Tarawera 75 Race Report.

[dammad1]

its not really that simple, if you start in the second wave you will catch the slower riders in the first wave, and then be held up by them,

Exactly thats why you need to get the faster riders starting at the front, in a series like the GNCC they go off your last round results, but obviously you can't do that with this (or could you?) so thats why a prologue would be really good.

[scott411]

thinking about it more, you could hold a small prologue on the friday afternoon, and if you were not interested in it you jsut take a number, waves of 30 to 50 1 minute apart,

would take a fair bit of extra work tho, pretty hard on the volunteers in the club,

[Katoomer]

Sean Clarke suggested seeding based on the previous years result eg 1st 50 get start pick for following year.
Its a tough one. With that many riders it doesn't take much to cause a jam .

But the race was first started for the trailriders that do the monthly rides to have an annual blast without worrying about other forest users.

The tracks are much easier now partly due to the bigger numbers but also the RMA which has stopped streams and swamps being used ( no muddy water allowed into river catchments or steep dropoffs that cause erosion).

The event has grown so big that its hard to cater for the numbers wanting to ride in it. If there was only half the number of entries the track would have been good even in that weather.

[cheese]

IMO the start is what the race is about. they tried to make it better with a few options in the start, but it doesn't matter. it only takes one rider to fall.

[camchain]

The mass start's possibly a big part of what the T100 is about (a bit of madness is a healthy thing every now and then), but the race itself has to be a lot more important. Seems like avoiding some bottle necks if poss would make for a much better event. Makes a mockery out of racing to be just sitting there jammed up especially after an adrenaline filled start.

GNCC starts are still fun, you get to bang bars a little, get away clean and quick plus you can ride as fast as you're able until the finish. You know the next bunch is just up ahead so that makes you work to try and catch them.

But I love the buzz of a mass start as well. Bel Ray has a lot smaller fields of around 100 or so but is still big enough to be real exciting. I don't see why you couldn't set the T100 start up like Bel Ray. Pro/expert on front row, clubmen etc behind. A different coloured sticker for the 2 main classes to ID on start line. Could still take off all at once or maybe a 50 metre gap or 30 sec/1 minute split wouldn't take much away from start thrill and let the quicker guys get away first. Won't solve everything but would help to ease some early congestion. Major 1st turn chaos seems a bit crazy for a 4(?!)hr race.

I'm sure they'll have things worked out a lot better next year if on the same land. The worry is the club could very easily end up without enough bods willing to put their hands up after after this one.

--------------------------

PS. We're lucky the government is there to protect us and correct our behaviour. Pity the RMA wasn't in force a bit earlier in NZ's history. They might have been able to put a stop to all that massive volcanic activity spilling a gazillion tonnes of nasty mud and ash into streams and pumping 'toxic' carbon and greenhouse gases into the air. RMA Head office would have had to be in Australia before earths crust rippled up and volcanoes erupted out of sea to create the all the rocks, mud and dirt we're riding around on now.

[Katoomer]

Found this rider's report .If you're good you can still do ok after a bad start:

Nick Saunders put this report together:



BANG! The gun goes off and my KX450 starts first kick! Yes! I have a really good start going into the first turn until someone comes in wide open up the inside and takes down everyone around him, me included. Bikes still running so im stoked and get going fairly quickly again.
The first part of the race is pretty fast so im passing riders everywhere I can left, right, middle anywhere! When we reach the first transponder check ive made my way into 50th. So were out on our first lap and im riding like a maniac trying to pass riders where I can. Its quite difficult trying to make passes in the bush but I make up good ground on the first lap and make my way into 8th place by the end of lap one, then begin a battle with fellow Kawasaki team rider Brad Groombridge that would last for the next hour and a half.
Lap two begins and I make a few more paces early on in the lap and make my way into 5th and stayed here till the end of lap two. Lap three begins and me and Groombridge set off chasing each other, by this stage the track had cut up a lot and the hill climbs were getting really tough. Going up one of them I made a big mistake and lost a lot of momentum which let Brad past. I chased him for the rest of the lap then to my amazement they put the chequered flag out one lap early which gave Brad 5th and me 6th.
The track had deteriorated so badly that people were getting stuck all over the show and the organisers had to pull the pin on the event.

Even though this was a bit of an anti climax to the event I loved every second of it! The track was so fun with sandy berms everywhere and really challenging hill climbs. Even though 6th isn't really where I wanted to get im still happy with the way I rode after such a bad start and will be back next year for sure!

