Logan River Motorcycle Trials Club (LRMTC) held our national open Battle of the Beards (BotB) event incorporating the Clubman Masters at the Overflow last Sunday.
Following some hard work from a small party of workers the previous weekend there were only a few sections left to set up the day before the event but with 80 riders entered some sections were also modified to enable riders to get through them quickly without queuing.
With a shortage of observers several of the usual riders put their hand up to rotate on a section to get proceedings underway and LRMTC is eternally grateful to those concerned including the volunteer observers who stood all day in very warm conditions. This was a stark contrast to the conditions the overnight campers endured with temperatures very close to freezing point and yours truly shivering in the back of my ute all night.
After about one third of the entry through scrutineering had to sign their licences to ensure they were valid (maybe a point to check before the Nationals gentlemen & ladies) proceedings got underway on time.
With a similar amount of lower , mixed and upper grade sections around the course riders were fairly well split up and I personally didn’t come across any major queuing problems.
A quality field of veterans for the BotB tackled all sections following C grade lines and last years winner Andrew Carpenter was having an off day, (could it have been something to do with the overnight camping ?) as was Tony Bax who dropped 20 marks on his second lap to put him out of contention.
Veteran Paul Moore took the honours loosing only 2 and finishing ahead of Jamie Isherwood on 7 with Greg Harding third 9 , Rowan Gibson fourth 17 and Tim English fifth 17.
Our Clubman Masters was also well supported by 17 riders and again the oldies showed the youngsters the way home with Mark Green taking the win on 1 mark lost with Denys Reed second also on 1, Bruce Jackson third 3, Bruce Curtis fourth 3 and Robert Morgan fifth on 4 marks lost. These two classes proving that you don’t have to set difficult sections to take massive marks off the leaders to find the winners.
Open solo was taken out by Boyd Willcocks comfortably on 6 marks lost from Ric Kent on 71 and Zac Hale on 108.
Regular winner in B grade this season Josh Lewis again reaffirmed his dominance by winning on 14 marks lost from an excellent ride from Andrew Platt 48 and Aki Nagao on 59,,,, such a pity that these guys don’t have the opportunity to show their skills at Thunderbird Park in this grade.
James Turner showed the benefits of practice and coaching with a close win over veteran Tom Rafferty in C grade with Ailsa Anderson continuing her excellent form of recent events in third place.
Other winners were Graham Weiss on his trusty Bultaco in Twinshock, Roger Galpin on his trusty (square barreled) Tiger cub except for a dud kill button that livened the day up and Isaac Luft with a clean ride in Junior .
We hope the riders had a good day with some keen practice for Thunderbird Park in the offering and hope to see everyone out there on the 21st Aug.
Many thanks also to Nel Isherwood and family for feeding lots of hungry people and to all the officials who worked tirelessly in the tent all day. Finally, to thank all the guys who helped set up sections and the property owner for giving us use of this excellent trials venue