On Any Sunday <> Hawkes Bay Dartmoor Rd Trial

Sunday 13th August, 1604 Dartmoor Road, Puketapu

Mum, dad, and I all got up before 6:30 am to get to the trial in Hawkes Bay on time. The weather was great; it was sunny but not boiling hot.

When unloading my bike from the van mum noticed that the toe tip on the rear brake lever was super loose. I stood there like a goose while mum investigated. Soon we had John Lawton, and then Carl Robson giving advice and a helping hand. I need to step in and make sure that, where I can, it’s me fixing my bike. Luckily (or unfortunately, depending on which way you look at it) a woman, a girl, and a broken bike attract all sorts of attention. As it was, the spring had broken and where the spring attached was completely closed up. John supplied the new spring and fiddled and swore a few times and then it was all as good as new. Thank-you very much 🙂

We don’t have rocks in the Manawatu like the ones in Hawkes Bay. Their rocks are super grippy and cool to ride on. All the sections were rocks on farmland.

I was riding with Kevin Pinfold and Carl Robson. They were riding in A Grade, which is one up from me.

Kevin and Carl were helping me heaps, showing me a few lines that were a bit more challenging and helping me ride them.

Three was my favourite section though I also thought five, seven, and eight were awesome. Three was one of the ones that Carl made a bit harder. Instead of going over the rock and straight up the hill, Carl got me to go over the rock at a slight angle, drop down to the left, tight right hand turn requiring half a hop, and then up the hill and over an extra rock, about one metre high. This was also the section that I saw Warren Laugesen ride on his enduro bike. Most of the corners are too tight for the enduro bike so he was hopping and nose-wheeling a lot. He made it all look so casually easy.

I didn’t really like one and four. One had quite a tight right before a rock that wasn’t particularly hard but looked a bit freaky. The top was slightly pointed so felt like I was going to catch the bash plate, plus there was a tree just beside the rocks that messed with my head a bit.

Four was the only section all day that I basically walked the bike through. It had a couple of quite tight corners that I couldn’t get and I pretty much struggled with the whole section.

Mum rode clubman and, despite not attempting section six, didn’t totally disgrace herself so was pretty happy.

13 year old Reuben Mitchell was also there on his GasGas Randonne 125. These have a 125cc 4 stroke Yamaha motor in them. They are about 20kg heavier than my 125 but you can easily clip a seat onto it for trail riding. Like mum, he also had problems with section six but soldiered on all day. In the end he beat mum in the clubman class.

There were also a flock of electric Osets there. Most of them belonged to the Robsons. None of them actually did the trial but it was cool to see them out there. They seemed to be having lots of fun. “Floyd” du Plessis’s son was also on an Oset. He followed dad around all day and tried some parts of some of the sections. He was really hard on himself. When he made a mistake he would sometimes get quite upset. I think he’s going to be quite good.

Local rider Mackenzie Wiig was there, riding his first trial. He is a top enduro rider and has competed in the Red Bull Romaniacs. He is actually pretty good but had a slow start to the day. His big score on lap one meant that I beat him. It might be the only time but it still counts.

I came 2nd in Intermediate, behind John Lawton. In fact, he wasted me, with less than half my score. My extra points mostly came on sections one and four, where I was trying different lines. At least that’s my story.

I had an awesome day. The weather was just right, and the sections were great.