What can I say about the World Junior MX Championships in Taupo NZ last weekend, we have our first ever Australian World MX Champion in Jay Wilson, and our first World MX Team win as a nation. I will give more details on this event further down, but for now check out the picture and don’t laugh at my massive grin as I hold the trophy! Now it has been around 7 weeks since the last newsletter and only some of you would be aware of how busy I have actually been, with the New Zealand trip only being a part of what I have been up to, taking the lead role in the running of the bushfire relief ride day at Broadford, some coaching, attending several races, assisting the new General Manager of Motorcycling Victoria to help him settle in, and being the Team Manager of the Australian Team for New Zealand. This has had me spread pretty thin over the last little while so now it’s time to get back in to it with some normality at home and getting back to work, enjoy the update!

Victorian Institute of Motocross

VIM had an on track session at the new Goulburn Valley circuit on Saturday August 1st, with all attending riders greeted by a perfectly prepared track and near perfect weather conditions. The track was simply excellent and full credit to the club for starting from scratch only a few months ago with this venue. The week prior to this several of the riders finished up the Victorian Junior MX Titles with some pretty good results all around, Dion Brillanti finishing 2nd and 3rd in the 250F and 125 A grade classes respectively, Mitch Landy 5th in A grade 85/150F, James Pearce 7th in A grade 85/150F, Ben Pearce 9th A grade 125, Brandon Billings 9th A grade 85/150F, Dylan Hodgson 4th B grade 250F, BJ Currie 3rd B grade 85/150F, Corey Power 6th B grade 125, and Callum Blair 8th B grade 125. This isn’t everyone, just the riders who finished top 10 in their class however the other riders have also shown improvement over the year with more to come before Newry at the Australian Junior MX Championships. The Senior riders have also just finished up with the State Titles last weekend at Blue Rock which unfortunately I was unable to attend due to the New Zealand trip, however I understand it was a great weekend of racing. Our next VIM session is Sunday 20th September for a classroom session at Geelong’s Skilled Stadium.

Although this season is not yet over, I have started doing some work for the VIM program for next season, where there will be changes made in regards to the program course work and number of riders eligible. Application of interest for the next season will be posted in the coming weeks.

Coaching Schools

The school at Goulburn Valley on Sunday 2nd August was excellent and booked out with 3 of us coaching to keep the group sizes to a minimum, keeping everyone riding flat out all day with almost zero waiting around between runs. The track held up perfectly while giving us plenty to work on, as a coach you can’t ask for much more than that! Next up we will be running several sessions during the week of September 19th – 25th leading up to the Aussie Titles, and will be held at various tracks. This is the first week of the school holidays for us in Victoria so contact me straight away if you are interested as positions will be kept to a minimum for these and will be aimed directly at getting as much speed and confidence as possible for the following week.

Racing

Plenty of tripping around again this time, firstly I headed off to Rosebud for a round of the Gippsland Centre Series, last event before the State Title there, then to Albury/Wodonga for the second round of the Senior State Titles, then Barrabool for a Western Region Series event where I officiated for my first time as Assistant Clerk of Course, hassle free day but not sure if I want to do that again, rather the coaching! The following weekend was a big one with the Junior State Titles at Rosebud where I attended the Saturday, before bailing on those riders (sorry guys!) and headed up to Newcastle for Round 7 of the OZ MX Nationals to help out Nicole Davis with an early flight up and late flight home that day...... I had Monday off for the record!!! It was all worth it though, most of the riders at Rosebud finished up pretty well, and Nicole finished 3rd overall in Australia after her final round the following weekend at Coolum, so well done to all. The following week I was at Broadford for a charity event (more below), then off the NZ for the World Juniors!

2009 FIM Junior Motocross World Championship – New Zealand

Here we go, I promised more info and here it is....

All of our Australians did an excellent job, and although they are somewhat overshadowed by a very deserving Jay Wilson at the moment, they can all hold their heads high with great individual accomplishments. As far as organising for the event there was only really one decent hiccup, turns out it was with me dammit! I had to purchase a return flight on the spot while checking in my bags at Melbourne Airport at 5.00am the Wednesday morning on the way over due to a spelling error with my surname, can you believe it was cheaper than the original which will be refunded! Sweet as, plus because they felt bad they didn’t charge for mine or Ross Beaton’s excess baggage at $15 per kilo, sweet again! Once in NZ everything was in full swing with bike building followed by riding at a private venue, thank again to the Knight family, before a cleanup and Technical Control (Scrutineering) on Friday. This did actually take up most of Friday before a short relaxing afternoon, with the highlight of Matt Phillip’s grandmother chucking herself off a platform with a bungy rope on her ankles, poor dear actually stayed head first which gave her a nasty whip when the rope tightened but she still came back smiling and we all cheered her loudly, funny as to watch considering I will never do it myself, soft I know! The real business happened on the weekend of course, with a brief rundown of placings as follows; 85cc class – Jay Wilson 1st, Dylan Long 3rd, Hayden Mellross 4th, Scott Mann 9th, Luke Clout 10th, Joel Dinsdale 19th, Dale Fear 21st, Jarred Jeffcoat 32nd, poor Jarred went down hard in race 1 and hurt his knee after a solid effort in Qualifying, while Dale Fear had a mechanical DNF in race 2. Results for the 125cc (Lites Bikes) – Tye Simmonds 2nd, Luke Styke 4th, Harley Quinlan 7th, Josh Cachi 8th, Ross Beaton 9th, Jason Reed 11th, Dylan Peterson 14th, and Matt Phillips 22nd, Matt had a 1 minute time penalty in race 2 after a panic on the start line and learnt how strict FIM rules are! Dylan Peterson had a terrible first race but a good 8th in race 2, and Jason Reed rode the wheels of his bike from dead last after a first turn incident to a great result. At the end of the day Australia took the Nations trophy followed by Italy, then New Zealand who actually tied on points with the Netherlands, the award for third was originally called for the Netherlands but their team manager Leon Giesbers, used to do very well at World GP’s for those old enough to remember, is a top bloke and knew it was in error and had it sorted which relegated his country to 4th. All in all it was a fantastic week with a fantastic result, I am hoping to be able to be Team Manager again next year and have already managed to locate the track on google maps, it will be held in France next year on August 20th – 21st. Another big thank you to all the parents and support crew who helped out to make sure this event was a success, and a mention to Gerry O’Kane from NZ for his weeklong help, and all the assistance from the Taupo club, great job to everyone involved.

State Motorcycle Sports Complex – Broadford

Plenty has been happening here, some of you are aware I am on the Motorcycling Victoria (MV) Executive which involves assisting in the running of MV, and as part of this role I took on board the running of a charity ride day at Broadford on Saturday 8th August, which saw all tracks open to all riders for a day of social riding where you could stick to one track or move around and try some new things. Entry for the day was only $30 (except for road circuit) which was exceptional value and all went home with a smile on their face. The chosen charity for the day was MV’s own Bushfire Relief Fund which we created after the Black Saturday fires of February 7th which affected many of our members. The day raised $10,000 and has been added to the fund which will be sent to affected members next month, in an effort to help keep them in the sport they love.

Also coming up at Broadford, similar to last year, I will be running several Supercross Practice days with the dates posted on the MV website shortly. The sprinkler system on the SX track is nearly finished which will make it better and easier than last year and all SX Endorsed riders are invited to attend, if you need an endorsement I can do these in the mornings before the gate opens so just contact me for that. As usual, if groups are required they will be done in accordance with rider skill level and age to ensure everyone has a safe, happy and valuable day.