Stromlo World Cup Track - CORC Rnd 5 - 27 July 2008

Saturday morning James and Jack from Tura Beach turned up, arriving to a huge frost and fog, keen to get going to Stromlo for practice and test out the new track. CORC organised shuttles for the day and the boys managed to get in quite a few runs as there wasn't as many people there as expected. Very happy with their days effort and looking forward to race day tomorrow.

Sunday saw an early start as Andrew had a game of league to play in Belconnen before the race so he and Mum headed out first at 8:00am. After finishing breakfast and loading up the car and trailer, the rest of the gang headed off to Stromlo to do a couple of practice runs before race time. After just getting beat by 2 points by the team that is leading the competition, Andrew was pretty happy with the result and ready to do the mad dash to Stromlo to at least get in one run before race.

Race time arrived and the support crew headed up to triple treat to watch the action from there in the freezing cold, watching the snow clouds coming over the hills behind, hoping the weather would hold out until after the race. Yet again, it was great to see some of our mates from Cooma at the race also. Team Sacred Ride Rider, Brock also made an appearance although not riding because he broke his arm skiing a couple of weeks ago! Bad luck Brock, we told you that skiing is no good for your health. Race time and all the boys passed with much cheering from the crowd, all looking to be pinning it, Thomas the only one in the U15's to do the hip jump. As soon as Andrew passed the road gap in his second run, with all our boys finished now, we decided we were'nt actually dedicated enough to stay and watch the rest of the divisions as we were frozen to the bone by now. We headed down the hill to meet up with the boys in the carpark, only to find out Jack had locked the keys in his Dad's car. Go Jack!!! Oh well, the boys wanted to hang around to find out the results anyway. You wouldn't believe it but the girl who parked next to us had locked the keys in her car too. Lucky she was in the NRMA and it only took them about 20 minutes to arrive and he helped James out as well. Phew, lucky for you Jack.

Anyway, in the mean time the results had been announced (no print outs this week due to lack of power for the printer) U15's Winner - Thomas Crimmins, U13's Winner - Andrew Crimmins. YEAH TEAM CRIMMINS. With no official results in print, as soon as we arrived home (after driving through a snow storm at Williamsdale), onto the computer to check for results. Finally about 7:45 they were there. It was official, Thomas won by 1.47 seconds and you wouldn't believe it, although watching Andrew in his race runs he was absolutely pinning it, he won by a whopping 20.27 seconds. Thomas and Ian will be heading off to Awaba in 2 weekends time for the State Championships.

State Round # 4 - Funnelweb (Nowra)

Thomas Crimmins - 2008 NSW/ACT State Series Champion

On the second weekend in July, we headed off to Nowra for the 4th and Final Round in the 2008 NSW/ACT State Series. With Thomas narrowly leading the series, the pressure was always going to be on for him for the weekend.

Thursday afternoon we headed down to South Durras to stay with Aunty Trudy and her gang for the night so we could get an early start on Friday morning. After a good sleep, we headed off early.

We arrived at the track after 4 wheel driving the "Falcon Crap box" (according to Andrew) along a long, windy, sump caving dirt track to be greeted by gale force winds. Huge gum trees all around, no-one was game enough to get out of the car at first but finally parked the car and went for a seriously up hill track walk. Three quarters of the way up, we hooked up with a couple of guys, Tom and Joey from Orange who asked if we would be interested in doing some shuttle runs with them. Great for us as Mums old "Falcon Crap Box" wouldn't have made it up the snotty shuttle road anyway. We proceeded to have a great day with our new mates and got in about 8 runs on the Friday. We found out later in the afternoon that our new mate Tom was ranked 3rd in the State in Elite Men and Joey was also doing well in the Experts. After a great day of practice, we headed to our home away from home which we were sharing with some friends from Cooma and Berridale. Very nice house we stayed in at Sanctuary Point thanks to Sue's great investigating skills.

