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Rnd ! Run and WON! Mini SX Hobart
Benders Blog
Written by Hobart braaap club Committe man James Bender
Well the first round of the 2010 braaap Tasmanian Mini Championships have been run and won and after a massive off season of absolutely no on bike training it wasn’t by me, lol.
It was a near perfect day down at Cambridge moto for our first outing of the year with a little rain to keep the dust down and a reasonable turnout of riders from around the state, and also a few of the Frankston boys making the trip over for a ride. The track had been prepped the day before and I would like to thank the guys who came and helped on the Saturday. Being a relatively small new club we rely on volunteer help to get er done, and it is really good to have guys show up on weekends to help.
We ran 4 classes on the weekend with the open boys being split into two heats. Junior girls was a small class this round but was a hotly contested battle between the Wiggins sisters again with some good battles, but Olivia eventually coming out on top.
Junior boys was also a small class but we have some strong talent in the class nonetheless. Young Dougie Pinner who’s, riding has improved over the summer, grabbed some great holeshots off Frankston import Harvey Earnes, but young Harvey was just too quick in the end. This kid is a gun on a braaap and gave all of us old blokes a run in the last man standing!
Senior Girls made for some interesting racing as well with Kiera Preece eventually taking the win after a throttle happy stack in practice which injured her knee. However Sarah Wiggins brought some aggression to a few rounds and in once race block passed Kiera before the finish line table top nearly running her wide into the scoring tent!
Open Boys had a pretty good turnout with enough numbers to run two heats which were split after three rounds before running three finals in A and B Grade. The first heat was pretty hotly contested by Cournty Langmaid from Braaap Hobart store and
Jason Viney. The big man Brodie Masters pulled out one second place but was plagued by bike trouble, apparently from doing too much maintenance! (An issue I rarely have lol.) In heat two the chequered flag was being hunted by reigning champ Garry ‘Gazza’ Wellman, Sam Dobson and myself. There was some pretty heated battles and some questionable overtaking manoeuvres (quite possible by myself, eh Pauly) but in the end only four from each heat could go through to the hotly contested A Finals and the rest battling it out for the B Grade trophy.
After having great starts all day typically I couldn’t get off the line to save myself in the finals, and I tell you being midpack in that first turn and over that first tabo is pretty scary! Coming from mid pack can be pretty tricky over a four lap race and passing Jason Viney is no mean feat. He made that bike as wide as the track! At the end of the day through it was Gazza Wellman who came through with the goods with some really solid riding and great pace. Im looking forward to some good battles this year so watch out when Brad comes back we’re both gunning for you now!
To finish off the day we had the ever popular “Last Man Standing” event. This is a full on no holds bar free for all! All the senior riders line up and do one hot lap with the last over the line dropping out, as soon as you finish your lap you line back up to go again until there is but one left. There are two main strategies you can play here, either ride conservatively and just do enough to get through to the next round (seems to work for Chinny), or get out in front so you get a better choice of gate for the next lap. This is always a favourite event for the riders as you never know what will happen in one crazy lap with a full grid on the start line! Also this year we are keeping points so the last man standing is a championship all of its own. Who will be the last man standing at the end of the year?
So to wrap it up I would again like to thank all of those that make these events possible. As I said these race days don’t happen without a little bit of support from you guys in the club. So if your in the shop ask if there is anything you can do to help before the next event, even if it something that seems relatively insignificant it still takes the pressure off others. Hopefully ill see you all at the next round in Devonport on the 28th March for some more bar banging action, until then 387 out. BRAAAP!
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