Round 2 of the State Series was held at the infamous "Monkey" track in the Awaba State Forest, in the Hunter region between Gosford and Newcastle. It's a pretty gnarly track this one, with the helicopter known to make regular pick ups from the track. Not this weekend though, thank goodness. A few ambulances but no helicopters.
We packed up the car on Thursday ready for a quick getaway early Friday morning. On the road by 7:30am with about 6 hours ahead of us. Quick stop off at Lane Cove to pick up the Morewood tent from Nicho and we headed to the cabin at Mannering Park to check in and drop off some gear. Got to the track by about 2pm and the boys walked the track with Mum tagging along as Mum would be marshaling all weekend and didn't think she would get to see the whole track over the rest of the weekend. Got to the bottom and the boys kitted up and Dad started doing shuttle runs for them. Got in about 4 runs and then back to the cabin.
Saturday morning and we headed out to the track early to get a good parking spot where we could also put up the tent. Mum headed off to Marshal briefing, the boys headed to the shuttle line up and Dad was catching up with friends before heading off to walk the track. Practice was all going well until Thomas goes OTB (Over the Bars) and hurt his chest and hand. Bit of first aid and a spell and he did one more run but realised he couldn't hang on to the bars so decided to call it a day and head back with the Trotter crew. Andrew had a great day of practice.
Sunday race day and Mum got up early (as usual) and headed off to find the supermarket to get supplies for the day. Got back and everyone was ready to go to the track. Quick pack up and on our way. Thomas was still in a fair bit of pain in his hand but just had to tough it out. Few practice runs in and Thomas headed up for his qualifying run. 37 riders in the U19's with only 1/2 of them going through in qualifying, Thomas wasn't pushing too hard and ended up 5th fastest qualifier.
Andrew headed up for race run pretty pumped on having a good race prep and really looking for the win. Andrew was first out of the gate in the U15s and crossed the finish line in a 3:59.09 and all we had to do was wait for the other 9 riders to cross the line. All done and Andrew ended up winning by 11 seconds. Stoked!!!
Thomas headed back up for race run and was 5th last rider to start as they race in reverse order. When Thomas crossed the finish line he was in the hot seat for a very short time until he eventually got knocked into 4th place. After talking to Thomas, it turned out he was having an excellent run in the top 2/3's of the track but after coming over the wombat jump, he saw one of his mates who had come off the track in his race run and took his focus off the track and went over the top of a berm. Struggled to get his bike and himself back on track, he lost quite a bit of time. Anyway, ending up 4th was still a huge effort although he has learnt a very valuable lesson. No rest and off to Clubbie next weekend. Catcha!
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