2017 12-Hour: 12 Talking Points

You’ve seen the highlights video, drooled over the image galleries, ogled at the impossibly prime conditions, and pored over the results. But what about the standout back-stories that helped define the 2017 Transmoto 12-Hour? Try these dozen tidbits for size…

1. THAT CAUSEWAY

Relentless rainfall on the NSW east coast during the first three weeks of March made us confident we wouldn’t be hosting the third dusty 12-Hour on the trot. But when it refused to let up in the week leading up to the event, we suddenly became very nervous about the water-depth of the notorious causeway, just 100 metres short of the event’s staging area. Hence our SMS to entrants on Thursday arvo, advising them that 4WD access only was recommended, but that we’d happily tow and/or ferry trailers, gear and bodies across. Not everyone was convinced, it seems. Not initially, anyway… “So, what, you gunna buy us a 4WD so we can access the event, are you?,” asked an irritated entrant who called Transmoto HQ on Friday, clearly in a  causeway-half-empty frame of mind and angling for a refund. “We’d planned to sleep in our 2WD vans, mate, so you gunna buy us all camping gear too?”
Once we made assurances that there’d be a tractor and several fourbies on hand to skull-drag any 2WDs across if required, this irritable bloke rediscovered his moto mojo and sense of adventure. Meanwhile, practical types hurriedly made calls to carpool in their mates’ 4WDs.
Sure enough, everyone made it through the causeway unscathed. In fact, that final liquid hurdle to the Buckenbowra Promised Land has become somewhat of a rite of passage. It makes entrants feel like they’d earned the right to be there; that they deserved be one of the lucky 400 who took part in the 2017 12-Hour.

2. PRIME CONDITIONS

The last time conditions were superb for the 12-Hour was back in 2012, when the pit paddock was under 10mm of water right up until a few days before the event. So we knew the soil type at the venue could handle lots of rain. And when everyone awoke to perfect autumn sunshine on Sunday, Course Director Lyndon Heffernan called it. “Get ready for the best conditions the 12-Hour has ever had,” Heffo said with all the confidence in the world. “Cutting a few kays out of the course because of the too-deep creek-crossings will mean she gets a bit rougher than usual, but conditions will be absolutely prime. Mark my words!” And prime it was. No wonder the venue’s soil type is referred to as “massive sandy loam”, according to council records. Not a word of a lie!

3. ROSSY’S SPECIALIST CHOPPER

It seems like a video is not a video these days without the obligatory drone footage. Which is why Transmoto’s video production team had armed themselves with a couple of eHang Ghostdrones to make sure we got an aerial perspective of the 2017 12-Hour. But when Northstar Pastoral’s Colin Ross – a long-time KTM desert-racing sponsor, and entrant in this year’s event – mentioned that one of his mates from Specialist Helicopters would be popping in on Sunday morning, and offered our production team an aerial lap or two of the course, it took our aerial imagery to an all new level. Best of all, it allowed two of Transmoto’s bearded dingos, Robbie Warden and Shane Newman, to shoot an amusing Facebook Live post of the event in progress while hanging out the doors of the whirlybird like a couple of excitable schoolboys.

4. FLYIN’ FRECKLE ON FIRE!

It’s not every day that first-time racers get the opportunity to share a track with some of the countries best Pro riders. But at the 2017 12-Hour, a lot of the older stagers were even more excited by the fact they got to bang bars with the great Jeff Leisk – Australia’s first highly successful motocross export who’s now the General Manager for KTM and Husqvarna in Australia. Despite some Saturday night revelry that saw Leisk flagrantly breach the “generators off by 10pm” edict, the man once referred to as “The Flyin’ Freckle” backed up and was first rider away for his KTM Australia team before sunrise on Sunday. The guy’s still got plenty of speed and that trademark effortless style.

5. IRONMAN RECORDS

The idea of maximising the bang for your entry fee buck by racing solo for 12 hours might sound like a good idea. But it isn’t. Not for a greater majority of riders, anyway. Just ask the 60% of Ironman-class riders who’ve failed to finish the Transmoto 12-Hour in previous years. And that stat explains exactly why an Ironman class finish at the event has become such a badge of honour. So, for 2017, we jacked the entry fee up to separate the pretenders from the serious contenders, and it worked. For the first time on record, incredibly, the 12-Hour’s Ironman class posted a 100% finish rate – yep, 12 from 12 men of iron (all of whom were sporting special red capes to identify them this year) met the chequered flag in the 12^th hour, and earned the respect of every man, woman and child in the pit paddock.
The glutton for punishment that is Kye Anderson racked up his second 12-Hour win (and fifth Transmoto Enduro Event victory in less than three years), punching out an astounding 44 laps that put him in 36^th position Outright! The NT’s Chris Warwick put in yet another gallant effort (and 41 laps) to finish second, while a last-minute entry, Michael Spiteri (who replaced the injury Jody South), vindicated all his training by running a very credible third with 40 laps. Perhaps the best endorsement of all came from multiple Aussie enduro champ, Daniel Milner, who said during his podium speech that, “The real heroes of this 12-Hour are the Ironman riders. For those guys to be doing 40-plus laps around that gnarly track, when our team-of-four won with 56 laps … well, that’s something pretty special right there.” Indeed! The top three Ironman riders each clocked up about three times as many laps as each rider in the winning Team-of-Four did.

