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Daniel Fraser's SART Championship Round 3 Report
Third time was the charm over the weekend at the Lew Job 2-day Trial. It was the 50th edition of this iconic reliability trial held around the township of Robertstown. The weather was mild and sunny over both days, although nighttime temperatures on Saturday did drop dramatically. The format for this trial was a 6hr day/night format on Saturday and a 6hr daytime event on Sunday, with your overall time accumulated over the two days. The course followed a similar route to last year with the addition of a few new paddocks. Most notably, was the re-introduction of “Springhut Creek”. I’ve heard about this section over the past few months, but nothing can really prepare you for the speed you have to carry through a rocky creek bed. On more than a few occasions I had the bike in 5th gear flat out, with my weight over the back and tucked behind the bars! Thankfully I made it through safely all four laps, but the section did claim its fair share of bent bikes and bruised bodies.
For the first time in a long time, I got a favorable starting position. I was bike 61 for this event and thankfully the riders that were starting in front of me were around my pace. My plan for the first day was to ride within my limit. After all the mistakes and mishaps that have plagued the start of this season, I planned to make it to Sunday in one piece and be able to put my best foot forward for the second day.
Everything went well on the first lap, being that my start time was mid-pack there was a visible line to follow and I was able to settle into a groove early. The course was 95% dry and dusty but the organizers opted to re-use a paddock from last year that went through a creek several times. Unfortunately for the riders, and to the delight of the spectators there was quite a bit of water in this creek. Which quickly deteriorated due to the number of bikes passing through it and turned into a bog hole. Luckly I was able to get to the start of this control with a few minutes up my sleeve and have a brief look at the conditions before committing to a line. I was able to make it through in one piece, but others weren’t so lucky.
I left main control for my second lap around 5:30pm. It was dark by the time I reached the first competitive section. Thankfully the night lap went according to plan, and I had no issues. However, I probably rode too conservatively and was in 3rd place in class by the end of the lap. The next night event is a few weeks away, so I have some time to tweak and improve my set-up for night riding!
Sunday offered another day of mild weather; I was motivated to move up the standings. I charged hard on the third lap on Sunday morning and recorded some very competitive section times. After having a look over the results, I suspect I was in contention to be leading the times for the second day. I had a slight mishap in the second to last section of lap 3. I came in too hot into a right-hand turn and decided split-second to roll over the rut and go around the outside. Little did I realize there was a small tree on the outside of the turn which I clipped and caused me to have a small crash. At the time I didn’t think much of it, I was able to keep the bike running and get going again quickly, everything seemed in working order, so I pushed on. A few kms down the track I realized the consequence of that crash when I went through a large “g-out” and my headlight broke off its
bracket and was just hanging on by its wiring! I was able to grab my headlight before it did any serious damage. I suspect the earlier crash caused a stress fracture and the force going through the bike was enough to break the bracket when I went through a large compression. Luckily, I was only a few kms from the end of the section and was able to hold onto the light and ride one handed to the end. From there I was able to secure it with some zip-ties and duct-tape, which surprisingly worked well for the remainder of the race. Only downside was I lost around a minute in the end of that section, which put a dampener on what was otherwise a really good lap.
Lap 4 played out much the same as lap 3, I felt comfortable to set a solid pace and set about ticking off sections, working my way to the finish. The only blemish on that lap was a small tip over roughly 100m to the finish of the last section, I lost the front on a blown out and dusty off camber corner. I lost a few seconds but was able to remount and get to the end. After looking over the lap times I lost the fastest class time on that lap by 3 seconds, roughly what that silly little tip over would’ve cost me! I was able to claw back enough time on Sunday to put myself into 2nd in class and 14th outright.
Overall, an awesome weekend of racing, it is such a massive relief to finally have a decent result and no major dramas. Now I shift my focus to the 24hr on the 12th to 14th of July, I’m not too sure what to expect as I haven’t raced one before, but I’ll be sure to give it a good crack and hopefully make it to the finish! I’ll be sure to keep you all posted!
