Sideways @ Sunny Corner #32

Staged out of its new and improved base for the second year, the 2018 Sunny Corner Trail Bike Ride – the largest organised annual trailride in Australia – proved to be another cracking good weekend for Australia’s large and passionate tribe of trail addicts. We asked event organizer, Luke Seymour from the Central Tablelands Motorcycle Club, to reflect on the 32^nd running of the iconic annual event…

“The 2018 ride was a huge success with well over 1000 entrants,” Seymour explained. “With the three separate loops running, it couldn’t of gone off any better, and the fact there were no injuries in the two full days of riding is a credit to all the riders and track setters. It was nice for the Central Tablelands Club to be able to donate $5000 to a women who’s 36-year-old husband – a regular Sunny Corner entrant and father of two young children – had recently passed away. After she spoke to the riders, the club said it’d match whatever was raised in the donation bucket passed around. That bucket came back with $4631 in it, which says a lot about the riders the event attracts. So all up, we managed to raise nearly $15,000 for her! Speaking of donations, the club and forestry are donating half the forestry rider levy to the farmers too.

“It was great to have Yamaha on board again as a major sponsor, and more than 100 riders took up the opportunity to demo Yamaha’s range of enduro an cross-country bikes on their specially built test loop. Jarrod Rossiter was the lucky winner of the WR450F, while Gene Bell walked away with a fantastic, fully enclosed MMG trailer worth about $8000. The only downside of the weekend was the fact the full fire ban meant we could light a fire, so Sunny Corner’s infamous Saturday night bonfire didn’t happen this year.

“The feedback from riders confirmed that 2018 was the best rally we’ve ever run, but we’re already looking forward to next year’s, when the live band will make a return. We want to say a big thanks to Yamaha and MMG and the rest of our fantastic sponsors for making it such a successful event. Jump onto our website to see who they are, and support the sponsors who support all of us via these events,” Seymour went on to say.