The riders and spectators at the third round of QVMX at Coles Creek were in for a great day of natural terrain MX racing. The overgrown bladie grass cow paddock had a path slashed that snaked its way over off camber corners up and down hills and through the gullies.
When practice started the dew coated grass reflected the soft autumn sun light in this very peaceful dell. As pretty as the grass looked it proved to be just as slippery as riders slid out in every tight off camber corner until the final practice session produced moist grippy dirt.
The ridge that over looked the track was packed with riders gazebos, utes, trailers and spectators. In all there were about 150 riders ready to do battle and gain experience for the nationals later on in the year.
The racing started and everything was going great, riders were trying to come to terms with the tight off camber corners and testing how fast they could hit the gullies without bottoming out their suspension.
As the day progressed all the riders between races moved around the pits catching up with old friends. I made my way down to the very end of the pits to find Paul an interesting fellow I met at the Conondale Classic last year. Last year when we met he had just picked up a Yamaha TT250 from his brother the day before. The bike had been sitting in a shed for a few years and Paul was not sure it was even going to start. After scrutineering he had to place a race number on all of the number plates. He, like a few others that meet only had insulation tape. He jokingly asked what number should he use and after all the jokes were done he said "I know I will use the letter L for learner".
When the racing started he kicked the bike into life and off he went. When he returned he told use that it was missing badly but he still had a lot of fun. Later we discovered he won that race but you would not know from talking to him.
Later on in 2008 I saw Paul and his bike called "L" at the Mount Tamborine races and again he won all his races. A happy, funny, helpful and very clean racer, I had to find out more about this very humble fellow. He wore a large enduro jacket and stood up around every corner never taking his feet off the pegs. After a little digging I found out that he was a Queensland enduro champion in his younger days and after seeing him ride I doubt he has lost any skill.
Back to the future Paul shook my hand and said "Do you remember Micky Cook the MX racer" I said "Yeah, sure, why" Paul said "He is on my bike in the race about to start" so off we ran to get a spot were we could see all the action. Mick on this tiered old TT250 called "L" made it to the first corner second behind a well known racer we will call Jeff on his Maico MC490 1981 Mega 2. What a race, the first lap saw Mick show the front wheel on every corner probing trying to see if Jeff would panic, but not Jeff. Mick later told us that that Maico was set up perfect and that Jeff stuck to his line and never showed an ounce of panic. Up the straight the Maico would just pull away but by the second corner Mick had the front wheel right beside Jeff's leg again in every corner. On the third and final lap as they both rode up out of a gully Mick was in front.
Mick rode the wheels off that bike and laughed as he explained how the valves were bouncing most of the time.
No disrespect to Jeff he rode a great race and in my opinion that race was better than the Super X I saw last year. Very clean racing with both guys trying hard in every corner.
Ji
