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Daniel Fraser - SA Offroad Championship Rd1
SA Offroad Championship Round 1
Location: Mt Crawford
Date: 18/5/25
Class: C3
Result: 4th in class, 16th Outright
Over the weekend we headed out to the opening round of the SAORC. As it has been a few years since the series has been to Mount Crawford Forest, the event attracted a large field of 142 riders! Which is great for the discipline and shows there is a real interest in enduro racing in SA. The race was run as a “sprint” format. This is where each rider completes timed laps of a marked course. Riders start each lap individually, with 15 second gaps between each competitor. With the total time deciding the finishing order with the goal of having the lowest cumulated time.
Sunday was a cool morning in the forest, with early morning frost and a top of 13 degrees forecast. We thankfully received a few days of rain and light showers in the lead up to the race. Although it didn’t have a chance to penetrate too far into the soil, it did help to keep some of the dust down on the early laps.
I took the opportunity to walk the 6.7km track on the Saturday before the race, although the track conditions change rapidly after the sight lap. It is a good chance to get a rough idea of which direction the track goes. The loop snaked in and out of thick pine forest, with roots and log crossing for the riders to contend with. On the first lap, riders are expected to seed themselves, and the organiser’s re-seed the field with the results of the first lap. I didn’t race any SAORC’s last year as my focus was the road trials series, because of this I wasn’t too sure where I’d fit into the field. I jumped in the start line around 40th and figured I’d just see how the first lap played out. I put a lot of focus into practicing tight turns and ruts, so the conditions in the forest suited me well. My first lap went smoothly, I didn’t feel like I was pushing a crazy pace but caught the rider in front relatively quickly. I was linking turns together and flowing well on the bike. I ended up catching another 3 riders on the first lap, so I had confidence that I was running a good pace. After checking the results of the first test I was sitting in 10th outright. This blew me away, I was expecting to do better than the last time I raced a SAORC but wasn’t expecting that. After having some time to think about it, I can contribute what I’ve learnt racing road trials to having a good opening lap. At a road trial, you’re riding the whole first lap blind. To do well, you must be comfortable pushing the pace when you don’t know where the track goes.
After that I just worked on ticking my laps off, I was linking sections of track together well and catching new lines as they started to form. I’ve got a background in moto-trials so felt pretty comfortable over the 3 log crossings that were a part of the course. The second log crossing had two consecutive logs, with the second being smaller but on a sharp angle. On the first few laps I was getting over the first before doing a pivot turn over the second. As the day progressed the first log got pushed slight closer, which allowed me to double the logs and save a chunk of time.
The remaining tests all went well. Other than a stalling the bike and struggling to get it going again, I had a mistake free run. I wasn’t riding over my head, but still circulating at a good pace. All my laps were very consistent but did slow down a little as the track fell apart and some big holes and bulldust ruts formed. I ended the day 16th outright and 4th in class. Absolutely stoked to finish within the top 20 outright! The big take-away from this event is I need to work on my outright sprint speed when the track gets really rough. I’ll be shifting my focus to doing more motocross to improve this and bring some more intensity to my riding.
I’m having great time back racing and looking forward to the rest of the season! Thanks everyone.
Supporting Dealership: SA Motorcycles
