Well another Australian Trials Championship has just concluded and what a weekend it was for the Gas Gas crew. The Gas Gas Motos Australia Australian Trials Championship was a great result for The Red Brigade who succeeded in so many of the major categories, taking home wins in:
Open Solo, Open Women's, Youth, Open Junior, Junior 7-12, Veteran's 50-59 and first place in the Trade Teams catagories.
and podium places in: Junior Women, Masters and Vet's 40-49. It really was a Gas Gas weekend.
Photos courtesy of Greg Crammond Photography.
Firstly I would like to congratulate Kyle Middleton on a dominant ride to a very convincing first place in Open Solo. A more deserving rider could not be found, and it was exteremely gratifying to see Kyle finally crowned Australian Open Solo Trials Champion for 2013.
He has worked tirelessly for years, putting in an incredible amount of work to achieve his goals, and he did it in such a commanding fashion with a final score of just 45 points - less than half of that of his closest rivals.
I know Kyle would also like to thank his parents Ross and Sue for their unending support, and Simon Grist who has bought a great new element to the Team this year.
Congratulations Kyle it was a well deserved win, and no doubt will only be the first in a string of major achievements in your Trials career.
Watching him on the weekend was an absolute joy. His calm, measured approach, and incredible skill, was a reflection of just how far he has come in this sport - A massive congratulations Kyle, you own that title mate - great effort.
Kyle's dominace was also reflected in many other categories and my utmost respect must go to many other riders.
In the every increasingly popular Women's category it was no surprise to see Kristie McKinnon again the outstanding female rider in Australia.
Kristie has a number of Australian titles to her name, but continues to work tirelessly to hone her skills, and promote Women's participation in Moto Trials. It could be seen by a healthy list of riders in the Open Women's and Junior Women's categories.
Kristie, like Kyle, stamped her authority on the weekends competition with a final score of only 39 - 66 points clear of second place. The sections were pretty tough for a lot of the riders in both Women's categories, but you would never tell watching Kristie ride effortlessly the section markers. Another outstanding win for the leading Gas Gas girl from Oberon, NSW.
Victorian Brooke Lonie also made the podium with a close fought 3rd place, to show why she was such an obvious choice for our Australian TDN Team just recently back from France.
There were also well deserved wins in many other categories including New Zealand visitor Jacob Gundry in the Youth Class, doing an excellent job on a borrowed Gas Gas (thanks to Phil Whittle, Gas Gas Victoria)
And an amazing performance by youngster Ben Franco in Junior 7-12. (total for the weekend of just 2 points).
Ben hails from Sydney and has only started competing quite recently. He has just tapped some amazing natural talent, and you can tell by his poise and control on the 125 Gasser he has a very big future. Congratulations Ben you looked the winner all weekend.
Also in the Junior class a big shout out to 3rd place Aurora Hartshorn. Rory chose to ride with the boys in Junior 7-12 and she showed just how good she is . 12 boys - one girl and she was on the podium with an excellent score of 25 for the weekend.
The closest fought battle over the title weekend was between two Gas gas riders in the Open Junior category. One the Queenslander Bradley Bryant, and the second protagonist Connor Hogan from South Australia. Day 1 totals saw both riders locked together on 25 points, so they both knew they had to dig deep on the Sunday if they wanted the Junior title.
Even though the sections were very similar on Sunday both young guys sucked it up and rode for just a fraction of the previous days numbers, no doubt both thinking they had it in the bag! But incredibly they both finiished again on identical scores of 8! So back to the score tent it was..... to yet again find they had tied on cleans. 41 each for the weekend! It finally came down to the number of "ones" with Bradley on 13 and Connor on 11. What a contest and what a result.
It was also great to see Steve Johnson at presentation night accepting his first place in Veteran's 50-59, great job to Steve and Peter Wines securing first and second places in what turned out to be the most subscribed category of the whole weekend.
I would just like to sincerely congratulate all the Gas Gas riders who competed over the weekend at Sedgwick. I think the results speak for themselves showing what an amazing bunch of people you all are. It was a great overall result for the guys and girls in red, and it has been a honour to have you all aboard the Team this year. I apologise if I didn't get to spend as much time with you all as I would have liked, but it can get a tiny bit manic on a Titles weekend! It was very gratifying to hear the shouts of "WHAT DO YOU RIDE? GAS GAS" at the presentation dinner.
Gas Gas Motos Australia would also sincerely like to thank the event organisers, the Trials Club of Victoria, the organisers and volunteers, especially Phil Whittle and Col Scott for a fabulously run weekend. The bar is constantly getting set higher and they not only reached the top rung but pole vaulted the event to the top yet again. Bring on 2014 in Tasmania.
Paul Arnott
Gas Gas Motos Australia
