Brian Crozier 73, Glen Pincham 87, Brodie Matheson DNS
Twin Shock - Ken Cutmore 48 (TLR200). David Lahey 50 (KT250/TY175), Mark Casswell 70 (SWM TL320), Drew Wickerson 73 (TLR250), Tim Stone DNF (TY175)
B Grade - Justin Lynham 41, Paul Lynham 47, Andrew Lynham 48, Ray Aiken 62, Todd Matheson 78, Peter Deloub DNF, Angela Sophios DNF
A Grade - John Sophios 72, David Cue 75, Don Jones 78

David Lahey 8 June 2011