Throwback: 2013 Melbourne Enduro-X

Australia’s best off-road pilots opened their 2013 season’s account with a head-on confrontation – with each other and with the menacing obstacles of the Melbourne Enduro-X. This feature originally appeared in Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine‘s 2013 April (#30) Issue. 

Peter Boyle has earned a reputation for being Australia’s most laid-back – and naturally gifted – Pro rider. And nothing that happened at the Australian off-road scene’s first shakedown for 2013 would change that. When pressed about his preparation for this year’s InsureMyRide Melbourne Enduro-X, the Victorian did concede that, “I cleaned my bike’s leaky fork seal. And I… actually, that’s all I did.” Not everyone’s definition of preparation, that. But what about Boyle’s race strategy for the man-made Calder Park course, with its challenging combo of supercross and enduro obstacles? “To win, obviously,” he replied, as if it was stupid to ask a question that only has one logical answer. “Mate, there was five grand on offer for the winner, so why wouldn’t you rock up and have a go? I just made sure I got good starts because I knew passing would be a pain in the arse. And I had a snooze before each race. Seemed to work.”

It worked, alright. The semi-retired Boyle came out of hiding to smoke the country’s best enduro racers with a clean-sweep of the three-moto Pro-class final. Not bad for a guy whose bike-time consists solely of cutting motocross track laps. He hadn’t even practiced his extreme-obstacle technique in the weeks leading up to the event. And he certainly hadn’t put a whole lot of thought into what tyres or gearing might suit a track strewn with log piles, rock gardens, mud holes and tractor tyres. Boyle simply made sure the oil dripping down his fork leg didn’t find its way onto the front brake disc, and got on with it.

The Melbourne Enduro-X was relocated from Broadmeadow to the much larger Calder Park Raceway for 2013. “Everyone’s got a story about the iconic Calder Park, which has recently undergone a change of ownership,” explains Enduro-X organiser, Colin Robbins. “The new owners seem to be rapt in what we did with the Enduro-X and the spectators we attracted, and I’m sure we’ll be back there for many years to come. And after a couple of years of extreme weather, God owed us this year. Thankfully, we couldn’t have had better conditions.”

From its inception, the Melbourne Enduro-X has been all about taking dirt bike racing to the masses by staging events in close proximity to large population bases. And according to Transmoto photographer, Pixel Pig’s Jorden Bethune, that’s exactly what the 2013 event achieved. “It was cool to have Melbourne’s CBD skyline as a backdrop to the action and it appears in a lot of the shots I took,” Bethune enthused. “They still run drag races at Calder Park, but the section of the facility where the Enduro-X was staged has been disused for a fair while. With the grandstands overrun by weeds, it felt like the circus had left town and nature had taken over. But Calder’s Thunderdome banking created an incredible natural amphitheatre for the Enduro-X and the perfect vantage point for the 3500 spectators who rocked up. They had the choice of that elevated view or heading down into the pits or inside the track and watching the crazy action up close. I’m just glad I wasn’t riding that brutal track, let alone racing on it. The thing was absolutely intense!”

Check out Pixel Pig’s incredible imagery that brings his Enduro-X description to life.

Boyle’s 1-1-1

No one had pegged Honda-mounted Peter Boyle as a major threat at the 2013 event, as the Victorian didn’t compete in the inaugural 2012 Melbourne Enduro-X. But they should have seen him coming because, back in 2006, Boyle had upstaged the country’s best off-road Pros at an endurocross run in conjunction with the Motorcycle Expo. And he was even more dominant this time around. With great starts and a level-headed approach, Boyle won all three Pro-class motos for a perfect 75 points and a none-too-shabby $5000 pay cheque.

Price Of Pain

The defending Melbourne Enduro-X champ, KTM’s Toby Price, doesn’t always make life easy on himself. In fact, he had a shocker of a day, with crashes in the early heats forcing the 500EXC-mounted meat-axe to qualify for the finals via the nerve-racking LCQ. The finals didn’t start any better for him, when a massive rock garden crash in the opening moto tweaked his wrist badly. But, in a show of determination the guy’s become renowned for, Price picked himself up, charged through the field to go 6-2-3 for third Overall. Respect!

