Summercross revisited.

For instance MX2 and MX2 Support are over-subscribed so there will be Qualifying will be for the Top 38 and then the next 38 will be in MX2 Support.

A confirmed Support rider is V8 Supercar superstar driver Shane van Gisbergen - his contract with SP Tools / SBR does not allow him to race in the full MX2 Class.  http://www.shanevangisbergen.com/.  Before he went racing Supercars Shane was a huge talent in the ATV Class.  Shane, whilst he's on holiday, has agreed to do an autograph signing session on the Tuesday. 

Vets also has many entries in both classes and yes, Tony Cooksley has entered.

I was involved in a pre Christmas drinks discussion about the track changes over the years and many are looking forward to the new rollers and whoops.

After Scott's story on that new section of the track several of us were talking about Summercross over the years and comment was made that it could never be as tough as the BIG step-up they put in several years ago.  Entering from the 'out the back' open terrain section there was a tight right into a steep, short tabletop followed by another steep face up to the container tabletop. 

Question was "What year was that ?"

"2007" was my response. 

"How do you know that ?" was the question.

"I remember it well because Ben Townley was there on crutches after his Taupo Extravaganza mid air collision with Rui Goncalves in the Media Session. It was the year after the big Taupo event of 2006. Reason I remember it so well was I had never seen BT ride ! In 2006 he was out hurt as well and that was when Josh Coppins, 10 times World Champion Stefan Everts and 4 times World Champion Joël Smets were there."

At 2007, riders were chatting about whether the new jump could be done as a single and the general feeling was it was just too big.  Josh Coppins said; "I will give it a go in Practice but I will only do it once, so get down there with your camera."

I got down to the jump in readyness. After two laps I thought he had given the idea away.  On the third lap Josh was flying out the back section and heading for the tight right hander before the bottom of the massive step-up.  A low berm was building and Blake Gillard was ahead, heard Josh coming at pace and generously got out of the way as he knew Josh was on a flyer. 

Josh hit the low berm at pace and launched into the face of the jump.  The bike went near vertical, was very high as Josh pushed the front down. It was a huge jump and he cased it with the rear wheel 300mm short.  Fortunately the factory suspension on the YZ450 soaked it all up.  There was plenty of revving going on also.  I was the only photographer there and and I only got one shot - albeit slightly out of focus. It was a BIG jump and by the end of the day that first jump had been worn down to near nothing.  We never saw it again.

I went back into my photo hard-drive and lifted the following images.  Funny how you remember people and places but I had forgotten that Mike Phillips was there with his arm in plaster after his sojourn in England.  Paul Whibley was also riding. In Race 1 Hamish Dobbyn pulled a cheeky jump start and arrived at the holeshot over a bike length in front of the field.



























Look lap and a young Mitch Rees (now 19 and rides MX1!) leads #909 Nick Saunders and #6 Josh Coppins over the first jump. Peter Broxholme (aka Broxy) was in trouble for getting ahead of the lead rider.
























This is the face of the second part of the jump. #1 is Daryl Hurley.












































Third lap and Josh had some clear space and gave it a bit of a test.



















































The biggie but alas I only got one pic.
























That Dobbyn holeshot in Race 1.  Hurley was entering faster than anyone.




















It was quicker in 2007 to photograph the results than wait for them to be uploaded onto MyLaps.