After round 1 at Illinbah was cancelled due to flooding, the Tassie round ended up being Round 1 instead of 2. The travel arrangements were the same as last year, Mum & Dad heading out on Wednesday to drive to Melbourne to catch the ferry over and the boys flying over on Thursday. All went to plan and even managed to get the boys a lift from the airport to the cabin with the Piazza's.
After the boys arrived, we all headed to the track for the usual track walk. Not exactly the summer weather we were hoping for but wasn't too bad. After the walk was done, we headed back to the cabin for some dinner and relaxing.
Not a real early start on Friday morning as practice didn't start until 10am. So cruisy morning with brekky and then to the shops for the usual days food supplies. Got to the track and found ourselves a good spot in amongst some bushy trees for a bit of wind protection and set up the Towers' shade tent which came in very handy over the next 3 days as it rained on and off every day. Practice went well so back to base camp, dinner, showers and bed ready for an early start on Saturday.
Saturday practice for Group B (our group) was from 8am till 1pm so we were at the track pretty early so the boys could get in some good practice. Another successful practice session over so we headed up the track to watch the Elite's and U19's seeding runs in the extremely fast roots section. After watching that, there is no way I would be watching my boys from there!
Thomas decided that he wanted some pasta (fuel food) for dinner Saturday night so we headed into Hobart City and found a cool little pizza/pasta shop and got some really good food. Into bed early ready for another early start on race day Sunday. Will be glad when the boys are in Group A as they get all the late practices.
Mum lay awake overnight listening to the wind and the rain praying that it would fine up by daybreak. At one stage, we thought the cabin was going to lift up and blow into the greyhound track. Day came and the weather didn't seem quite so bad. Got to the track and all the boys came down after their first practice run with mud all over them and their bikes. I can't actually remember the last time the boys had a race that it didn't rain.
Anyway, after a couple of time delays due to injuries, race time finally arrived. It wasn't long until Andrew's race as there was only a couple of small categories before him. Watching the timing clock and we saw that Andrew's number was on the screen so he was on track. All we could do was just watch the clock until we thought he would be coming out of the trees. Out he flies in what seemed to be a pretty good time so at least we knew he hadn't had an off and was obviously having a good run. Straight to the "hot seat" and waited for the rest of the U15's to cross the finish line. After all 12 U15 riders had come through, Andrew had taken the win by nearly 10 seconds. Good hustle champ!!!
Next it was up to Thomas to do his thing. As he was ranked #1 he was also first out of the start gate. As with Andrew, we were watching the clock again, next thing Thomas comes flying out of the trees in what also looked like a good time. Good sprint to the finish line over all the jumps and straight into the "hot seat". Thomas knew the next kid to come down was going to give him a run for his money so as he crossed the line over 3 seconds behind Thomas' time, he was very relieved. Although there were still another 17 riders yet to finish. Finally all U17's over the finish line and Thomas had taken the win. Great work mate!
Both boys ended up with the Leaders number plates and Leaders jerseys so they were pretty stoked on that. Next Round Mt Baw Baw 16 January 2011.
*** All in all, it was a great result but our thoughts have to go out to Eugene Smith, a 15 year old Tassie local who has raced against Thomas for the last 3 years who had a severe accident in practice. Eugene is in a pretty bad way and at the end of the day, win or lose, all we can really do is hope that our kids always get to the bottom of the track safely. ***