Saturday morning we headed back out to the track with Thomas's mates, Brock and Shane, and their Mum's following in their REAL 4wd (lucky for them). Got to the track early enough to get a fairly close parking spot, registered without a hassle, got the numbers and the boys were all kitted up and ready to take on the hill with about 200 other riders (lucky we got those runs in on Friday). Good to see all the familiar faces and friends from previous races all on course and practicing hard. Mum and Dad walked the course a number of times over these couple of days on photo duty. Saw some awesome stacks but luckily none of our crew. The track as described by the boys was gnarly, with some big items, 25 ft gap jump, 7 ft drop, log ride, the spine, and the really tight rock gardens and of course "The GAY fireroad" that sucked so much. All in all, an excellent track.

Sunday RACE DAY. Headed out early and still had to park up to woop woop but way closer than other people at woop woop, woop! Boys only had a couple of runs to see how blown out the track had become and felt prepped and pumped. After a red bull, they headed off to the bus amongst lots of good luck's from the support crew. Our mate Shane was the first down the hill in the U19's and posted a clean run with no mishaps. Yeah Shane!!! Next up was U17's Team Sacred Ride rider, Brock with a time that he was very happy with (and pipped his arch rival by 10seconds). Yeah Brock!!! Next up was the U15's with Thomas heading out first as series leader, with Dad half way up the mountain and Mum at the finish line watching the clock tick by, each second feeling like a minute. Thomas pinned it down with a time of 4:21.51, which was enough to clinch a victory in the U15's and take out the Series as well. Yeah Thomas!!! This time put Thomas 25th out of 188 riders for the weekend. Next down the hill was Andrew, with huge support crew on the track and at the finish line, Andrew crossed with a time of 4:59.24 making him 11th out of a field of 28 starters. Yeah Andrew!!! Mum and Dad get next weekend off before heading to the new Worlds track at Stromlo for a CORC round.

CORC Rnd 4 - Majura 6/07/2008

Majura has been run and won. There was a great turn out on the day including some of our friends from Cooma, Bredbo and Bemboka. A field of 16 in the U15's saw Thomas place third. After losing his chain in his first run, he still managed to post a very respectable time. Dad fixed the chain for his second run and he managed to wipe another second off his time finishing in a time of 1:18.96. The U13's saw a field of 12 starters. Mum apparently saw the wrong time on the timing system after Andrew crossed the finish line for his first run and told him there were a couple of kids with faster times (BIG mistake). Well, Andrew decided to give it everything he had in his second run, hit a tree stump and ended up with a flat tyre. The results came out and it turned out Andrew placed 1st with his first run time of 1:31.18. Mum will make sure she gets it right next time. The track was extremely chopped up by the end of the day with many of the riders coming to grief after the finish line either wrapped around a tree or wound up in the timing board. Always a good day riding and hanging out with mates.

Team Crimmins Update

Well, I've finally worked out how to set up a blog!!! I actually got the idea from our good friends the BAD boys in down town Bemboka. Was very impressed with their site so decided to start one up ourselves.
Introducing ourselves, we are a family into mountain biking (well the kids are into it, we just pay for it).
Thomas; has been racing for just over 12 months. At just 12 years of age, Thomas managed to score himself a Bronze Medal in the U15's DH at the National Championships at Stromlo in January 2008. The following week he placed 3rd at the National Round at Mt Beauty. In March 08, Thomas took out the DH at the Interschools Championships on the Canonball Run at Thredbo in what was described as one of the fastest times ever posted in Div 3 (6:50.37). Since then, Thomas placed First in the U13 2007/08 CORC Series. To date, Thomas has raced all three U15 NSW/ACT State Rounds for 2008 and is the current series leader. There is one round to go at Nowra on 13 July and then the NSW State Champs in Awaba in August. Thomas has been lucky enough to pick up sponsorship from The Sacred Ride, Jindabyne. http://sacredride.com.au/

Andrew; is just new to the sport of DH racing. As Andrew is only 10 years old, Mum and Dad have been trying to hold him back from racing up until now. Andrew is just starting to get into DH racing seriously this year and will be doing all the CORC rounds. He didn't race the first round as it was a State round but since then has taken out first place in the following 2 races at Isaacs and the Stromlo burms track. Andrew also raced the third NSW/ACT State Round at Coffs Harbour and placed a very respectable 10th in a field of 31 in the U15's division. Not bad for a 10 year old. Andrew also loves Rugby League and plays in the U11 Cooma Colts.

Anyway, heading off to Majura this weekend for another CORC round. Should be fun.