Broadford for me, is one of the best and my most favoured tracks so I was keen to see what a fair amount of work and reversing of the track would do. The first shock was the $100 to get the bike on the track for a Sunday sessions. Is what it is I guess and I could have turned around and gone home on principle, but I clenched my teeth and emptied the wallet, however I can do 2 VIPER race meetings for the same $’s.
I struggled with the super sharp bog holes, worst when they are on a down hill and more so on the entry to the corner. They weren’t braking bumps, just an inordinate amount of water that turned into mud. I thought the hairpin left turn up the hill after travelling into the far back corner of the track was downright ridiculous. If you were pushed off the track going wide you have an almost sheer drop of 2 meters. Reversed it was never an issue as you entered the corner on the opposite side of the track.
On another corner I was pushed wide by a slower rider, no problem I thought, I’ll just run around on the infield and pop back on the track further down. It was at this point that I found a water erosion point that was 300/500 mm deep. Somehow I got over it but had I dropped into it I would have been in a whole world of hurt.
And the two things that really boiled my blood was a small minority of riders that used the riding sessions as practice for next weekend’s event and cared not for some of the riders on the track. Whilst I can deal with them, some of the people using the track don’t have a level of “Race Craft” and were no doubt intimidated, possibly put in danger by their actions. And lastly the speed at which some of the dickheads rode through the car park.
On the other side of the coin, the track flowed well and the new surface is awesome, particularly at the top of the hill, the jumps are old bike (and old body
) friendly and you wont actually ride 3 full laps with the reversal of the track when racing.
I think the organisers will have it nailed if they can sort the few shitty bog hole corners up.