Images from the 2009 kirk enduro thanks to Tim Agar.
The 2009 Kirk Race Report
The 2009 Kirk was held last Sunday on the familiar grounds of Boyd’s Pit. Hosting an event at Boyd’s is not as easy as in days gone by. It is fair to say that without the help of Peter Sprague it would not have happened, period. I would also like to thank Chris Stokes and his family for their major contributions in the run-up to and execution of the race.
The Event
The weather gods smiled on us for the day of the event. After a night of rain and wind we woke up to clear blue skys and cool air temperatures. In years past the Kirk has had a reputation of being for the die-hard only. This year we decided to shake up things a little and open the event up to all levels of riders, including a kids’ loop for the little ones and the first time sportsman racers.
The kids and the sportsman left the line at 10:30 am, turning out a total of ten laps. The best part of the kids’ event was watching the dads trying to hang with their kids, while the kids hung it out.
The big kids went off at 1:00 in 4 different classes: junior, intermediate, senior expert and expert. Each class was well-represented with 10 juniors, 32 intermediates, 12 experts and 10 senior experts.
The race was run as a cross-country style event with each class going off two minutes apart.
First off were the experts. Taking the hole-shot in front of all the moto and enduro types was the prez of the VMC, Benny Hircock on his TRIALS BIKE. Not only did he take the hole-shot, but he held off all the other experts through the gravel track in the pits and through the sippy hole (swamp) that mad scientist Chris Stokes managed to find while laying the pit portion of the course. Once the experts left the pits, they headed up the fire road and into some well-used single track. At this point Scotty Edwards,Thomas Cordner and Andrew Watsonfinally managed to get around Ben Hircock. Scotty made a break from the others at this point and managed to pull about a one-minute lead over Thomas Cordner at the second expert split.
The course had two expert splits, the first sending the experts up Budweiser hill and the second sending the experts up the notorious double rock faces. It was at this point that Scotty ran into trouble by not clearing the faces and ending up being passed by Thomas Cordner who managed to break away to about a three-minute lead before Scotty Edwards managed to get under way again.
Fast-forward to the one-hour mark and the end of the first lap. First in was Thomas Cordner, followed three minutes later by Scotty Edwards and Andrew Watsonfive minutes behind the leader, Ben Hircock and Graham Turner came in, locked in a pitched battle. However Benny decided that after a solid hour of full-tilt racing it was time to take a break and watch the rest of the race from the side-lines. Graham quickly realized, however, that he was only a minute back from third place, and dropped the hammer trying to reel in Andrew Watson.
At the two-hour mark, Thomas Cordner arrived again like clockwork for a quick gas and go... His lead was down to two minutes as Scotty Edwards blasted over the 18-inch log jump into the pit check. Andrew Watson arrived in the next two minutes and was still filling his tank when Graham Turner pulled in, spurred on by finally being able to see his quarry after over two hours of hard racing. He took a quick splash of gas and was gone again. Pulling in fifth was Ryan Bell, who decided that not only was his bike’s tank empty, but so was his. He decided to tap-out instead of heading out for the third lap.
After three-plus hours of hard racing, Thomas Cordner managed not only to maintain his lead but to extend it by an additional minute. Scotty Edwardsreturned home a strong second and Andrew Watson managed to hold off a hard final charge from Graham Turner.
The Intermediates
With over 32 riders in the class the start was chaos. At the end of the two-plus hours the winner, Travis Howell had managed to pull a three-minute lead.
The finish of the day was for second and third with Dege Levesque leading Wayne Anderson around the last corner up to the finish line log jump. Both riders attacked the log with total commitment and both ended up going down hard, with Dege Levesque sliding across the line face first and taking the second place trophy.
A new class was introduced for the event, Senior Expert. It also proved to be a hotly contested class with Kevin Marshall and Tim Cordnerdeciding the final finishing positions based on paper rock scissors while they sat on the finish line log.
The juniors finished up the day without any real drama compared to the rest of the classes, mainly because of the strong rides put in by Greg Graham and brothers Drew Aucherlonie Colin Aucherlonie
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All in all, it was a great day of racing for the 75 + competitors that turned up. Once again, I would like to thank everyone who helped out, including Jim Douglas, Boomer and Dave Fair's wife.
