Summercross 2007

Summercross 2007

Summercross is a unique event that transforms a full MX Track into a mini arena cross track, utilising some existing Jumps and Track and creating some new spectacular terrain for the riders to master quickly and perform in front of the biggest audience most of them ride in front of all year.
Held at Coastal Park by the Rockingham Kwinana Motorcycle Club, the club members worked tirelessly creating the track, maintaining the grounds, organising the riders and racing schedule and a full night of Practice that saw over 180 riders attend. There were 3 nights of Motocross and lots of very tired volunteers, by Monday morning the grounds were spotless and the track prepped and back to normal for Monday afternoon practice.

Thursday night, the Quads strutted their stuff and found out who had entered in their particular classes. Checking out the track and trying all the new jumps were priority, as to be ready to put on a good show Saturday night. Everyone came back sweating and exhausted, these short sprint races were tight and torturous and 5 minutes of racing was going to be at warp speed. Most of the Blaster kids were there for Practice, some having driven over an hour, to check out the terrafirma, amazingly most did it with ease, and enjoyed the challenge of some new jumps.

Leanne and I manned the Gate for the two nights, so only managed to watch the last 2 races of the evening. The Juniors were awesome, the racing sensational, there were challenges and passes being made by the Juniors usually only seen in the Pro Class, inside Outside manoeuvrers, and spine tingling passes over jumps and through the whoops had everyone excited. All 15 of these kids should be congratulated for their efforts, the calibre of riders coming through from Juniors now heading for Seniorsand the clubman class will only strengthen the sport of quad motocross.












      





Saturday night after 5 hours on the gate, and full parking areas, we got to sit amongst the crowd enjoy a burger and watch some exciting racing by the senior riders, 2 and 4 wheel. Clubmans had a full gate including 3 women, you never know who is going to win as all the riders are so evenly  matched. Daniel Udell proved he hasn’t been relaxing over Christmas and took the hattrick of wins, Brian Williams excelled in the first race to finish second with Santel Bush taking third. Santel improved in race 2 and 3 to finish second in both races and second over all. Rhys Davies is new to the sport of Motocross Racing and celebrated the night with an overall third place.

The Pro/Inter Class were just awesome and had the crowd oohing and aahing at every jump and whoop. The starts were crazy, I’m told Chad in the first race went a little tight and was spat off his quad right in front of a few riders ,who proceeded to follow him down the track til he stopped running J {anyone get video of that?} Holeshot gave the rider the advantage of being the one to chase around the track, Glen Ashworth lead the first race from start to finish in front of Tom Price’s Ryan Lancaster by just .681 of a second, Clint Mansell finished 3^rd. Race 2 had the Glen and Ryan exchange positions and Chad McKay slotting in for fourth.
Race three was the most exciting event of the night, Ryan and Glen were on equal points and both wanted the first win of the season, Ryan was out in front for just one lap before Glen made the move and scurried out in front, Ryan stayed in touch the whole time, meanwhile Clint Mansell and Chad McKay were fighting it out for third, Jarred Mansell was coming through the field after being left at the gates! Grant Gaisford had Blown a berm and was relegated to chasing the pack while Michael Harcourt and Taylor Milling battled it out for the Inters. Up front the last lap board was shown and  Ryan closed the small gap, Glen who having cleared the biggest jump on the track all night was now showing a little less steam and pushed himself over the final jump before accelerating to the finish line, Ryan took the inside line and also accelerated, Glen took the risky outside line which saw him fly through the air for Firstby .200 of a second, but crashing spectacularly on the other side of the jump, miraculously bike and rider rode away with Glen punching the air and the crowd applauding  the great racing. Mckay came in for Third, but Clint Mansell took the overall 3^rd place for the evening.
Bethwyn Gaisford
Waquadmx.com