Day 2 was the day of the autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere. The day when, anecdotally the weather flips from a summer pattern to a winter one. Well that was indeed the case. The event weekend marked the end of nearly four months of dry-warm Pacific Northwest summer weather. Very Tolkiensian misty weather blowing about the coastal mountains. The heaviest rain had fallen overnight but the morning was still very autumnal.
There were two issues to settle on Sunday, who would win the weekend event and therefore who would win the three-event season? Sasha Sabinin had it all to loose. He had won the first two events and simply had to finish ahead of Peter Francis to clean sweep. Peter was in the position that if for some reason Sasha was unable to complete the Sunday route, he would win the final event of the season and a very close look at the scores would be needed to decide the season result. If for any reason Sasha didn’t finish the Sunday route, newcomer Steven Friebel was in with a very real chance of winning the weekend’s event.
After an hour delay, the start took place under the canopy of the CoOp petrol station. The riders were sent off at intervals of a few minutes to ensure solo rides. After a further fifteen minutes or so, the three crew riders set off in pursuit.
The route was different to Saturday, 110km, with a little bit of everything that North Island backcountry riding can offer…. logging mains, overgrown jungly old roads, steep mountainside ascents of crushed granite gravel and even steeper clattery descents where every passing motorcyclist is followed by a shower of stones.
By this stage of the proceedings, Steve had got the measure of the VIME approach to roadbooks and was mastering the art of reading the roadbook with reading glasses perched on the end of his nose while doing distance vision through his half-raised helmet visor. Sasha had long since worked out his solutions to reading and riding, Peter was engaged with the usual motorcyclist challenge of glasses in the rain.
Exactly what happened after the start is a bit of a mystery…. Sasha and Steve both reappeared at the finish each having successfully triggered all tge timing gates. Sasha with 899 time penalties (or 903 depending on which phone was used to give his score). Steve clocked up 1239 time penalties. These scores represent 15 minutes and 20 minutes adrift of the target time for the whole course. A phenomenal performance from both give the conditions (wet and windy, rough terrain, complex riding challenge of a) staying on, b) navigating and c) keeping to the set speeds over unfamiliar terrain).
Peter progressed steadily until shortly after the Rooney Lake main “Downfall”, where he took a wrong turn, wound up in an area of new logging and lost the sequence of waypoints and was unable to backtrack onto the route. At that point he sensibly fired up his Gaia, plotted a route to the finish and took a bow!
To remind you, there was the season first and second trophies at stake plus the trophy for the weekend’s event. While the season trophies were only in contention between Sasha and Peter, they having attended all three events, the trophy for the weekend was also at stake and to be decided on the same basis as the season trophies - most timing control points with the least time penalties.
The results from Saturday and Sunday:
Sasha, car 1 or 101 depending on which phone worked best scored 3633 time penalties with 27 timing control points over the weekend.
Steve, car 3 scored 5886 time penalties with 26 timing control points.
Peter, car 2 scored 7219 time penalties over 24 timing control points.
Sasha therefore won the weekend event.
It was unnecessary to calculate any scores to decide the season trophies between Peter and Sasha.
Sasha also won the season overall, with a clean sweep of firsts. Well done! Rumour has it that Sasha would like to go pro next year and would like a Kove 450, pleeeese……
So that’s a wrap for 2024. Three events, without a hitch, the tech worked for everyone, the weather mostly cooperated and trophies were awarded. Now a quiet winter to rebuild suspension, improve hardware connections and try to think up ways to outdo this year. Suggestions gratefully received.
Jonathan
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