6-Hour @ Conondale: 10 Talking Points

What makes a memorable dirt bike event? Yes, a course with varied terrain, slick organisation, a functional pit paddock and good atmosphere are all key elements. But it’s the people who rock up to race and enjoy the thing that really give an event its character – their enthusiasm, the bikes they bring, and the friends, family and mates they choose to share the roadtrip and on-ground experience with.
From the countless thousands of stories to come out of last weekend’s 2018 Transmoto 6-Hour at Conondale’s Green Park – the third annual running of the event in the Sunshine Coast’s hinterland – here are 10 standouts.

1. SEVEN SECONDS OF STUPIDITY

What’s with prologues or randomly picking clothes pegs out of a bucket to establish a race’s starting order? Where’s the fun in that? At Conondale’s 6-Hour, we staged a 50-metre footrace to determine the 40 riders who’d sit on the first 10 rows of Sunday’s starting grid – the only rules being that a team’s nominated Usain Bolt needed to carry their transponder and wear moto boots to increase the chances of them going tits-up.

To guarantee spectator amusement, we started the heats from the crest of Green Park’s aptly named Drunk’s Hill, ensured the turning post was positioned on an off-camber section of slick hardpack, and added a few chest-mounted GoPro cameras to characters who looked like they were already a few beers deep on Saturday arvo. No surprises it was a spectacle that generated hilarious footage and images. There was carnage, claret and complaint. But everyone seemed to accept the starting order determined by the best 40 times. Plus, the $25 footrace entry fee raised more than $1200 for the Drought Relief Fund.

2. OWLS ON POLES WITH CHAINSAWS

With a generous $1500 donation to the Drought Relief Fund, the Owlpine Group’s Matty Macalpine was the highest bidder in Saturday afternoon’s Pole Position Auction – and that secured his “The Old Kids” team (Matty Macalpine, Matt Keipert and Scott Saul) a two-minute start over the field on Sunday. Probably best known in industry circles as manager for athletes such as Toby Price and Jamie Whincup, Macalpine was joined on the starting line by a chainsaw-wielding buddy – two-time and reigning SX2-class Champion, Jackson “Jatz Crackers” Richardson – who escorted Macalpine off the line in the one of the most unusual and amusing race starts we’ve ever seen.

Solid day with the lads at the @transmoto 6 hour 🤘🏻🤘🏻

A post shared by Jackson Richardson (@jatzricho) on Aug 19, 2018 at 2:42am PDT

3. JON & JEMMA

For more than a decade, Jemma Wilson’s fiancé, Jon Webb, has played support crew for his multiple AORC-winning partner. But at the 6-Hour, the tables were turned. With Jemma now retired from full-time national and international-level competition, Jon and his mate, Steven Monk, figured it was time to step up and enter their first ever race. “Sensing our nerves, Jemma had lot of advice for me and Monkey on Saturday night,” Jon explained after the race. “But sadly, she didn’t do a lot during the race in the way of filling our tanks or cleaning our air filters and goggles. I’m working on that as I reckon she owes me a few [laughs]”.

4. THE BEHEMOTH TWIN

A few weeks before the race, Sunshine Coast suspension tuner, Dave Burnett, alluded to the fact that he was working on a whacky project bike he hoped to have ready in time for the 6-Hour. “Let’s just say it looks like it’s come straight off a Mad Max set, and we have no idea why we’d be stupid enough to race this around the 6-Hour loop,” his intriguing email read. And when Burnett rocked up with a Suzuki Vstrom sporting a customised 30-litre alloy tank, a parts bin worth of Frankenstein bits fitted, and “The Behemoth” written on its side, we knew exactly what he meant. Burnett teamed up with Bryan Eaton (who raced in a tux and donned a top-hat around the pits) and the mad professor, Joe Brazier, on a team aptly called “Inappropriate”. The purring exhaust note of the big twin was hard to miss during the eight laps the boys somehow managed to complete of the gnarly, rock-strewn track. But they went the distance, finishing 73rd in the Team class and 141st Outright. And they won the ‘Best Dressed’ novelty award!

5. ACCIDENTAL IRONMAN

Jack Heffernan was looking forward to racing in a team with his old man, Lyndon, and mate, Andrew Gillam. But for one reason or another, Jack was abandoned by both teammates on Saturday arvo. Left to his own devices and desperate the race after driving all the way from the NSW south coast, Jack entered the Ironman category instead. Incredibly, this 21-year-old man mountain stepped up and ground out 12 laps of the 6-Hour’s super-challenging loop to not only win the Ironman class, but also run 12th Outright in a field of 165 teams! Respect, big guy.

