sx08

King of the Cross
Southern Cross 2008

The “Quad of the Cross” is the title gained by the ATV riders, grouped together without class recognition, this winner take all event is one of the highest Prize money events on the Western Australian Calendar. Attracting riders from far and near a diverse group of riders come together on this outback red dirt Motocross track to pit themselves against riders who they may not have raced against previously.
This event is so popular it is rumoured that on the first entries opened, 15 of the senior quad places were taken. Each year has become a race to first get included on the grid and then plan the trek to the outback town of Southern Cross. An Eight Hundred kilometre round trip for us, camped out with about 300 families for a weekends racing and socialising is always good, and a welcome relief to the pressures of State Round.

We arrived Friday on dark and set about putting our new trailer accommodation into action, set-up, it was off to sit around the fire and contemplate the weather.

The Junior 200cc-300cc class were included on the Junior day for the first time, entries saw a capacity field enter, I’m still not sure these kids realise how lucky they were to be included !
Kalgoorlie rider Stephen Wilson impressed all with his speed and clearances of jumps, lap times saw him break the 2 minutes in the first, while Marcus Smith was the only other to do the same. The racing was fierce between these two and Kyle Brenton who cleared out each race in front of the rest of the field, the other 15 battled it out amongst groups of evenly matched riders right across the track.
Stephen Wilson 1^st Marcus Smith 2^nd Kyle Brenton 3^rd

Senior Quads raced Sunday, and with only a handful of Pro Riders in the field, the front runners were a given, Chris Brenton clinched the Holeshot money each race, which left Mckay & Lancaster to battle it out for the minor placings. Coby Holland and Luke Gaisford entertained with some great manoeuvring from both sides, it was on from practice, and every race saw the pair tussle for position. Holland took the hatrick of 4^th’s Gaisford all 5ths.
Chris Brenton 1^st Ryan Lancaster 2^nd Chad Mckay 3^rd

The women rider’s had their own “Quad Queen of the Cross” competition going, with an unexpected trophy presentation for the girls bringing smiles all around.
Daneil Smith 1^st Roxanne Petersen 2^nd Jessica Osborne 3^rd

Besides the racing the social atmosphere of the event was great, camping out under the stars and thanking the heavens it didn’t rain too much !
Full results here