Transmoto 8-Hour @ Stroud: Standout Stories
From the countless thousands of anecdotes to come out of last weekend’s 2018 Transmoto 8-Hour at Stroud, here are 10 standout stories. Okay, 11…
1. WHAT WEATHER?
Extreme conditions and Stroud’s Transmoto 8-Hour have gone hand in hand since the inaugural event at the Gunns Gully venue in 2015. After that first year’s ‘Big Wet’, when vehicles had to be skulled-dragged by tractors back to bitumen, there followed two of the driest, dustiest events on record – one of which was fanned by gale-force winds and a dozen uncomfortably close bushfires.
And with 100mm of rain in the week leading up to last weekend’s fourth annual installment, that run of extreme weather didn’t look like being interrupted. Sure, much of this year’s pit paddock looked like an ankle-deep pig pen, the grasstrack was gooey, and there were a few bike-swallowing bog holes to deal with around the 18km loop, but all of the trail sections were a prime shade of loam.
2. AFTER THE RAIN…
The tune chosen as the wake-up song, blasted out mercilessly by the pit paddock’s stack of speakers at 6am, is always a hotly contested affair. But for 2018, it was a no-brainer: After the Rain, by legendary Aussie band, The Angels. There were a few people in Sunday morning’s coffee queue who got the joke, pointed to the ominous black clouds overhead, and called it wishful thinking. But, guess what? The cloud cover lifted, the sun came out, and there wasn’t another drop of rain all day on Sunday. Admittedly, the damage was done and it was wet underfoot, but it felt like an angel was in fact looking after all 470 riders who tore into Sunday’s 18km loop.
3. ANYONE GOT EYES ON THE POLARIS?
If we had a dollar for every time the organisers’ radio channel squawked “Anyone got eyes on the Polaris”, we’d still be counting the cash. Used for everything from injured rider extraction to towing 4WDs out of the mud to every conceivable odd job that dirt bike events call for, the Polaris (a XP900 Ranger ROV) proved an indispensible new member of the event team this year. Which is exactly why Dubbo City Motorcycles’ Dave Mendham – who supplied us with this awesome machine for this year’s events – won the 8-Hour’s Proactive Partner Award. Hopefully, the bottle of Gunns Gully plonk Dave received for the award distracted him from the unpalatable job of washing four days worth of caked mud off the thing!
4. BIG NUTS’ DICKIE HAMSTRING
Instead of using the former self-regulating ‘system’ to determine Sunday’s starting order, the first 40 riders of Stroud’s starting grid were only made available to teams who entered one of their riders into Saturday arvo’s running race – the only rules being that entrants needed to carry their team transponder and wear moto boots to increase the chance of them going arse over tit.
“As much I reminded everyone that the event is low-key and not to be taken too seriously, I can’t control the way all my team members approach it,” explained Jeff Leisk, GM of KTM and Husqvarna Motorcycles, and captain of the ‘Leisk and Co.’ team at Stroud.
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“One of the guys in my team, Troy Wilson – an old mate of mine from WA, and an ex-AFL footy player who goes by the name “Big Nuts’ – decided he’d enter the running race and secure the team a good starting position for Sunday. Anyway, so he’s warming up and obviously taking it pretty seriously. But the next thing you know, Troy says he’s pulled a hamstring [laughs], so we hand the footrace baton over to one of our sponsored Pro riders, Lachy Stanford.
Then at the last-minute, Big Nuts says his leg’s come good and he’s up for it. He’s bolted from the start and, true to his other nickname on the footie field, ‘The Bowling Ball’, he’s bowled a bunch of blokes out of his way, leapt over the finishline with the transponder extended in his hand out in front of him, and earned us second position on the grid. Big man poetry in motion,” Leisk went on to say, sniggering as he recounted the amusing story.
5. TROPHY-HUNTING BOYS IN BLUE
“Hey, Greeny, you know it’s a bit of an unwritten rule that there’s a maximum of two active Pro riders in a team, right?” we reminded the Yamalube Oilers team captain, Josh Green, after eyeballing Stroud’s entry list.
