Desert Racing

2015 Hattah Diary WEEK 4 – Presented by the all new Fox FLEXAIR Racewear

Author: Aaryn Minerds

Author: Aaryn Minerds

Posted:

Saturday, May 30th, 2015

12:53 AM

2015 Hattah Diary WEEK 4 – Presented by the all new Fox FLEXAIR Racewear

Our 2015 Weekly Hattah Dairy is proudly presented by the all new Fox FLEXAIR Racewear - for more information on the lastest racewear from Fox head to Foxhead.com/au

Our 2015 Weekly Hattah Dairy is proudly presented by the all new Fox FLEXAIR Racewear - for more information on the lastest racewear from Fox head to Foxhead.com/au

Saturday May 23rd: Today was a big day, up at 3:40am to make the 3 hour trip to Wanbi in country South Aus for rounds 5 and 6 of the Australian Off Road Championship. The track was perfect practice for Hattah, and in a lot of ways a lot more difficult to what we will find when we head to Mildura in the first weekend of July.

Saturday's Cross country loop was pretty much 100% deep sands with the only escape being a small quarey that consisted of hard pack dirt and the only chicken run on the course, funnily enough the "Hard Line" proved to be easiest part of the entire loop to navigate!

For myself it was not a great race, lining up to start at 2.30pm after spending a few hours walking around taking photos, I was already tired and litterally falling asleep on the start line.

The first half a lap sucked while I struggled to find a rytham and got used to riding a 450 in the deep sand. By the time I crossed the line to start the first full lap, things were starting to come together and apart from a small crash things were not looking to bad. I kicked on to my second full lap and that is where things came to a grinding halt.

After a couple of small crashes I finally had a half decent off, tucking the front in the sand, sailing over the bars into a bush with my bike then coming through with the handle bars copping my right in the inner thigh on my right leg. Tired, frustrated and now sore, I finished off the lap with another crash along the way and called it a day.

Saturday at Wanbi was tough, this shot was caught after a second off and a the point of just getting back to the pits to end the day early, Sunday was a much better day - Credit: John Pearson

Sunday May 24th: I am not going to lie, after Saturday I was ready to pack up and head home and race a local Motocross meet, however I am glad I chose to stay and race the sprints on Sunday.

The Vets ran the same loop as the Women and the Juniors on Sunday, it was certainly the easier of the two loops and was more of a closer resemblense of what we will find when we get to Hattah, with the first part of the loop pretty wide open and sandy before ducking off in to some single trail deeper sand.

I was loving the first half of the loop, with the Suzuki RM-Z450 lapping up the knee to waist high sand berms in every corner in the opening section. It was cool to finally be catching other riders on track, though my pace when the track narrowed up and hit the deeper sand did slow, which shows what I need to focus on in the next few weeks.

All in all it was a great experience and a least gave myself a little time to adapt to riding in deep sand aboard the 450.

Monday May 25th: As with most Monday's, well every monday, it was spent behind the keyboard following up results and reports and updating the news section of the website. Apart from washing the bike and cleaning up some riding gear ready for a ride later in the week, there was not much going on apart from work!

Tuesday May 26th: Back in the Gym, nice little 1 hour cardio session followed by a short weight session.

Some Funnel Web Filters arrived on Wednesday to keep us dust free in 2015

Wednesday May 27th: Another quiet day, I was planning on a mid week ride but again that pesky thing called work got in the way, plus I had to organise to get enough work prepared for the following day, due to flying out Wednesday night to Melbourne to ride a couple of Sherco's!

A package arrived from the good people at Lusty Industries at lunch time, with a box of Funnel Web filters for Suzuki RM-Z450. We have been running Funnel Web Filters for three years now with both our previous two project bikes running the Australian designed products and would could not be happier with them.

The first of two packages arrived on Friday, with Fox looking after us from head to toe in this years big race.

Thursday May 28th: Another day of riding in the sand! This time at Krusic's ride park in Victoria thanks to Sherco Australia. The day was spent riding both the Sherco SEF-R 300 Factory Edition (Four stroke) and SE-R 300 Factory (2 Stroke) and even snuck in a little ride on the 300 two stroke Justin Carafa raced at the AORC in South Aus. Keep an eye out on the site for more info on that in the coming days, but we can say we certainly enjoyed both bikes and a day of riding in the sand.

Our Moto Master 270mm Overside front disc has now been fitted to the RM-Z450

Friday May 29th: The day started off well with another hour long cardio session at the gym, just to turn the legs over after yesterday's ride. On the way back from the Gym there was a quick stop in at Australia Post to pick up one package from Monza Imports with the guys from Fox decking us out for this years event.

I am pleased to say we will be running the all new Fox FLEXAIR racewear in this years race, along with a set of Fox Instinct Boots and Fox V3 helmet. Big thanks to Mick Sinclair at Fox for getting us sorted.

The day continued to get better when I arrived home, reciveing another package from the guys at Link International, including a couple of sets of the Pirelli MX32 Mid Soft tyres and a full range of Motul Products to not only get us through this years Hattah desert race, but the entire year of racing.

At 8pm tonight it was time to head back into the shed and continue to get ready for both Hattah and also this weekends ride. I finally have the Moto Master oversize front brake set up off the RM-Z250 and on the RM-Z450 and the bike ready for another ride this weekend.

I have litterally just finished working on the bike tonight and now sit here typing and finalising this weeks update at 11pm. Unfortunatley the following two weeks are going to be just as busy with trips to Finke and Ceduna both coming up, yep there is plenty more sand events coming out way!.