6. KTM’S WINNING SHAKEDOWN

While a majority of 12-Hour entrants are all about having fun, racing their mates and simply finishing the gruelling event, there are always a few teams brimming with Pro-rider talent; guys who also look to use the 12-Hour as a final shakedown ahead of the Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) season opener. On paper, the showdown at the top end of town always looked like it would be between the KTM Off-Road and Husqvarna Off-Road teams. But it was the Uni Filter Australia foursome that really took the fight up to the Kato boys, who lost seven minutes early in the day with a loose plug cap. By the eight-hour mark, though, the KTM Off-Road team of Glenn Kearney, Daniel Milner, Lyndon Snodgrass and Harrison Norton, had reclaimed the lead. And after banking a ball-breaking 56 laps, they took the chequered flag, which was fittingly waved by KTM’s Marketing Coordinator, Rosie Lalonde. Given that it was the debut KTM race for both Milner and Snodgrass – and the first for Kearney as the KTM Off-Road Racing Team’s manager – the boys were all pretty chuffed about what was a very successful team shakedown in the lead-up to their national championship campaign.

7. KATE’S CAMEO

As usual, there were plenty of women in the pits at the 2017 12-Hour but, for reasons we plan to launch an official investigation into, just one solitary feline actually competed this year. Her name is Kate Norman, and this Sherco-mounted Victorian spearheaded the sole Mixed Team-of-Four, called the Country Maddogs. As an AORC regular who’s spent lots of timing riding with AORC Outright champ, KTM’s Daniel Sanders, Kate wasn’t there to make up the numbers (or to make sure they collected the Mixed Team trophy); she more than held her own when it came to punching a heap of laps in very respectable lap times. Teamed up with Sean Cox, Greg Prisk and James Stanforth, Kate’s Country Maddogs racked up 44 laps and placed a credible 38^th Outright.

8. EVERYONE’S A WINNER

Transmoto’s events were conceived to encourage participation from riders of all abilities, so it makes sense that the 12-Hour’s prizes and awards don’t only go to the Pro riders on the podium. And for 2017, there were more winners than ever. In addition the trophies for first, second and third in the Ironman and Teams classes, we dished out trophies to the winners of the Mixed Team (at least one female rider – won by Country Maddogs), Wise Wizards Team (all four riders over 50 – won by Wise Old Men), and Young Guns Team (all four riders under 25 – provisionally won by Team Blue); and special awards for the Primo Pit (won by The Punters), Proactive Partner (won by Uni Filter Australia), Hard Luck (won by Andy Finnie), Start Ya Bastard (won by Gareth Cooper) and Best Team Outfit (won by Craig Hale).
In fact, when you tally all the prizes won in the raffle or simply handed out at random, very few of the 400 competitors at this year’s event would have walked away empty-handed.

9. MADDO IN DA HOUSE

Last year, Robbie Maddison was entered and frothing to take part in his first 12-Hour, but after Red Bull insisted he do some promo work at Melbourne’s opening round of the Formula 1 season that same weekend, the NSW south coast native was a last-minute scratching. Seeing as the 2017 12-Hour clashed with Melbourne’s F1 again, we thought it’d be a long-shot to see Maddo, but the boys from Ficeda Accessories (who distribute Fist gloves, which Maddo part owns) were adamant he’d be a starter. “Maddo won’t get his low-slung Maloo ute across that causeway, but he’ll be here,” Robbie’s business partner, Sam Moore, assured us. And sure enough, by 10am on Sunday – after getting a special one-on-one riders’ briefing with officials – Maddo was having a ball cutting laps, shooting the shit with his Ficeda/Fist teammates, and chirpily showcasing the Transmoto X Fist colab gloves that were launched at the event. After doing all he could to soften his FMX-spec suspension, Maddo posted some damn respectable lap times too … until an awkward off and coming together with another rider meant the high-profile daredevil had to exit stage left early with what he described as a “tweaked knee”.

11. SIGNATURE TROPHY

To add even more prestige to the Outright win at this year’s event, we collaborated with the Eurobodalla Shire Council to produce a special signature trophy; the idea being that it helped reinforce the region’s timber industry foundations and its current-day “Unspoilt Nature Coast” tourism trade slogan. This handmade piece was crafted from Wooly Butt and a used sprocket (itself a veteran of two 12-Hour events) by Bimbimbie Wood’s Terry Sharpe.

12. BACKING A BROTHER

Ben Debono is a likeable young bloke who rode his third consecutive Transmoto 12-Hour in 2017 – this year, in a team called F@#k Cancer. In early January, just three months after getting married, Ben’s wife, Leah, lost her battle with cancer at just 29 years of age. So Ben took up our offer to insert a flyer into the 12-Hour’s Competitor Bag, in which he shared the story of his heart-wrenching loss, and details of his fundraising efforts for the Melanoma Institute Australia (MIA). And everyone’s support and generosity at this year’s 12-Hour was incredible. Collectively, the pole position auction, MIA singlet sales and donation bucket raised an astounding $7500 – a gesture that moved Ben (and a lot of others) to tears.