LOCAL off-road motorcycle sportsmen and women have joined a cast of around 750 riders, to tackle the Aussie outback in the country’s greatest red-dirt challenge.
The Hattah Desert Race headed to Red Cliffs Football Club for scrutineering last Friday night, before the juniors hit the track on Saturday morning at 7.30am.
Among the big-wheel competitors were Casterton’s Oscar Mutch, Riley and Makayla Rees and Axl and Sid O’Brien, who toughed it out to finish ahead of their starting positions.
The Casterton club’s Shane Foster said he was extremely proud of the group’s junior members and their families, for their efforts in attending the event and their outstanding performances, on the track.
“The kids just loved it, it’s always a bit intimidating when you first see the scale of it, compared to what we do, down here and I reckon this year was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen there,” Foster said.
“But the kids did a great job … kids like Oscar, to see them not just get through the Saturday, but see their confidence grow, it’s a big thing for them to just finish (because) it’s a tough event, let alone move up the placings like all our kids did .. they did a magnificent job.”
After two years away from Hattah – the first due to Covid-19 and the second a football-induced broken collarbone – Casterton rider Tom Foster was keen to join fellow clubman Leighton Rees on the red dirt track and just like the juniors, the pair outdid themselves, both beating their personal targets, riding alongside some of the best in the world.
Setting himself the target of top 100 in the 415-strong senior field, Foster’s seven laps over four hours and 35 minutes gave him the personal win, while Rees’ hard work over the track in just his second year at Hattah, saw him catapult from a starting point in the 300s, to finish 275th.
Shane Foster said the riders’ efforts over the gruelling conditions were a credit to both.
“It’s mainly your typical dessert sand, (organisers are) very lucky farmers let them use their properties, there’s quite a lot of tracks around and through crops, a lot of deep sand and lots of high speed … on the straights you’ll see 140, 150 kilometres and hour in the seniors,” he said.
Also on track was honorary Casterton clubman, Andy Wilksch who, still recovering from an injury received just before rounds seven and eight of the Victorian Off Road Championships.
“I think he’s still a bit sore, but his last lap was just unbelievable and he ended up from six or seventh, coming up to finish fourth … his last lap was unbelievable and I think he’d be pretty happy with it,” Shane Foster said.
The Off Road Championships return to the south west at the end of August, when the Geelong Club hosts round 10 and 11 at the Dartmoor track.
