A record 350 juniors were in attendance at Mosgiel, just over the hill from Dunedin, New Zealand, for the 30th three day event over the weekend of the 13-14-15th of April.
The 2.100 Km track is on Kevin McAlwee's working farm and what a great effort the Mosgiel District Motorcycle Club had gone to. The long Holeshot went left, then into a sweeping right then a tighter left before they attacked the very big hill section. Coming off the hill there was a challenging supercross section that ran the length of the floor of a valley and back again with a whoops section thrown in for good measure. The general consensus of the riders was the track was "just awesome".
For the previous month they had temperatures in the early 20's and even had a helicopter watering the hill section during Thursday's sign-on. Friday's practice included qualifying for three classes plus Round 1 of 7 Rounds. It was now appalling weather. A lowly 4 degrees with showers, wind squalls and even light snow. It started muddy as well but soon turned the track to 'tacky' - perfect track conditions. Saturday was marginally better with 9 degrees but the wind was still very cold. Sunday was a welcomed 12 degrees but the wind chill was still there.
Officials paid their respects to Manawatu's 12 year old Nathan Fitch who had died suddenly, the night before flying down to Dunedin, as the result of a BMX crash. As a result several Manawatu boys never made the journey. Condolences to Nathan's family.
On the Saturday too much time was lost at the starts. Before races all riders were sent out on a look lap then reformed on the dummy grid before going to the line. It was actually wasting time as everyone knew their gate numbers. They ran out of clock so the Support classes missed their third race. The Club were quick to sort it for Sunday. There would be no look laps as all riders were given 30 minutes to walk the regroomed track. They also doubled up two classes with split starts and the day ran like clockwork. They actually got in 27 races and the Support classes got their extra race- well done.
