The 6 Hour That Wasn't

2014 Dirt Bike Challenge

maddix park mx

Extremely muddy, bitterly cold, slippery as, ruts galore – these words don't describe strongly enough the conditions that caused the shortening of this year’s  annual Suzuki 6 Hour Dirt Bike Challenge. 

It had rained heavily on the Friday night and the Saturday morning so the bulldozed tracks on the pumice didn’t stand up too well to the first lap onslaught of 100 plus riders.  There was also the snow up in "them thar hills".  Organizer Sean Clarke reluctantly halted the race after two and a half hours to the joy of many but to the dismay of a few.

The happy riders were the less experienced ones, the ones who lacked perhaps the technique of really revving it out and making it to the top of the slippery hills and thus became stuck in the freezing cold, the ones whose bikes desperately blew clouds of coolant in all directions or quite simply gave up the ghost, the ones who found the downhills even worse and head butted into the mud, the ones who hadn’t survived the carnage of the start, the shattered, the exhausted ones, the ones who could no longer feel their fingers and limbs, the ones verging on hyperthermia.

The less happy riders were those who love the wet, do well in heavy mud, have raced in and finished the No Way in Hell Enduros that Sean also organizes, those who were pacing themselves, knowing they had the reserves to cope with 6 hours in atrocious conditions, those who were just starting to enjoy the track and those who didn’t even get to ride at all because their team mate hadn’t made it back from lap one.

Comments have come in from several local riders who braved the elements with varying results.

Murray Jensen had been enjoying the event until his bike died after 1.5 laps (in reality, only dirty connections in the solenoid) and for the first time ever he had to be “retrieved”. But, he spent 2.5 hours waiting. “I tried to get warm in the patches of sun when there was some,” he says, “but then the rain and the hail would be back and I’d shelter as best as possible under  the trees”. “I’ll definitely be adding a thermal blanket to my bumbag in the future”, he added.

Tim Salter was also just starting to enjoy the event despite stinging hands and fingers that felt like they might drop off. In his opinion, it was “a bummer of a day” but a “good bummer” but very hard for non-expert riders.  Janelle Walker, his wife, had teamed with Shannon Pepper and the two ladies were rapt to complete 2 laps and finish first in the ladies section.

Richard Marriner was going really well.  It was hard work but he didn’t stop anywhere and was gutted he just missed out on doing that 3rd lap.

Reuben Steens was disappointed that the race was curtailed.  Rain is his forte and he knew he could cope with a lot worse. He hadn’t gunned it in the first couple of laps and was well prepared for the last 3 hours but had to content himself with a very creditable 3rd in the Ironman section and 17th overall.

Terry Cameron hasn’t been racing for “god knows how long” and was surprised at how well it all went for him and fellow rider from way back, Mark Haimes. They were 12th home and 1st in the Mega Vets and living proof that experience comes up trumps in any conditions. Terry was so encouraged by the day’s results that he’s going to have a go at the Enduro series this year in the Super Vets over 50s category, where he’ll be racing against the same guys he raced against all those years ago.

Simon Lansdaal teamed with Hadleigh Knight on a shared bike supplied by KTM. “A good event, shame about the weather”, says Simon. “I was having fun and would have liked the fun to continue but I do understand why the race was stopped early – it would have taken them 2 days to get all the stuck bikes out”.  The duo finished 1st in the over 400cc 4 stroke class and second overall behind the challenge winners Chris Power and Adam Reeves.

Chris got the holeshot and he and Adam maintained that advantage throughout.  “I was uncertain about how the track was going to behave and the soil was pretty sloshy. The danger was the front-end digging in …. As soon as you braked hard, you were all over the place” he is quoted as saying.

Chris and Adam came 2nd in the same event in 2012.

Full results for the 6 Hour Challenge are on Silver Bullet

Check out this clip for the carnage at the start of the race  And here's another view of the start that claimed Chris Birch ("blind sided then t boned in the first corner, game over"), amongst others.

 
Bookmark and Share