Racing News |
Daniel Fraser: 24-hour Reliability Trial, South Australia
Location: Eudunda
Date: 12/7/25-13/7/25
Class: CO
Result: 4th in class, 17th outright
As July rolled around it was time for another edition of the 24hr reliability trial. The event alternates main control locations between Kapunda and Eudunda, this year’s event was located in the Eudunda region. I’ll preference by saying that my race report from last year still rings true “Let me begin by saying what a downright crazy event the 24hr trial is. A concept that I don’t think I fully understood until 4am on Sunday morning, roughly 14hrs in”. The 24hr is its own beast, an event that you must approach entirely differently to the other reliability events.
For those unfamiliar with the 24hr Reliability Trial here in SA, the “24” carries prestige as one of the most demanding events for man and machine on the calendar. A simple concept, you start on your allotted time on Saturday and keep going for 24hrs, all while staying on your allocated minute. The event is comprised of 4 laps of a 6hr loop, working out to be roughly 200kms per lap. It is similar to a rally, where you are loosely timed while riding along the road or “transport” sections to paddocks or “competitive” sections, where you are timed to the second.
I was given a starting position of 138th and was due to leave main control at 1:18pm on Saturday. Weather for this year’s event was uncharacteristically mild for a 24. Being held in July, the weather can usually be expected to be cold and wet. However, this year the forecast was a balmy 14 degrees with the overnight low only getting down to 7! After not being able to feel my fingers in the early hours of the morning last year, milder temperatures were a welcome change. Having finished last year’s event, I felt far more prepared and confident coming into this year, just purely knowing how the event operates and how my body reacts to spending so long on a bike made the lead-up easier. Last year I aimed to finish so rode conservatively to make it to the end and was surprised with how well my body held up. This year, I decided to go at 100% and see how long I could sustain it.
There were a few nerves on Saturday morning before the event but before I knew it, I was waiting in line for my minute, ready to start the event. The bike fired right up, and I was on the road out to section 1. Section 1 through 4 were up in the hills behind Eudunda and were stuff of road trials dreams. They were flowy grass-track through the rolling hills, working their way in and out of scrub, with enough technical elements to keep you on your toes. The region had just enough rain to where the track loamed up straight away and was awesome fun. Unfortunately, once we got out of section 4 the transport took us down out of the hills and into the flats below Eudunda. It was a different climate down there, way less loam and far more dust. 5 and 6 snaked their way along rocky creeks, before we popped out down near the small town of Stonefield. This is where the bulldust became a real problem. I had raced an enduro down near Stonefield a few years ago, and the parts of the track that weren’t in the creek fell apart quickly and turned to very fine powder. I wasn’t very hopeful of the track holding up for 24hrs. As soon as I dropped into section 7, my suspicions were confirmed. The track was already in poor shape, lines going everywhere and deep bulldust. Unfortunately, in this section I managed to tweak my right ankle pretty severely. I was going around a right turn with my leg out and drove it straight into something solid hiding in the bulldust. It happened so quickly I didn’t see what it was, but I can only assume it was a large rock. I made it to the end of the section. I couldn’t stop and check it out as the transport was very tight to the next section. I got to section 8 with only a minute to spare before leaving. Section 8 was the longest of the race, around 17kms. It was had a lot of scrub sections that had already blown apart by the first lap. I aimed to work the edges of the track and stay out of the deep bulldust. I was struggling to move my ankle but my toes felt fine, so I figured I hadn’t done anything catastrophic, and I’d be able to grit my teeth and push through it. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad when I was riding but I definitely knew about it when I had to walk on it at the fuel stops. The rest of the lap went smoothly, and I was able to still push the pace. The sun was going down through the last few sections and was completely dark when I got back to main control.
The ankle didn’t like cooling down over the dinner break and was pretty stiff through the first few sections. However, I rode into a groove and was feeling good on the bike. In my option I felt like I was laying down good times in all the sections. I had a small issue right at the beginning of section 8, just as I went to take off, my high beam wouldn’t turn on. As it was on my minute, I had to start the section and try and sort it as I was riding. Unfortunately, as I was looking at the lights and screwing around trying to get some life out of it. I wasn’t paying enough attention to where I was going and rode straight into a bulldust rut and lost the front. I smacked the bars out of whack in the mounts and had to ride the rest of the sections with my controls all out of order. I got the lights to come back on about halfway through and was able to focus and make back some time on the back half of the section. The suspected culprit was my light relay, but the problem seemed to rectify itself, so I decided to leave it until it faulted, or I had time to replace it. The rest of the lap went really well; I’d put a strong focus on improving my night riding this year and felt confident in pushing the pace at night. I headed out for the third lap around 1am. Last year, the third lap was when I felt most fatigued. But this year I had a better nutrition strategy and was able to charge for the whole lap, I was on fire for the third lap and kept ticking off sections. In some of the longer ones I was able to catch a few guys. In section 8, which was the longest, I was able to catch 7 riders. It was good to have bikes to try and chase down and keep me focused.
I felt surprisingly good as we pulled back into main control around 7am, just as the sun was coming up. I had a chance to look at the results and saw I was sitting 4th in class. I made the decision to try and charge as hard as I could on the last lap to try and make up some ground. I felt unreal through sections 1,2,3 and 4. The sections in the hills really suited my riding style and I was comfortable pushing hard. Tiredness only started to become an issue around section 10, I was still able to push but silly mistakes started to creep in. I had a few heart in the mouth moments but luckily, they didn’t cause any crashes.
I finished the event 17th outright and 4th in class. Happy to improve on my outright result from last year but can’t help but feel like I left something on the table. I know I’ve got the pace to run with the top guys. I felt like I was on the pace during the event, but perhaps I was pushing too hard. A small mistake here or there can quickly add up over 24hrs. But at the end of the day, there are some big positives to take-away. I made it to the end of another 24hr unscathed, the bike ran perfectly and I’m really happy with how my set-up holds up for such a long event.
Thank you to everyone in my corner this season, it wouldn’t be possible without each of you and I’m very grateful for your support! Onto the next SART round at Palmer, where I’m motivated to show what I can really do!