Overall: 6th Overall in 250cc + 4stroke class: 3rd

[camchain]

Full results are up now (Poll results have changed a fair bit):
http://www.ttbrc.co.nz/index.php?page/t100

Some photos are up as well. See if you're in there. Images are a bit underexposed but would tidy up pretty well in Photoshop. I can give pics a scrub-up if anyone wants.

Good spotting for above report katoomer.

[camchain]

Liked this series of shots. Apparantly he got up and rode off OK. Anyone else have any drain drama?
(Rang and asked permission to use images before posting here)

[NordieBoy]

Ouch !

[Cary]

Liked this series of shots. Apparantly he got up and rode off OK. Anyone else have any drain drama?
(Rang and asked permission to use images before posting here)

Exactly the reason I didn't jump the drain!! That and in a 4 hour race why risk it for maybe a 5 sec gain.

p.s. your all way to late, already been called a pussy for not doing it

[Katoomer]

I know it was last month but it did upset a few people . This report is on the club's website and is worth a read:

President's report on the 2008 Tarawera 100
The 2008 Tarawera 100

I was asked to write a ‘committee’ point of view of the latest edition of the Tarawera 100.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Some stood up at prize giving and told the masses what was wrong with the event. One rider thought that the race was easy and said that most of the other riders were basically useless. He couldn't understand why the race was shortened as he intended to pass the riders in front of him to win on the final lap. Maybe we should have refunded their entry fee and not handed over their prize money if they were that unhappy?

There were even whispers that Yamaha forced the early finish so that a Yamaha would win the race. Ridiculous! The person who made the call to shorten the race was about half way around the track, soaking wet, looking at where riders had ridden on the seriously out of bounds gas pipeline. He had no idea of where the lead riders were on the track let alone what position they were in.
Even though Tony Rees stood up at the start of prize giving to give the reasons for shortening the race, a few obviously weren’t paying much attention.

There were two reason why the race was shortened. Number one was competitors started riding along the rail way line instead of riding up the fire breaks.

Number two was a two part issue. A few competitors started using the gas pipe line to bypass an uphill, this in itself is a no-no, let alone the fact that they were overshooting the track that was at the top of the hill and rode down the other side. This could have been disastrous as when they turned around and rode back up the hill from the other side they could have had a head on collision with other competitors that were using the same line.

These are two serious issues that forestry owners, gas pipe line owners and of course the railways really frown upon. We informed the forestry manager on Monday morning and he said nothing should come of it. We all hope this is the case as we don’t want to jeopardise our trail riding future in this area. He said he had one of his security guys patrolling the area keeping an eye on us and said calling the race off early for those issues was the right thing to do. The security guy was listening in on our radio chatter and actually picked up a rider with the broken collar bone and transported him to the ambulance stationed at the mid way point on the track. Thank you.

The area of forest we use is long and very narrow. To one side is the fire breaks (and railway lines) and the other side has a boundary with a privately owned forest that we did not have access to this year. There were four places where the tracks were no more than three hundred metres apart. This makes it very hard to change our track layout.

The area where we hold our monthly trail rides is further south and is a larger area but we have nowhere for a start area or pits so it is out of the question. Even though the soil is slightly different and isn’t so effected by wet weather.

Thank you to the people that talked to us on the night one on one or phoned/sent emails in the week after that had some good points. New Zealanders generally are not a race of people that rant and rave about issues publicly, it actually gets our backs up.

We could have gotten back up on the microphone and addressed the points raised but it was not the place. We had more tact.

Here are some of the issues that have been pointed out (that we had already identified) over the past week and what we are planning to do about them:
Sign on

Currently it starts at 6.30 in the morning. We are looking at having sign on Friday night as well as Saturday morning. We figure the majority of racers will make their way to the Whakatane area Friday night anyway so this should stop the morning rush.

So many riders are turning up at 5am getting organised. With a race start time of 10am this means that some people have been awake for a very long time.

Scrutineering

We are looking at doing away with this next year. We are also looking to do away with race numbers as the transponders haven’t failed us yet and this is another time consuming process.

We will do random bike checks on the start line if well feel it is necessary.

We would like to think that most competitors would have their bikes up to scratch!

The start

This will probably remain the same. We have studied videos and many still photos. There was a lot of paddock unused on that first corner. Most riders tried to use only a third of what was available of the first corner. I could see that a WR250 was nice and wide and went around the outside in the top 10. I also saw a young lady on her YZ125 zip around all the drama. She had enough foresight to follow her little brother on his CRF150R.

