2011 Thumb Pump 300

Vivian Anderson, Kev Heinen, Pete Wilhelms

The Easter long weekend has seen the fourth running of the Thumb Pump 300 ATV Festival, which has this year claimed the title of the biggest ATV off-road event in Australia with around 150 riders entering in the six different events over the four day event. The track itself is located at Scorpion Park, around 15 kilometres south of Pinnaroo on the South Australian/Victorian border and consists of a 25 kilometre loop through the sandy scrub linked by wide open straights, which by the end of the event is about 25 kilometres of whoops as you’d expect for this kind of terrain. This event has traditionally been help on the Anzac Day long weekend, but with this weekend also coinciding with Easter this year, event organiser Mick Andrewartha from 47 Industries decided to move from a two day event to the four day festival format so that there was room in the race schedule for the two junior classes. The Juniors raced on Friday and Monday leaving Saturday and Sunday to fit in all the Senior events (including the other new inclusion for 2011, the UTV Class)

The main event for the weekend was fittingly the event that the festival is named for, the Thumb Pump 300 with 82 riders, 44 of those paired up into the 22 teams in the teams class, from all around the country (topping even the Class 9 entry’s for this years Finke Desert Race which was capped at 80 quads) and for the condition that the track was in by the end of the event, surprisingly only 18 DNF’s. The 300 is run over two days with a 200 kilometre session on Saturday and 100 kilometres on Sunday.

The stand out was 16 year old Adam Larson, from Colac in Victoria, who dominated the 300 kilometre race from the very beginning on his Suzuki LTR450 with only fellow Suzuki riders Cam Wade and Troy Sherridan getting close to his lap times. Larson’s total race time of 6:25:04 saw him take 10 minutes off Cam Wade’s 2010 total race time and gave him the 450 Class and Outright win, not to mention the fastest lap with an 0:28:34 as his opener. Factory Polaris rider, Luke Beechey, backed up last years Open Class victory with a solid ride on his Outlaw 525 IRS taking out the open class and third Outright. The Open Womens class went to Can Am mounted Jeanette Lindsay, who lead the class from the outset. The Teams category looked to be highly competitive this year with 22 teams fighting lap for lap but in the end the Can Am Xteam’s pairing of Adam Siemensma and Jake Van Vliet (both on DS450XMX’s) won through.

The Highbeam 100 was also a hotly contested event, on the same 25 kilometre circuit as the Thumb Pump 300 but (obviously) run after dark. Dave Newman took out the night event on his Outlaw 525 IRS with a respectable 2:35:44 for the four laps notably though the top four in this event were pretty evenly spaced, spread over less than 10 minutes.

As mentioned earlier one of the new inclusions for this year was the UTV class. Included as a trial class for this Motorcycling Australia event this class was run on a shortend track from the main senior events (as were the two Junior classes) so that they effectively got more laps, 10 for each session in fact with one session on Saturday and one on Sunday. Polaris RZR 900 XP Driver Cody Crocker along with Co-Driver Greg Foletta took out the 120 kilometre race with a total time for the two sessions of 2:24:36.

Both the Junior classes were run on separate tracks, the 300 class on the same track as the UTV’s and the 90/125 class on a separate circuit that avoided the worst of the hill climbs so the smaller kids didn’t just end up stuck on a hill for half of their session. In the 90/125 class Callum Hendy proved the old adage true “To finish first, first you must finish” by far and away not the fastest during his event but getting his FYM Typhoon 125 through to take out the win. Whilst Ben Wade, consistently the fastest rider in the 300 class on his Yamaha Raptor 250, convincingly took the top spot for the under 16’s

To wrap up the senior event the Sand Drags Enduro class, which is only eligible for quads that have been entered in the main race, was taken out by none other than the pace setter for the main race, Adam Larson. Adam won through all three of his heats and both of his finals to victory. In the Unlimited class Shane Bridge, known to the locals of Pinnaroo as Shagger, convincingly won all of his races on his Banshee/Fireblade hybrid.

The top three places in each event took a share of the prizes on offer from Sidchrome, Oztrail, Belray and CRC not to mention one of the amazing trophies supplied by Freddie Sheppard.

Thumb Pump 300 ATV Festival Results

Outright

1. Adam Larson -LTR450
2. Cameron Wade – LTR450
3. Luke Beechey Outlaw 525 IRS

Pro 450 Class

1. Adam Larson -LTR450
2. Cameron Wade – LTR450
3. Troy Sherridan – LTR450

Open Mens Class

1. Luke Beechey – Outlaw 525 IRS
2. Michael Roycroft – Outlaw 525 IRS
3. Patrick Geraghty – Outlaw 525 IRS

Open Womens Class

1. Jeanette Lindsay – DS450XMX
2. Donna Newman – YFZ450
3. Chelsea DeBoo – DS450XMX

Teams Class

1. Adam Siemensma- DS450XMX/ Jake Van Vliet – DS450XMX
2. Jono Wade – LTR450 / Ray Cole LTR450
3. Paul Hendy – TRX450R / Dean McMillan LTR450

Highbeam 100 Event

1. Dave Newman – Outlaw 525 IRS
2. Craig Jenzen – Sportsman 850 XP
3. Colin Lawson – Outlander XXC

UTV Event

1. Cody Crocker / Greg Foletta – RZR 900 XP
2. Phil Swindale / Adrian Moss – RZR 900 XP
3. Michael Roycroft / Thomas Andruschak – RZR 800 S

Junior 90/125 Event

1. Callum Hendy – Typhoon 125
2. Callen Holtham – Raptor 90
3. Rourke Hendy – Typhoon 125

Junior 200/300 Event

1. Ben Wade – Raptor 250
2. Taylor Goldfinch – Blaster
3. Michael Beer – Blaster

Sand Drags Event

Enduro Class
1. Adam Larson – LTR450
2. Danny Penrat – KTM525XC
3. Clinton Sherridan – LTR450

Unlimited Class

1. Shane Bridge
2. Patrick Geraghty
3. Pete Wilhelms

Full results including timesheets are available at http://www.300.thumbpump.com