Hollis Returns

After a disastrous, injury-plagued 2012 season, two-time Outright AORC champ, Chris Hollis, had been itching to get back on the bike and get a crack at both his rivals and some lumpy prize money. Not wanting a repeat of his narrow runner-up finish to Toby Price last year, Hollis was on fire in the opening heats, and he smashed the boys in the one-lap shootout to determine starting positions for the finals. The 450EXC-mounted 28-year-old staged some ding-dong battles with Peter Boyle, but just couldn’t upstage him. Hollis went 2-3-4 for second Overall.

De-Barked Logs

Not that anyone was counting, but if there was one obstacle that caused more crashes than any other, it was the innocuous-looking – but extremely intimidating – log pile. Judiciously placed not far after a water-crossing, the de-barked logs became progressively more greasy as the day wore on, and were like soap by the time the final Pro races was run. Here, Husaberg-mounted Jarrod Bewley (#78) chases down visiting American, Wally Palmer (#27) through the logs. Bewley and Palmer finished seventh and 11th, respectively.

Under & Over

Reigning A4DE champ, Daniel Milner (#31) has proved his skill in tech terrain in the past and looked the man to beat in the early heats. But a series of crashes culminated in a big step-off in the log pile, where he pile-drove his neck. The young Victorian was taken to hospital and took no further part in the Pro final. Here, he negotiates a new inclusion for the 2013 event: a shipping container that created an under-and-over track feature, where riders had a choice of a few lines. Love the addition of the fake grass and stairs for that urban aesthetic.

Grabham’s Trial

Imagine spending two weeks at the Dakar Rally – tapped out in fifth gear at 150km/h through the deserts of South America with a 40-litre payload of fuel – and then returning to Australia to race an endurocross in first and second gear. Because that’s the transition 31-year-old Ben Grabham had to make after returning from his stellar 16th Outright result at the 2013 Dakar. But Grabbo’s done some trials riding in years past and now spends a fair bit of time on his KTM Freeride 350, and his slow-speed skills were obvious to see in Melbourne. He went 8-5-11 for sixth Outright.

Amphitheatre

When Calder Park Raceway’s oval circuit was first built (on a bed of tyres, it turns out!) way back when, its designers probably weren’t expecting the backside of the Thunderdome’s banking to be used by spectators for an off-road motorcycle event. But that’s exactly what the elevated banking ingeniously provided for the 2013 Melbourne Enduro-X. Not only did it give the 3000-plus spectators a commanding view over the Enduro-X track itself; it also offered expansive views back to Melbourne’s city skyline in the distance. Ah, CBD racing!

The Bog Hole

No self-respecting endurocross course is complete without a water-crossing that deteriorates horribly over the course of the day. But the real art in the liquid obstacle is what organisers place under the water and what sort of obstacle follows it. Demonstrating a blatant streak of sadism, track builders at the 2013 event not only littered the base of the water ‘feature’ with random big unsighted rocks; they also placed a huge de-barked log pile immediately after the thing. Once wet, the logs turned from slithery into downright treacherous.

Podium Trio

With the risk of pre-season injury, not all off-road race team manages liked the idea of their riders taking on the intimidating obstacles of the Enduro-X. But the Motorex KTM Off-Road boys threw caution to the wind and turned up en mass. With Hollis and Price running second and third to Boyle in 2013, the powerhouse KTM team claimed two spots on the podium, just as they did in 2012. “Without these top guys, who are really Australia’s best riders, we just don’t have an event,” said organiser, Colin Robbins. “The KTM team’s support has been just fantastic from the start.”

Harper By A Hair

With the longest pair of legs in Australia’s off-road pit paddock, Victorian charger Mitchum Harper (#4) might have an unfair advantage in the technical terrain of the Enduro-X. But the youngster backed up his solid 2012 showing with a 3-4-5 result in 2013, for fourth Overall. He missed out on pipping Toby Price (#1) for the final spot on the podium by just 3 points. Despite his injured wrist and poor starts, Price was unstoppable as he repeatedly charged his way through the pack, with TP’s performance reinforcing his rep as the toughest bloke in the sport.

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The 2014 KTM Australian Enduro-X Nationals will kick off at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway on February 2. From there, the second round will take place at Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway in Parramatta on Saturday night, February 15. Two weeks later, the third and final round of the 2014 series will take place at Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway on Sunday, March 2. For extensive information on the series, click here.