National Series Round 4 - Shepparton, Vic 20 March 2011

The fourth and final round of the 2010/11 National Series was held in Shepparton on the weekend of 18-20 March 2011. With Thomas still out because of his broken arm, Dad and Andrew headed to Shepp on the Thursday afternoon, driving to Albury to stay overnight and then to Shepp on the Friday morning. Thomas ended up going to Sydney to see his girlfriend for the weekend so he wasn't overly distraught.

Dad and Andrew arrived at the track Friday morning, set up the tent and headed up the track to check it out and get in some practice. There were a few changes to the track from the one we used last year with lots of jumps put in, which Andrew looooves! Andrew was happy with his first day of practice, enjoying the track a lot more than last year.

Saturday was an early start with practice starting at 8am. Another good morning of practice and then Andrew headed to the pool with Brent while Dad went back to the motel to do some washing and bike maintenance before heading back to the track to watch Group A seeding. That over with, back to the motel, dinner and an early night in prep for race day tomorrow. Dad reckons Andrew was looking really fast in practice and nailing all of the jumps, which a lot of other riders couldn't master.

Sunday saw another early start with practice from 8am and racing starting at 10:30. As there was a pretty small field in Group B, racing was over with pretty quickly. Mum rang Dad at 11am "What's Andrews start time?" Dad: "They've just finished". As I had the internet open on the laptop, I went to the online results site and there it was in black and white, Andrew had smoked it woohoo, winning by another huge margin of over 12 seconds. It ended up that Andrew time of 2:20.10 would have seen him place 2nd in U17's and 8th in U19's. Bloody amazing effort mate. Thomas had want to hurry up and make a come back or Andrew might just beat him lol (I won't be coming home that day).

With the Series now over, Andrew made a clean sweep by winning all 4 rounds so has now earned the title "2010/11 U15 National Series Champion". Even though Thomas only raced 3 out of 4 rounds, having won all 3, he still had enough points to place 2nd overall in the Series in the U17's division, which is a fantastic effort. Till next time. Go Team!!!

NSW/ACT State Round 1 - Thredbo 12 March 2011

Even before the National Series has finished, we are already into the State Series! Great. Anyway, the first round was held at Thredbo on the weekend of 12 & 13 March. As Thomas is still incapacitated, Andrew was the sole Team member racing this weekend, however Thomas did accompany us on the trip (but I'm sure after the first day he wished he hadn't as watching everyone else ride their bikes was killing him).

As Dad was on his way home from working in Murwillumbah, Mum and the boys headed to Thredbo on Saturday morning, set up the tent, settled into the lodge and Andrew had a good day of practice. Andrew decided to race in the Under 17 division for State this year as he said "I've accomplished everything I want to in the Under 15's". He has been U15 State Series winner and also U15 State Champ and at 13 years old feels he's been in the U15's for long enough. Racing up in the 17's isn't about winning for him, it's about having more competition, which in turn helps improve his racing.

Yet again on race day we awake to rain coming down on the lodge roof. What would race day be without rain and mud? Bloody fantastic I say. Anyway, the rain cleared but it left the track really slippery but at least not too muddy. Dad arrived mid morning so Mum headed up to Marshall on the track for race.

Race arrived and Andrew headed to the start but as usual, race never starts on time so he had a bit of a wait at the top. As he was waiting, the weather closed in and just before he was due to race, the wind and rain started. Mum was half way up the mountain thinking, "no, please don't start the U7's now" and it was probably a good thing they were running late so by the time they started, the rain had pretty much cleared.

Andrew was the first rider to come through in the U17's with Porky hot on his tail. He made it safely to the finish in a time of 6.58:59. With 36 riders in the U17's it seemed to take forever to get through them but finally they all finished and Andrew had placed 2nd. We were stoked with his podium finish and are now looking forward to the State Champs (NSW or Vic, not sure yet). Till next time, catch ya!!!

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS - Adelaide 26 Feb 2011

For the second year in a row, the Aus National Champs were held at Eagle Mountain bike park not far from Adelaide City. Mum & Dad drove over and arrived by lunch time on Monday, settled in then picked the boys up from the airport Monday evening.

Practice started on Tuesday with open practice all day, same on Wednesday. The weather was pretty good early in the week with tops of around 26 degrees but it certainly warmed up by Thursday afternoon reaching 33/34 degrees. Both boys got in some really good practice on Tuesday and Wednesday with split practice starting on Thursday. This meant we didn't have to spend the whole day at the track so we headed to the 'beach' for a bit of a swim.

Friday morning back to the track for a few hours practice before we would head home for a few hours before the boys went back to the track to watch Group A Seeding runs. All was going well until the bus stopped on the way back to the top and Porky told me to meet Thomas in the parking bowl as he'd hurt his wrist. Oh no!

I got to the bowl with Rick, Porky's Dad, Thomas was getting off the bus. We headed straight to the St John's guys for a (sort of) diagnosis. Seems he may have broken something so off to the hospital for an x-ray. Couple of hours later and the diagnosis was a fractured radius. Doc put on a half cast and we headed back to the track to pick up Dad & Andrew. Thomas was still convinced he would be racing tomorrow. We would have to wait and see.

Saturday morning came round and Ian took off Thomas cast as he wanted to see how bad it was. One lap around the caravan park and there was no way Thomas would be racing today. Cast and strapping back on and off to the track. Absolutely Devo!!!

By Saturday Andrew had the track so dialed that he didn't need much practice so he did the usual 2 runs before having a bit of a rest. Andrew's race start time was around 11:15am so he headed to the top to get ready. For some reason Andrew was ranked number 1 in Under 15's so he was the first off in his category. Usually they go off last years Champs rankings (which was 3rd for Andrew) but for some reason this year they went off the Series rankings.

Anyway, Mum and Dad headed to the bottom part of the track (not far from where he crashed last year) to see Andrew cross the finish line and make sure he got down safe. We could see him coming through the trees and with crossed fingers we were hoping he would have a clean run to the finish. And so he did, finishing in a time of 2:16.36 which was a really good time comparing it to Group A Seeding runs on Friday afternoon. Watching Joel, the second U15 rider come through the trees, and watching the time, we knew it was going to be close and that it was. After Joel crossed the line Mum saw that they were both on the same minute and second. Oh no, it was down to the hundredth of a second. The timing screen went blank for what seemed like minutes (it was probably only seconds) but when it came back up, it had a number 2 next to Joel's name which meant that Andrew was still in the lead. After what happened last year, I can't believe Andrew put us through that stress.

All Under 15 riders over the line and Andrew had won by 0.5 of a second from Joel. This is the closest Joel has ever been to Andrew's time. What a relief. Andrew was officially 2011 Under 15 National Champion. Yay and big Congrats mate.

Andrew ended up telling us that he held back quite a bit in his race run as he didn't want to crash again but now realises that he nearly held back a bit too much and nearly lost it. All comes with experience really.

Roll on the Final round of the Series in Shepparton in a couple of weeks. Will be touch and go if Thomas can race, however if he can't race, there's a fair chance he won't win the Series so positive thoughts everyone. In the mean time Andrew will be racing the first round of the State Series in Thredbo.