Aussies’ ISDE Reunion Dinner

I wander into the function room out the back of Peden’s Hotel in downtown Cessnock on Sunday night, and it’s a sea of yellow. Among the helium balloons floating above dinner tables, a collection of Australia’s off-road elite rub shoulders, many of them sporting the bright yellow jersey and nylons they wore when they represented Australia at an International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) at some point in the past 40 years. Not everyone’s polyester duds and/or jerseys fit quite as well as they once did.

Many are in town to compete in, or watch, the 40^th anniversary edition of the Australian 4-Day Enduro (A4DE); an event conceived in 1978 in Cessnock to help prepare Aussie riders for what the ISDE in some far-flung country would inevitably hurl at them. The place is buzzing. There’s lively banter and laughter every which way I look. I take a photo of the 4-Day’s inaugural winner, Norm Watts, with his World and AMA title-winning son, Shane, before wandering over to check out the printouts of countless 4-Day magazine articles that cover two entire walls. The beer and wine are flowing, and the pub grub is surprisingly top-shelf. Next to the wall-mounted TAB screens, TVs run classic old ISDE footage on loop. Riders’ friends and family – the backbone of any off-road racer – are there in support. It’s a who’s who of Australia’s off-road scene from the past 40 years, but everyone’s egos are well in check.

Australia’s ISDE Team Managers, past and present, make speeches that reflect on Australia’s amazing journey from ISDE minnows in the late 1970s to champions of the world in 2015. A majority of the members from Australia’s 2015 ISDE-winning teams are in the room, and they’re called to the stage to receive a standing ovation. The mic then gets handed around the crowd, and there’s an hour of hilarious ISDE-related anecdotes. The camaraderie and pride of this off-road community are palpable.

Daniel Milner then calls for the mic. The reigning AORC and A4DE champ – and one of Australia’s standout ISDE performers over the past five years – pays a heartfelt tribute to the sport’s pioneers and tribal elders and all the legends in the room. He thanks them for the opportunities they’ve collectively created for his generation of racers who, as Milner points out, are now paid to race. Milner’s comments close the loop between Australia’s off-road past and present, deftly acknowledging those who paved the way for the international success that Aussie teams have enjoyed in recent years. It’s also a clear sign that the larrikin Milner has matured into a genuine off-road ambassador; a student of the sport and a consummate professional. And it comes as little surprise that, a few days after his fitting comments, Daniel Milner sits atop the 4-Day’s standings at the event’s halfway mark, and is poised to win his fifth Outright A4DE crown.