CRIMMINS BOYS - 2009 STATE CHAMPIONS

Team Crimmins headed to Lithgow for the 2009 DH State Championships on the weekend of 22/23 August. On the road by 6am on Friday morning, we headed to Springwood to pick up young Robbie Trotter whose house we were staying at for the weekend. We arrived at the top of the track at 1pm and the boys kitted up and headed off for practice. Mum & Dad spend the next 4 hours driving up and down the shuttle road.

We headed back to the Trotters house for the night and got stuck in traffic. It ended up taking us 2.5 hours for a trip that should have taken about one hour. Gotta love that city traffic.

Back at the track nice and early on Saturday for a day of practice, buses provided so Mum & Dad could have a look at the track. Nothing too big and scary, very fast and flowy with lots of berms.

Sunday race day arrived and we were at the track early knowing that shuttles would be slow (and we weren't wrong). The boys got in a few runs but shuttles were pretty slow so it was lucky we got in the practice on Friday.

Racing started early at 11:30am which was good so we could get on the road a bit earlier to get home. Thomas' start time was around 12:30 so he headed to the start. They were on track only about 5 minutes late and Thomas was first off as he was the highest ranked rider in U17's. He came across the line in a screaming time of 2:54.52 (U19's had just qualified at 2:58.70) obviously had a very good run. After watching the rest of the 61 riders come over the finish line, it was official, Thomas was U17 State Champion.

Andrew's start time of 1:45pm allowed him to watch most of the U17's race and then head to the top with his mates for their race runs. First U15 down the hill was Brent, who won the Series, in a very good time of 3:08.16. Next thing we know, here comes Andrew out of the scrub and crosses the finish line in an amazing time of 3:02.49. After all 15 riders come over the finish, it turns out Andrew had the fastest time by 6 seconds. Yay Andrew, U15 State Champion.

Final results in and Thomas' time would have seen him also win the U19's (and place 10th in Elite Men) and Andrew's time would have got him 2nd (behind Thomas) in U17's.

Must say a big thanks to Jenny and Simon who made us feel very much at home at their house on the weekend and Congrats to Robbie for his great result in U17's also.

CORC Round 5 - Stromlo World Champs Track

Finally, a Club round that didn't clash with a State Round. We haven't raced the last two Club round as they both clashed with the State Rounds.

Round 5 was held on the newly renovated track that will host the World Champs next month. Both boys reckon the changes have really improved the track and it's now heaps fun, especially the new jumps at the bottom.

As we were heading to Canberra on Saturday to hand over the Norco to some guy from Sydney who bought it, we decided to bring the bikes and do a few shuttles at Stromlo. In the mean time, Thomas had organised to stay at Matt's place so we met them at Stromlo and after Andrew was done, we left Thomas with Matt and headed home.

Sunday morning was an early one as Andrew had to play league in Queanbeyan at 9am. After a hard game, and a good win, we arrived at Stromlo at 10:30. Shuttles were running well so Mum & Dad walked up the hill to watch race run and do a bit of marshaling. Race runs went well for both boys. Thomas took out the U17's and Andrew ended up 2nd in U15's. Thomas finished with 5th fastest time of the day after 4 Elite riders. Great day but bloody freezing. (Oh yeah, Andrew hit up the hip jump for the very first time in practice - Yeah Andrew).