Racing Round The Tracks

A race report from the North Brisbane Mountain Bike Club

This month saw a number of North Brisbane racers head north to the trails at First Turkey Mountain Bike (MTB) Park.

Rockhampton Regional Council should be congratulated for the fantastic MTB facilities it has developed and maintained with the help of a large number of trailcare volunteers. There is a wide range of trails with differing technical difficulty, styles, features and varied terrain and challenges. To see such a range of diversity in one network was a pleasure and it should definitely be classed as a destination network, with enough to keep a rider busy for more than a few days.

North Brisbane MTB club had several members racing. Some were able to attend for the full two day event and others only able to stay for one day or head home early on the second day. All were able to put down solid times despite the number of tyres claimed by the rough terrain. Each member raced well given the bump up in technical difficulty and not being familiar with the trails. Connor Ditchburn fought hard to claim 4th in the u15 category with Lincoln Ditchburn chewing through a number of tyres on his way to 11th in u17. In the 40+ category, Quentin Hill and Greg Ditchburn put in a great effort and finished 10th and 13th respectively. Craig Collins put in the hard yards to finish 7th in a very competitive 50+ category. In hardtail, Dean Wilson came back from injury claiming 4th nipping at Ben Malatzky’s heels, who managed to appear on the podium in 3rd position.

Only a week later, Craig Collins showed some form at round two of the Scenic Rim gravity Enduro at Kooralbyn MTB Park that was full of thrills and spills! Sometimes unexpected things happen. Three heavy crashes in the seniors category opened up the top spots. It’s not nice to see but Craig was pretty stoked to be in a position to take 3rd spot. It was good to see everyone out chasing after it and pushing their limits. Beer was 2nd in the 50-59 division with Svic Walter taking out 2nd in 60+. To get involved with the North Brisbane MTB Club, visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/NorthBrisbaneDirtDogsMTB Happy Trails!