6. TOP DOGS DUO

You’ve got to love it when local riders upstage their more fancied rivals. And the Sunshine Coast duo of Todd Christie and Jack Judge is a prime example. The two “Top Dogs” boys cranked out 13 laps to win the Pairs class and finish second Outright, just seven minutes behind the winning team. Best of all, they had no idea about their results when they crossed the finish line and fell into the arms of a cold beer. “What?!,” an incredulous Judge screamed when he was told about their result in both the class and Outright. “We had no friggin’ idea that’s where we were running. How cool is that? Stoked!”

7. PILLION FILLIES

We talk a lot about commonsense and courtesy to fellow entrants at our events, and like to think that that makes for a more enjoyable experience for everyone. And we witnessed a perfect example of that on Sunday afternoon at Green Park. About four hours into the race and challenging for the lead in the Mixed Team category, the rear wheel on Jemma Wilson’s Yamaha ground to a halt after she slammed a rock and mangled her chain guide. And with no tools on her, it looked like her Uni Filter team’s race was over. But when KTM Australia’s Events Coordinator, Rose Lalonde, saw the stranded Wilson halfway around the lap, the two hatched a cunning plan. And it worked. “Jemma put her transponder in her Camelbak and doubled me all the way back to the pits,” explained Lalonde. “She had her legs up on the radiator shrouds, and I had my feet on the pegs, and we not only made it all the way around the track back to the pits, we nailed it! Jemma rode the bike so well. We were both feet-up through the deep ruts, and with my bum over the rear guard, I offered plenty of traction on the grasstrack [laughs]. The hoots we got when we flew past the pit paddock was just amazing.”

Despite the lost time, Wilson and her Uni Filter team just hung on to collect the second-placed trophies in the Mixed Team category. Despite losing Tamara Grey to a should injury early in the race, Lalonde’s all-women Team, “Barnsey’s Orange Angels”, ran a valiant second in the Women Woman category, where trophies are only handed out for the winners. Yep, she’s still busting our balls over that!

8. HIGLETT’S HAMMERING

If you’ve followed the national off-road race scene in Australia over the past few years, then you’ll be well aware of the talents of Team Husqvarna rider, Fraser Higlett – an 18-year-old who’s carved out a reputation for being both fast and funny. Higlett kicked things off with a bang at this year’s 6-Hour when he ignominiously highsided his TC125 just 50 metres into the race, right in front of his Husky teammates’ pit. He more than made up for the embarrassing step-off over the following few laps, pushing his Oliver’s Motorcycles Husqvarna Team to the top of the timesheets. But a huge cartwheel at the midway point of the race left Higlett with a sore neck and little memory of what had happened and, thanks to team orders, he was whisked off to hospital to undergo tests. For the record, Higlett’s teammates, Michael Oliver and Sam Simmons, brought it home for the team in fifth place in the Team class and eighth Outright. Not bad when you consider it was Oliver’s first race in nine years!

9. WHAT’S IN A NAME?

You can tell a lot about a team by the name they enter under. And judging by the team names on the 2018 6-Hour entry list, few indicated their constituents were all that serious about race results. Take, for example, ‘Neville Nobodies’, ‘Froths & Wheelies’, ‘A few Beers Deep’, ‘Busted Arse Racing’, ‘Daniel & Luigi’, ‘Team Swappa’, ‘Fuc Work Let’s Ride’, ‘Two And A Half Fat Bastards’, ‘Grasstrack Goons’, ‘The Braap Monkeys’, ‘Crusty Frothers’, ‘Bundaberg Bushchooks’, ‘Flap Off It’, ‘Sausage Smokers’, ‘Flogged Out Flappers’, ‘Bust a Nut Racing’, ‘Limp Wrist It’, or TeamMoto’s three-team line-up of ‘3-Strokers’, ‘Menopause’ and ‘Hook, Line & Sinker’. But for our money (and perhaps there oughta be a prize for best team name next year), ‘Trial & Error Racing’ takes the gong. With 50% of entrants at our 6-, 8-, and 12-Hour events only racing Transmoto Enduro Events, that kind of says it all. It’s all about getting people into the sport.

10. A TRIO OF TREASURES

At previous events, we’ve had a couple of brothers on the winning team, but never three characters with the same surname. Admittedly, Casey Treasure is a cousin of brothers, Kaleb and Jaiden Treasure, but how cool was it to see the three Treasures collect the Team and Outright win at the 2018 Transmoto 6-Hour?! According to 31-year-old Casey, the oldest of the Treasure trio and a suspension technician at Caloundra-based dealership, MPE Husqvarna, “Mate, all three of us popped our Transmoto-event cherry there at the 6-Hour. I grew up watching my two younger cousins racing, so the 6-Hour was just a great opportunity for us to not only race together, but to enjoy the whole weekend as a family. Taking the win was just a bonus really, and a nice way to say thanks to the guys at MPE, who flowed us the entry and supported us. Plus we had a bunch of mates who were pitting next to us. They ran 97th Outright or something like that, and they were stoked. Sounds like they’ve got the bug now too. We’ll all be back next year for sure.”