Hey everyone! It’s been a busy last week of bike set up, training and racing over in Perth W.A. I arrived home to Mildura Monday after spending five days in the west in an effort to progress my racing further into the professional level.

Round 6 MX Nationals, 3x15mins+ 1 lap

AJS Wanneroo, Perth W.A

Results 22^nd, DNF, DNF

Arriving late Wednesday night after a four hour drive and a four hour flight, we hit the sack not long after arriving. Thursday involved picking up the bike from Redmond Motorsport, finding a track to train on, and get some suspension setting to help with attacking the big sand whoops.

Thursday started off great after picking up the bike, we (Woody & I) were on our way to a MX track to do some testing. Unfamiliar with the soft W.A sand and a borrowed van we were suddenly spinning the wheels and not going anywhere, we were bogged ten meters from the track. We wasted almost an hour till we had the van on some hard ground and could get traction, then decided to wheel the bike out. The bike was on the work stand, I was getting my gear on and as Woody was making some adjustments to the bike we realized the CRF had a flat tyre (or near flat). We didn’t have a pump or many tools at all, so we loaded the bike back in the van and headed to a BP servo. Our luck the air gun wouldn’t fit and it was off to Super Cheap Auto to buy a bike pump. Finally we were sorted and out on the track testing. After we were happy we packed up and headed to another track close by to do some riding with W.A young gun Josh Adams. Another good riding session on one of the toughest whooped out tracks I have ever ridden (put the Mexican track to shame). All in all a good days riding.

Friday was more riding and more testing. I rode at the Wanneroo JMCC which was also rough whoops but had some cool jumps also. I managed to get my bike handling really well and that helped my confidence a lot going into round 6 of the MX Nationals.

Saturday, we finished up preparing the bike and headed out the AJS Wanneroo circuit. We signed on and caught up with a few guys; all that was left to do was rock up Sunday and race my butt off.

After a scenic drive around Perth late Saturday with Tahns and Woody and a good night’s sleep, it was time to hit the track. We got there, got set up, and got to work.

Qualifying- Feeling comfortable with my bike set up I was hoping for a good qualifying position. I put in some solid laps and the result was 23^rd, up against this competition I was reasonably happy. This allowed me to a pretty good gate to start from.

Moto 1- I got off to a pretty good start (unlike Mossy who crashed on the first turn), sitting in around 15^th, I rode consistent laps but didn’t attack the track with enough aggression and slowly slipped back to 22^nd by the end of the moto.

Moto 2- Another good jump out of the gate and I was around the first turn in 11^th position. A few turns and I was up to 8th at one point, then I was in a 3 bike collision and thanks to my bike not wanting to start I had to watch everyone go by, and again the lap after. By the time I got my bike started I was 3 laps down. Bugger!

Moto 3- My start was average, maybe around 20^th. I was riding ok when I decided to have a lay down, nothing major so I got going again and trying to pass as many as possible to get a top 20 finish and next thing I knew another small lay down and the bike wouldn’t start, god damn. Think I need to spend a day practising my starting technique or just stop falling off would be a lot more progressive. Well 22^nd, DNF, DNF, was not at all what I had hoped to achieve for the weekend but the experience and constant battles is only going to make me stronger and in the long run I will benefit, I’m sure of it.

Take care and hold it on…