CORC Round 2 - 22 May 2011

Another successful Clubbie for Thomas at Round 2 of the 2011/12 CORC Series, placing 2nd in Elite's. Just 2.09 seconds behind Jezza.

Another very busy weekend with the Stromlo working bee on Saturday morning, then runs in the afternoon with the gates open (thanks to Mum for doing shuttles). Sunday saw Thomas & Dad head to Majura for the race and Mum & Andrew head to Bungendore for footy. Unfortunately the footy team got beat but Andrew did score one of our two tries.

I think we have a couple of weekends off now, apart from Sunday footy, before the State Round at Stromlo on 11 & 12 June. The boys can't wait. Should be a big weekend.
** Thanks to "Going Downhill" for the photo.

NSW/ACT State Round 2 - Ourimbah 14 May 2011

The Team all headed to Ourimbah for the weekend, keen to escape the cold weather. We headed out at 8:30am on Friday morning on our way to pick up Kaine from the Wollongong turn off. After a quick stop at Goulburn, an hour later we arrived to Kaine's pick up spot. Loaded up and on the road again. 2 hours later we arrive at the Ourimbah track where we dropped the boys at the top to walk the track before kitting up to do a few practice runs.

Early start on Saturday morning as Mum had offered to Marshall so we were at the track just before 9 and Mum headed to the top to Marshall at the start. Boys kitted up and went to stand in line to catch the shuttle up. Lucky for Andrew he must have got in line early as he was the 2nd rider to do a run. The shuttles went to shit after that with people waiting anywhere up to 1.5 hrs in line. Some pretty unhappy downhillers on track! Practice over and we headed back to the digs to build a wheel and relax for a bit before cooking the BBQ for dinner. Danny joined us for the BBQ with Ned and his Mum coming over for a while also.

Packed up the Cabin and back to the track early again Sunday so we could get a good parking spot, and managed to snag the same spot we had on Saturday. The boys did their usual practice runs and then prepped for race. Well Andrew for race and Thomas for qualifying.

As the track was so pedally, Thomas did a pretty cruisy qualifying run to save his energy for race and ended up qualifying in 2nd position so he was pretty happy with that.

Andrew had a good race run and finished in 2nd position in Under 17's so he was really happy. Andrew is glad that he decided to race up a division this year and is happy with his results so far.

With Mum up the hill Marshalling again, it was finally time for Thomas' race run. Watching all the U19's come down with Thomas being the 2nd last rider is always nerve racking but finally we see him coming through the scrub and into the final berm and then jumps, which he totally pinned. Watching the time tick over, we weren't sure what the result was as the times were so close but after Castec printed out the results, Thomas had come in 2nd behind David McMillan by 0.57 of a second. It turned out Thomas had a stack in race run so was pretty happy to still end up in 2nd place. The results for the top 5 U19's were all within 1.28 seconds. Very close and exciting racing. Congrats to David for taking the win, you deserve it.

Got back home just before 10pm and the boys are already planning for the next race. Go Team!!!

CORC Round 1 8 May 2011 (Mothers Day) - Kowen

Round 1 of the 2011/12 CORC Series was held at Kowen Forrest on Mothers Day. With Andrew back into the football, we had to split ourselves between the two events. Ian taking Thomas to David's and then come back to Kambah to watch Andrew play footy, then back out to Kowen to watch Thomas race and help with the timing.

Thomas was looking forward to this race as he hasn't race a Clubbie for a while as they've clashed with other races. He was also feeling that he had got back his confidence again after Adelaide so was keen to see how he'd go.

After his first run, Thomas was sitting on 3rd fastest time of the day so was pretty pleased with that and looking to improve a bit on his second run. When all was done and dusted, Thomas had improved on his first run by nearly 1.5 seconds to claim third fastest time of the day overall out of 68 riders, just behind Timmy and Jezza. Also pretty pleased with beating 2 of the junior worlds boys.