The last weekend in September saw the Keyenton MCC run a highly successful 2 day moto trial that incorporated the Taste Eden Valley SA Women’s Cup and The Diener/Holmes Sidecar Trophy, held at Eden Valley and attracting 70 entries from South Australia and Victoria.
TASTE EDEN VALLEY SA WOMEN’S CUP
This years SA Women’s Cup, the second to be run, was sponsored this year for the first time by Taste Eden Valley, with numbers also up from 8 in 2009 to 20 this year, which included 18 solo entries and 2 passengers.
Heading the field was Australian representative, Brooke Lonie from Victoria. Brooke had only just returned from Poland, where she represented Australia at the Trials des Nations teams World Championships. Taking the fight up to her in the Expert Women’s Class was Ina Halls, also from Victoria, and together these 2 girls wowed the crowds all weekend with some fine riding, with women of this calibre only seen in SA before at Australian Championships.
After a tight day 1, with little separating the 2, Brooke totally dominated day 2 to record a very comfortable win in the Expert Women’s Class, as well as taking the Overall Winners trophy as well.
In the Novice Women’s Class it was SA verses Victoria with Tyler Hogan going head to head with Chloe Whittle. Tyler, who had announced that this was going to be her last ride for a while, and Chloe, on the way back after an 18 month injury lay off, shared the honours with Tyler winning day 1 and Chloe day 2, but for Tyler, her day 1 lead was enough to give her the Novice Women’s Class win, 13 points lost to 18.
In 3rd place was moto trials rookie, Alex Long, the regular SA enduro rider swapping facets for the weekend and thoroughly enjoying the experience. 4th was reliability trials gun, Kristy Schultz, who also swapped facets for the weekend, and had her eyes opened as to how tough moto trials can be, both physically and mentally.
Also riding the Novice Class, but on Recreational Licences, and therefore not eligible for awards were the Keyneton MCC trio of Robyn Evans, Melissa Redway and Gwen ‘The Gun’ Blesing. All 3 had a great ride over the weekend, especially Gwen who surprised everyone, but no one more than Smithy, who will need to go out and practise to stay ahead of ’The Gun’!
In the Junior A Class, it was a case of the ‘Fab Four’ coming over from Victoria and continuing the battle that they have had raging all year long! Having been inspired by older brother, Sam, winning the Australian Junior Championship, Brigit King jumped out of the blocks early on the Saturday and set up a good lead by the end of lap 3 that she was able to hold all the way until the finish on Sunday. After early bike troubles on Saturday Shelby Lonie set off to try and real Brigit in, but even the best score on Sunday of no points lost couldn’t bridge the gap and she had to settle for second.
In third place3 was Hilary Stephens, and rounding out the top 4 was Rebecca Wines.
Joining the 4 Victorian girls was the Keyneton MCC’s Sofie Kraft in what was her first ever ride in any form of motorcycling. To the delight of her family and friends, and fellow Club members, Sofie put in one of the rides of the weekend, and impressed all with her skill on a bike, so much so that the Victorian girls were all keeping a half an eye on her by the end of the weekend. Proudest of all was dad, Shane, who minded for her all weekend and was so proud, his chest was sticking so far out people were using it for shade!
In the Junior B Class, Jasmine Tarrant continued her impressive recent form with a commanding win over Heather Button. Jasmine was over 100 points in front of Heather after 2 days of riding and is now one of the brightest young riders, not only in moto trials, but in all facets across South Australia.
The KMCC’s Daisy Evans had her first ride as well, riding in the Junior B Class, and had a good crack at most sections and showed a lot of improvement over the 2 days of the event.
THE DIENER / HOLMES SIDECAR TROPHY
The second running of the Diener / Holmes Sidecar Trophy also attracted more entries than 2009, with 12 entrants spread across the 3 classes, triple the amount from 2009, as well, there were 2 women passengers who were taking place in both, the Women’s Cup & the Sidecar Trophy.
In A Grade Sidecar the current SA Champions and Australian number 3 team of Chris Schultz and Stuart Gerhardy shot out to an early lead after lap 1 and steadily increased their lead lap after lap over the 2 days to record their first win in the Diener/Holmes, taking out A Grade and the Overall Winner title.
Chasing them all the way, just like they did at the Australian Championships was the Victorian team of Tim Loone and Kieren Clay, who, themselves, came under pressure from the recently upgraded team of Alex Turner and Bradley Hunter. At the end of 2 days riding the young Croweaters were only 37 points shy of the Australian number 4 team, in only their second ride in A Grade.
B Grade was a battle of the part time teams with Duncan Greenhalgh and Damien Nash finding a good rhythm early to pull out to a good lead by day 1’s end, a lead they would continue to stretch through day 2 to run out B Grade winners.
Second was trials rookie, Adrian Rohrlach, with experienced passenger, Lachie Greenhalgh on board. As the weekend went on these 2 got stronger and stronger, but were unable to pull back any points on the leader. 3rd went to Stuart Gerhardy and Chris Holmes. This first time pairing would have won an ironman award because Stuart also passengered in A Grade and Chris rode solo, meaning they rode 220 sections each, instead of the 110 all the others rode.
Other entries in B Grade were Chris Clark and Andrew Warnest who succumbed to engine gremlins half way through day 1, and rec licence competitors, Craig Saegenschnittere & Chris Hunter, who also DNFed on day 1, after a nasty spill that left Craig a bit shaken.
A new class was added for this event, with the ‘Classic’ Class attracting 4 entries and proving very popular at the event. Fred Weckert (first trial in 15 odd years) and Jason Whitfield (trials rookie) were the only team on Open licences and took out the class with a fine ride on Fred’s ‘Blue Bully’. It should also be noted that this was the first time these 2 had ridden together.
Others in the Class, but on rec licences were the Ablett brothers, John & Geoff, from the Riverland who hadn’t ridden for many years until this year (the Peter Sparkes Trophy in June and here), the father & daughter team of Colin (Slob) & Samantha Jay on Colin’s red ‘Bushpig’ Bully and the husband and wife team of Roger & Barbara Greenhalgh. Barbara, the first woman to finish the 24 Hour Trial twice, came out of a 28 year retirement to have a ride and ‘show her boys’ how it’s done.
The Keyneton MCC would like to thank all who rode, especially our Victorian visitors, who made the event the success it was, and would like to especially like to thank Karina Kroehn from Taste Eden Valley for her support, and for coming out and presenting trophies, as did Trevor Diener, who presented the sidecar trophies bearing his name.
The Club would also like to thank the Eden Valley Hotel and Gossips Café & Gallery for their support of this event. It certainly would not have been the event it was without your support.
The Club would also like to thank all members and friends who worked in the lead up, and at the event, marking and remarking sections, observing sections, the brilliant job done in catering, our hard working officials and all those who stayed behind on Sunday to help with the clean up.