We can’t make the track wide enough so 300 riders can be side by side without banging bars.

Bottle necks

As I mentioned above, we can’t make to track wide enough for 300 bikes.

Steve Cotter our vice president took about a month off work to help prepare the track. He spent countless hours on the bulldozer repairing old tracks and making some new ones. We worked on making the first part of the track as wide as we could as we knew this is when there is the greatest concentration of bike close together. I don’t think we could every get away for having bottle necks. I saw a top level rider fall off at our trail ride the week before the race on two fire breaks, one after the other. The second break was really quite easy and in a race situation it would have cost him lots of time and if there were 100 riders right behind him he would have caused a bottle neck. This guy was wearing a black riding shirt with little white Kiwi’s on it. Anyone can cause a bottle neck.

The first hill

We saw only one real error in our track and that was the two option hill just after the start. Over the past 31 years there have been sections of track that should have never been part of a race track. Some committee members have been around long enough to remember the drop off of the mid 80’s that claimed many XR’s and IT’s as well as the odd spectator (talked to a lady on the Saturday just gone that was hit by a falling IT490 and had to get stitches in her head). One lane bridges at the bottom of scoria hills just after the start in the mid 90’s. Wooden jumps covered in ice in the middle of the bush is another. Now and then we get it wrong. We learn from our mistakes and make changes.

I would like to thank all the land owners for allowing us to hold the race over their land even when the weather turned sour. Remember, they could have stopped the race before it even started.

All our sponsors need thanking. They range from small local businesses, motorcycle shops and parts distributors to our main sponsor Yamaha Motor New Zealand.

The many volunteers also need thanking. They range from the people that sweated in the bush to those who worked on the admin side of the race, and the public that showed up to see another Tarawera 100 unfold.

Lastly I would like to thank the bulk of the competitors that entered knowing full well that they were never going to win the event outright or even win their class. They were there to race their mates, maybe try and beat their personal best from previous years and probably the main reason is they want to be able to say they rode in the Tarawera 100.These riders mostly would be paying full retail for their motorbikes and riding gear so that a select few sponsored riders can have a free bike and gear. If the trail riders don’t buy motorbikes and enter events then prize money is smaller and motorbike manufacturers couldn’t afford to sponsor as many guns. Trail riders are the back bone of the industry in our opinion. Remember this when you make your next soap box appearance.

It was a pleasure to have the ultra professional motocross riders at the event. They were professional in all aspects of their race from walking the track Friday to their conduct at prize giving.

Is this something that they pass on at their riding schools? If this is the case then I think some of the enduro and cross country fraternity could do with visiting either MXDK, Broxy, or Michael Cotter.

We have had calls, emails and even txt’s of support from those mid pack guys and girls. They loved the challenge of the event and want to come back next year. They are more than welcome and we look forward to having them back.

The last time the race was wet was 2001. I remember it well. Six hours and one minute was my total race time. I was the last person to complete the required 4 laps. I was 23rd overall. Most people have forgotten the bad times.

This said, if we had a dry race then potentially it could have been an absolutely brilliant event and no one would have worried about how long it took to get your bike checked and getting caught behind a slow rider that got a better start than them.

Let’s hope that we have another six dry years for the event.

Brendon Ingle

President

Tarawera Trail Bike Riders Club

[cheese]

Well said. I was just anoyed at the lack of communication at the time. I'm one of the "just there to race my mates and better my last years spot" people. I still think I'll give it a miss next year and might do the following years event.

I think that thye had the right idea with splittig the track, but maybe it will open it all up a bit with a few of those options in the start?

[scott411]

great read, Brendon along with the committee are 100% riders, they put on the show for our enjoyment, and what Brendon wrote their is good, no one is perfect and some of the shit that got thrown around was a bit over the top imo, you can not help rain, and i bet the TTBRC have no end of people they need to please to keep this event running,

i am sure it will be back better and bigger next year, and i hope i am in condition to ride it,

[takitimu]

It's an interesting post, without these guys organising the events our riding options are severely reduced, there have been a few interesting stories out of the Enduro's this year ( http://silver-bullet.co.nz/news.php?id=4365 is one ) & as someone who's finally doing @ 40+ what he'd dreamed of doing as a teenager ( riding enduros ) I want lots of events so I hope people take a bit of a chill pill & enjoy what events we do have in NZ & appreciate the work the organisers put in, because once they stop they won't come back.

P.S. I like Scott's idea, have to make sure I am not coming off a 5 week riding break before next years race.