The Ups and Downs of Motocross.
Another amazing day spent out at the track today. Our second fuelled event, after yesterday’s Swank Rally, was the motor cross. More specifically the Deus Slidetoberfest Motor Cross. Lets run with the full name as you know we always like to put our own spin on these things.
9am saw us once again sea-side in the picturesque Tibah Motorcross track in the Kedungu district of Bali. To have a track in front of you and breaking waves behind, is something we never tire of. People call us spoilt. We know it but shrug it off like an unwanted compliment. The fact that this place is probably totally unique in the world is something that also never becomes tiresome. These words, snaps and, later, the movies we put together only go only a small way to describe its natural beauty.
We started things off with the heats of our Open Class. With a CC ceiling of 150, because we like to keep it inclusive, we once again welcomed an international field of contestants of all ages. Let’s stress the all ages bit shall we because, and we might as well cut straight to the chase… It was one hell of a surprise to see Kelana Humphrey, the 9 year old son of Deus Indonesia’s President, beat a stacked field of riders, three or four times his age, in the final.
After a huge jump past the chequered flag you could tell Kelana was bloody excited as he motored back to the start gates. But you knew it when he dropped his prized 85cc’s of KTM in the dirt before giving a little victory dance to the cheering crowd, well why wouldn’t you?
We were plagued with the obvious bike issues, several swing arms and forks, where big heavy international lads came down hard on them, decided to give up the ghost. After all it’s a motorsport, you will always have them, part of this rich tapestry, it’s up to the two parts to hold it together, both man and machine… hang on, in today’s case, it was more boy and machine.
Let’s get back into the order of how things unfolded shall we, jumped the gun there a bit. After the first run of heats, we moved onto the ladies. Here’s something you mightn't of known, some of these ladies have only been riding for a few months. In fact, Abbie, had only been riding for just four days. Taking second today as well as second yesterday in the ladies Swank. Weigh that up against the years of misspent youth and adult hood a host of the boys had put in at the coal face and you got to take your hat off to them. Besides… they do look fantastic flying around the track, don’t they?
From there we moved to the vintage class. The bikes from the seventies and eighties are making a huge come back here not only that, all the guys have seemed to find the gear their fathers rode. The right boots, period correct helmets and perfectly restored bikes. What a sight they were. We had Deni, Giang and the boys from Batu Karas bring down their bikes down to Bali and all of them rode in about five races today, not content with just the Vintage, they joined the Open with their period correctness and took it to the big guys… Those guys never let up all day.
We moved back onto the Open, but you already know how that ended so lets fast forward to another little surprise we had, the Power on Power. Two guys, riding two proper 250’s built for motorcross. Mano e mano. We had Forrest Minchinton against Matia. Ferdika & Bastien. They paired off and put on an unparalleled aerial display. Then the two winners, Forrest and Ferdika, squared off against each other. Watching those guys fly over the doubles and the table tops you suddenly understand how it should look. Moreover, how the 150cc hobble we had attached to the Open really affected the really good riders. It was quite the spectacle.
Another amazing day, in an astonishing place, watching incredible riding. It doesn’t get much better than this.
