Heaven - CRC meeting 14/15 July

[Mick D]

Two days of sunshine have started. The bobcat has just cleared what the sunshower left.  Its about to be a ripper.

[firko]

 I attended the Saturday portion of the Crawford River Classic after not attending for the last four or five years for what seemed to be good reasons at the time but today might seem a tad silly. I'm here to report to all and sundry that I was mightily impressed by not just the event itself but by how happy and efficient HEAVEN have become. The problem areas of the past seem to be gone, replaced by a management committee that seem to be on a mission from god to make sure that the club members are happy and enjoying their race experience. The club's obviously put put some serious effort into ensuring that the original concept of the CRC be returned as one of NSW's iconic VMX events which would have pleased the originator of the concept, my old mate Bruce Magoo no end .

I'm not sure of the entrant roll up but whatever the number, it looked pretty impressive to me. The inclement weather leading up to the event seemed to have had some effect with thirty, yes thirty pre entries not showing up so if these unlucky punters had turned up I don't know where they'd have pitted as the pits looked chock-a-block to me. Those poor no-shows really got it wrong and missed a really good event, thankfully Fridays rain stayed away and despite a bit of moisture making the track a tad soggy for the first round, the surface eventually dried out and I didn't hear any track complaints.

I've been pretty crook for a few months and I'm still a bit wobbly on my feet but club members went out of their way to help me and make sure I was enjoying myself. I must thank everyone who assisted me, especially Mick De and Scrivo who bent over backwards to make sure I was enjoying the experience. It was great to run into many old friends and to meet so many new ones. As crook as I was, it was still the best time I'd had at the races in ages, so reminiscent of the VMX boom years. I was honoured to be asked to present the Roy East (Pre 65) and John Hine (Pre 70 shields and it was great to see Phil "Porky" Eldridge present the Geoff Eldridge Shield for the Pre '75 class and ace photographer Bill Forsyth rounding out the trophy presentation by handing out the Ray Ryan shield for pre '78.

This meeting is well on its way to again becoming one of the iconic events on the VMX calendar. Although Pre 65 entries were down, all of the other divisions were well supported with full grids so, with the success of the recent Classic Nats it'd seen that there's still quite a bit of life left in the older VMX classes yet.

Pencil the Crawford River Classic in on your calendar for next year, I'm certain you won't regret it.

[matcho mick]

turtle text me piccie of campfire about 8pm last nite,took one look said seeya to the missus,loaded up,gone in 30mins,arrived 10.45pm(new cunning plan,everyones going to bed ),sorta worked  ::)track just got better during the day,grippy bigtime,that bobcat with the belt tracks done good, happy faces all day,good effort heaven management,

[bullmad24]

[Montynut]

One of the Heaven Club's biggest supporters over this year have been ASV Sales and Service the local distributor of Terex compact earth moving equipment. They have provided days of free hire of a Compact Track Loader and Compact Excavator. These machines are outstanding and several club members who are machine operators had to be dragged off them.

During the CRC meeting the company had a machine on display and when they found out that it could be a great assistance to us they quickly OK'd its use as required . Great company and great product.

[bullmad24]

[bullmad24]

[bullmad24]

[Mick D]

Heaven, from Beggars lens

[Kenneth S (222)]

What a great race weekend it was. Plenty of REC riding Saturday morning, a separate event with longer races on the Saturday afternoon with the presentation and all in meal Saturday night, then the full points round on the Sunday. As it turned out we had just enough mud to challenge us, then the weather gods were good to us and the track just turned out to be AMAZING on Sunday.

While Flagging for the CRC I watched some great motocross racing, being 5 lap races, on a number of occasions I saw races where racers had an average start and worked their way up through the field while others shot out of the gate and faded due to mistakes or being pooped. It was fun to watch the duels develop when 3-4 racers kept swapping places lap after lap. This is a great concept, and the format of the entire weekend is the perfect template to emulate.

How tacky was the track on Sunday and fun to ride! I loved pushing myself in the EVO races to keep up with the Carls but I had no answer on the day in the Pre85 for the possessed Hardo! Man Hardo, you had to be the rider/racer of the day. It was great to see you take advantage of the longer motos and fight your way from 3rd or 4th through to First!

Thanks again to the committee for all their efforts to run an amazing weekend chock'o'block full of VMX fun. Also to Greg for his selfless assistance all weekend and ASV Sales and Terex. When I did my sighting laps Sunday morning and saw what Greg on the Terex had prepared for us, I thought "oh boy, how good is this!"

A special thanks to the people who helped bring my bikes back, and load up my gear when I hurt my ankle. Fingers crossed it is only a sprain and I will be OK for the EVO Challenge late August.

[Montynut]

Yep all the riders need to thank Greg Holmes who gave up his rides to man the Terex machine and Bob & Mike Beverly who kept the schedule ticking over. Thanks guys my stuff finishes when the gate drops and these guys in particular make the whole thing come together.

Pete Crampton also deserves a big thank you for his hard work on the track before, during and will continue after the meeting.

Kenneth also did a brilliant job on the event 'T' shirts and immortalised our own Noel Lewis riding his CZ in cotton 

[firko]

Ooops, almost forgot, thanks for the great CRC T-shirt fella's, I've actually got it on as I type this. Style

[Hardo]

Yep... GREAT weekend again HEAVEN.
Huge thanks to Mick, Bob, Scrivo, Carl, Greg, TEREX, Bulahdelah LIONS club and all that shared a full weekend of VMX action !
Also big thanks to Ken for designing and producing the event T-shirts - they are awesome !
It was great to see Bill Forsyth from VMX Mag there taking snaps of the event too.... can't wait for the 8-page special coverage... 

How tacky was the track on Sunday and fun to ride! I loved pushing myself in the EVO races to keep up with the Carls but I had no answer on the day in the Pre85 for the possessed Hardo! Man Hardo, you had to be the rider/racer of the day. It was great to see you take advantage of the longer motos and fight your way from 3rd or 4th through to First!

hahaha... yeah I was a little possessed! The Kenross Kitchens KX250 was running sweet as on the perfectly prepped TEREX track and my Dunlops were hooking up well.... 
Good thing Jody didn't bring a 250 along - he is on another planet... 

Seriously though - I feel a little like Ryan Dungey ... most of the competition is getting injured! (Anton, Ken, Justin...)

[Dan-166]

Not all the competition.
I'm taking earplugs for the next round too.

[Kenneth S (222)]

Seriously though - I feel a little like Ryan Dungey ... most of the competition is getting injured! (Anton, Ken, Justin...)

I think Mark Harris did his ankle as well. Not good news for me I'm afraid. Out for a couple of months at least. I have serious maintenance issues with it.