Racing News |
Daniel Fraser - SA Offroad Championship Rd 6 & 7
Location: Callington
Date: 16/8/25-17/8/25
Class: C3
Result: 5th round 6, 4th round 7
Supporting Dealership: SA Motorcycles
Due to the cancellation of the Mallala round from the reliability trials series, I made the call to race a few rounds of the SA Off-road Championship to round out the year. I saw it as a great opportunity to get some high intensity practice in before the final round of the SART series at the end of the month. Rounds 6 and 7 of the SAORC were held at a property just outside the township of Callington. Both rounds were run as a “sprint” format where riders are timed to the millisecond to complete laps of a marked course. Where the accumulated time of all the laps decides the finishing order. Some rain in the lead up to the event promised prime sand conditions, and the track did not disappoint. Flowy sections of sand track that weaved in and out of tight mallee scrub were linked together by undulating creeks and fast whooped out straights. Other than a few showers on Sunday afternoon, we were quite lucky with the weather with temps in the mid teens.
The senior loop for round 6, was on the southern side of the property and was 5.4kms long. Riding mostly hardpack and rocky conditions growing up, sand has never been my forte. Although I’ve put a lot of emphasis on improving my sand riding the past few years, it did take a few laps to find my groove and feel comfortable on the bike. Initially I had set my bike up with a sand setting I developed out at a fast and open sand track at Pamler. As the track at Callington had some tight sections, I found that on the first lap I was struggling to get the front end of the bike to settle into corners as it was set up for a more open track. Between sprints I lowered my fork height a few millimeters and softened the fork’s compression dampening. This made a positive improvement, and I felt far more confident in the conditions. The rest of the day’s racing went well, my times were floating between 4th and 5th, I ended the day in 5th position. Looking back, I suspect I was pushing too hard trying to lock in 4th position, which ended up letting a few little mistakes slip in here and there which cost me time.
I tried a different approach on Sunday for round 7, I aimed to smooth out my riding and carry more momentum through the turns rather than pushing too hard and blowing them out. I think this was the right decision as the track on Sunday was more technical, it still had flowy turns through the scrub but with the addition of tight and technical creek beds. I felt much better on the bike and was able to tick off consistent laps throughout the day. Towards the end of the day, there weren’t many clean lines left as the track started to noticeably deteriorate. Where I could I was working the edges of the track, but it was still rough, I think most riders were pretty relieved to see the last lap board at the end of the day. I finished the round 4th in class and with some solid practice under my belt for the last road trial at the end of the month!