EWXC Final Round November 2010
by Steven Matthews
Saturday, 13 November brought on the 3rd and final round of the hardcore EWXC series held at Zone 7. Morning rain was welcomed from a dust settling point of view but must have reduced the spectator attendance. It was a big turn-out nonetheless and the racing promised some serious close up action.
The course had been altered drastically for this round. Several obstacles were changed and large sections of the whooped-out sand were taken out. This made the course much shorter and all the obstacles were in pretty much a straight line, one after the other, right next to the spectators. The best seats were in the track-side beer garden which had a good view of quite a few obstacles.
The start was the usual, bike engine off, riders 10m behind. Flag drops and you run to your bike, start and go. I got the holeshot in a big way on my Aprilia RXV 450, and led for the first lap and a quarter, before serious arm pump kicked in and 4 guys managed to overtake me. I kept at it although the arm pump never went away, and managed to claw my way back to a 3rd place over all in the heat, 11 gruelling laps in 45 minutes is what it took.
Sitting in my pits, waiting for my second heat, and watching the pro heat, Anthony Reinardt ( 4th in SA MX Nationals for 2010) and his team mate Noel Stander came in to refuel. Refueling was really not needed but they were fast enough and leading by so much that they could without compromising their positions.
Just as they had finished refuelling and Noel started his bike, Anthony's bike burst into flames, Noels leg also caught fire but he never noticed and rode off. Fortunately the flame went out. Anthony on the other hand was not so lucky because no sooner had his bike caught on fire when he too caught on fire.
He jumped off the bike, dropping it to the floor. By this time the bike was totally engulfed in flames and so was he, from head to toe. I grabbed my fire extinguisher and ran and put him out. My friend Haydon Wood followed with his extinguisher and helped put the bike out.
Anthony must have been in flames for close to 10 seconds before I got to him and put him out. His kit had started melting around his legs and he sustained some minor burns on his neck, face, legs and groin. Considering that they never had fire extinguishers in his pits, nor in the ones next to him ( both professional pit crews) he was extremely lucky to be alive, let alone come away virtually unscathed! (Neither Haydon nor I got so much as a thank you from him or his team.)
Heat 2 was started and I was not as quick to get off the line. I got away in 3rd and quickly caught up to the 2 guys ahead of me before the end of the start straight, and slotted in behind them as we hit a narrow section which drops off onto the dry sandy area around a dam.
The guy in second had a moment and I got past him, into second, where I stayed for a few laps before he caught up and overtook me, then he continued on to leading the race. I was feeling much stronger in this race with no arm pump and reeled in 2nd place and managed to overtake him.
From here on we had a major battle for 2nd swapping positions many times before he finally got past me and pulled a gap. Again 45 minutes and 11 laps later I ended in 3rd.
Our heat combined two classes, Novice A and B. I fall into B which is for riders of less than two years experience. My two 3rd places overall were actually a 3rd and 2nd in my class, translating to 20 and 22 points.
These should have given me second in my class for the day, but I was given 39 points and fourth place at prize-giving much to my amazement. I disputed this but it was too late as I should have checked the provisional results before prize-giving and had not, so nothing could be done to rectify the situation.
Fortunately my points total for the year was still the most so I am Novice B EWXC 2010 Series Champion on my Aprilia! I also scored more points for the series than any other rider of any class, that being 139 out of a possible 150. Yeeeeeehaaaaaa, RXV, RXV, RXV. My wife Tanith has been given legendary status after winning not only the EWXC Ladies Series but also the EWXC Social Series.
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