Dargle 12 Hour

When Craig asked me to be part of a masters team for the 12 hours I didn't really know what to expect. I had only done one teams event before and we didn't actually "race" that event as we were all there to support my brother in the 24hr worlds. Getting closer to the race it was clear that we had a pretty strong masters team and if things went well would have a shot at the podium.
Got to race day and during the trip kept thinking about the many happy days I have spent at Dargle. Will get the controversial one over first and admit to racing the motocross track a few times in my younger years. Had my two worst motorcycle injures at Dargle, a broken leg when my boot got caught in a rut round a corner and got in the way of the foot peg and a dislocated collarbone messing up the quad jumps on the old practice track the opposite side of the valley.
Also remember the people camping next to us teaching us all how to waterski when we were out there camping during school holidays. Having lunch over near the river on a hot summers day and deciding with a mate that we should be skiing and not riding during summer. Many many days skiing there over a few summers. Watching my first bridge to bridge ski race. Waking up feeling a bit fragile after nights out at Wisemans pub etc etc.

Arrived in the fog and after sorting out the riding order went for a warmup ride over to the motocross track. Watched Craig start the race and get away well. All the boys pushed hard and we were doing laps just over the 30 minute mark. After my first lap tried to look up how we were going in the results with no luck. Did a second lap, got caught in the rocks on the last pinch climb and ended up tumbling down the side of the hill still clipped in. Not much damage done and the girl I had just passed gave me points for effort. Was able to find our results in the open category and while we were all consistently in the 30/31 range were around 10th so no chance of a podium in open.
Was really enjoying the teams event concept. The other boys were all smashing out the short laps and as the race wore on we moved up to 8th. The fastest laps were early afternoon when the track was driest and had the best grip. Lots of technical bits to keep you interested and I don't think I ever got cleanly through one of the tree root sections. Must say that the track marking was pretty ordinary and consisted of an arrow spray painted on the road that you could only see as you rode past it although after the first lap it didn't matter.
Got to 5pm with Craig owning the quickest day lap. During the dusk stage we moved up to 7th and then sometime during the night we picked up another place. It worked out that I would only need to do one night lap so went out with the plan of keeping it as close as possible to the day laps. Ended up with all my laps within 2 minutes so happy with that.
Was nice to finish early, watch Tate racing for the lead in our division and see the boys push hard on their last laps. Great result for craked, cromerboy, doc and I to get 6th in the open category as a few of the teams were very quick.
Enjoyed having a few beers and standing round the fire while we waited for the presentation. Ended up speaking to Alan Smith who I recognised from my brief boat racing days with upper hawkesbury powerboat club. Alan used to race very competitively with his 6 cylinder everingham named Dargle and I believe still holds the class record for the power boat race set back in 1985. He was genuinely happy to have us racing on his property and very respectful of the sport of mountain biking. Had a good chat to him about some of the people we both new and he mentioned that his sons and grandsons still race powerboats.
The presentation was well organised (other than not having a masters division) and I left pretty early the next day as I had my last soccer game for the season.
Overall a great weekend. I might just stay and do the 4 hour as well next year.