FORT LYTTON RND 8
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A freshly prepped track and warm weather greeted riders for Round 8 of Fort Lytton's 2013 MX Race Season. A massive contingent of mini bike riders had made their way up from Victoria and New South Wales to race this event and do battle with the local Queensland mini bike racers.
The biggest class for the day was easily the 50cc stock class, with 28 entrants, and two full gates. This left riders battling it out trying to qualify to race the Super Final. The qualifying heats were full of bar banging action, and plenty of spills on the track which was very technical on the 10" stockers. With the qualifying heats having been run, it was all down to the Stock Class
Super Final. The full gate of stockers charged out of the gate in the final, and with some intense battling on the first lap, the leaders emerged from the rest of the pack. Brett McSweeney led the field all the way to the chequered flag, followed closely by Chris Redshaw who was able to hold off Damien Bottaz who crossed the line in third. Some epic racing all day from all the guys riding stockers. That class epitomises what riding a mini is all about, and it is the class that kicked off the minibike craze.
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The 10" Modified class also had a very good turnout, with some big dollar, and very well prepared machines rolling to the line to do battle. Up front the pace was red hot in every moto, with some great battling and aggressive passes being made for every position. Ashley Ballard was able to clean sweep every moto win, taking the overall and layed down some very impressive lap times in doing so. Jason Georgalis was wide open on his 88 limited all day, and was able to bring home 3 second place finishes for a solid 2nd place overall. Clayton Benes rounded out the podium for the day with a 4th and two 3rd place results. With such a great turnout in 10" mod, and some great racing, it really showed everyone that there is a real resurgence in the mini bike scene on the east coast of Australia. Highly modified 50's are some of the most expensive mini's in the paddock, but they are built to be ridden and raced, and riding one is totally addictive. Hopefully we see more full mod 10" bikes being pulled out of the garages that they have been hiding in and brought back out to the tracks.
What is now seen as the premier mini bike class, the 12" class had a big turnout, and the boys were definitely there to race. Once again some big dollar, high horsepower machines rolled to the line to race, with the first gate drop proving this. The race to the first turn in every moto was chaos, with plenty of bar banging and rubbing all the way up to and through the first turn. From there every moto was full of block passes and some epic battling right up until the chequered flag fell. Styvan Cusinato managed to take three moto wins to take the overall for the day. Ashley Ballard was on double duty riding the 12" class on his modified 10" and was able to charge through the pack to take 3 second place finishes for second overall. Richie Hemsley also suffered from some bad starts and mechanical issues, but managed to charge through the pack in each moto to round out the podium and take third place overall for the day.
Photos by Angelica Zenen-jara
STORY: RICHIE HEMSLEY