“Yeah, I know”, he says, sheepishly looking at his toes. “But Beau [Ralston] is only just back from injury, [Michael] Driscoll is just here for a fun ride, and Brad Hardaker reckons he’s riding the boss’ old YZ125, so he’ll be a boat anchor for the team in these boggy conditions,” Green continued, amusing himself, and barely believing his own PR spin. Sure enough, the Yamalube Oilers’ foursome smoked the field, lapping up to second place, and collected the Outright win. In the blue boys’ defense, they rode in the laid-back spirit of the event – laughing, helping crew out of bog holes and turning it on for the cameras … the trophy-hunting bitches!
6. PRIMO (SWAMP) PIT AWARD
As one of the event’s sponsors, MMG Trailers’ Darrell Wilson made sure he and some mates got up to Stroud in time for Friday’s VIP Sponsor Trailride, and the boys had an absolute ball. Before Saturday arvo’s downpour, track conditions were prime, and seeing as the pit paddock had almost entirely dried up, Wilson shifted his pit plot 20m away where the grass was greener – literally! Unfortunately, the rain that fell on Saturday arvo and night revealed why this plot was greener – because it was low-lying and did a great job of collecting water. And by Sunday morning, the MMG pit plot resembled a WW1 battlefield. It was by far the wettest plot in the paddock. Feeling sorry for the MMG crew – who, to their credit, never complained and just on with the business of camping and racing out of ankle-deep mud – we gave them ‘Primo Pit Award’. Sadly, the MMG mud wrestlers had long since flown their muddy coup by the time Sunday arvo’s presentation rolled around. And who’d blame them?
7. A KNIGHT IN MUDDY ARMOUR
For several years, KTM Newcastle has been one of KTM’s largest and most successful dealerships, and its owners – Jeff McLeary and Shane Place – have been vocal supporters of Transmoto 8-Hour. So, after Jeff McLeary’s tragic death earlier this year, we introduced the ‘Jeff McLeary Memorial Award’ for this year’s 8-Hour – an award given to the person judged to be the event’s most spirited, dedicated and fearless. Choosing its inaugural recipient – Central Coast Dirt Riders stalwart, Mick Knight – was a no-brainer.
Without any prompting, Mick took it upon himself to assist riders who got bogged in the increasingly deep ruts and bog hole that formed under the event’s start/finishline, and he ended up spending a majority of the eight hours there. Come chequered flag time, the bloke was totally spent, and graciously shook the hands of dozens of riders who came over to thank him. “I watched him wrestle bikes, riders and himself out of those muddy ruts all arvo,” explained Jeff’s son, Brock McLeary, at the presentation. “So I can’t think of a more fitting bloke to hand this beautiful memorial trophy over to.
Dad would be wondering what all the fuss is about, but this memorial award means a lot to our family and all the people who knew Jeffro and what he stood for.”
8. ANDERSON’S EIGHTH
With 25 other mad bastards – otherwise known as Ironman riders – lining up for this year’s 8-Hour, seven-time Ironman-class champ, Kye Anderson, knew he’d have his work cut out this year. Iron Jack Heffernan kept Anderson honest for most of the day, but sure enough, the blond bloke we like to call “The Masochist” notched up his eighth class-win.
In spite of the challenging conditions, Anderson reeled off a staggering 14 laps. That’s just two laps shy of the winning team’s 16 laps, and put Kye in ninth place Outright! “My 350EXC-F didn’t miss a beat all day,” Anderson said at the preso, “and I’d really like to thank Jeff McLeary for the key role he played in supporting me. Without getting that KTM Newcastle sponsorship a few years back, I’m not even sure I’d still be in the sport. So I guess my message is for people to support those who support the sport.”
9. GROMS ON THE GAS
Remember being a kid on a rainy day and insisting that you stomp your feet in every puddle you could find on the way home from school? Yeah, well that’s kinda how all 25 kids approached the non-competitive loop on Saturday at the 8-Hour, all of them stoked to be part of an event Dad and his teammates had entered, and to sample a 4km section of the course in its prime before the big boys got the chance to rip into it. These kids had a spring in their step and wore split-watermelon grins all weekend.
10. CROSS-DRESSING NOVOCASTRIANS
When conditions are muddy for an endurance race, riders’ thoughts tend to turn to practical issues – such as avoiding chafe and staying reasonably dry. Not the characters from the ‘KTM NCL Cross Dressers’ team, it seems. Tull and Renee Delaney and Sam Kerr were more concerned with having fun. Tull and Sam sported stripy one-piece women’s swimsuits, complete with cute pleated skirts, while Renee donned Newcastle Knights NRL gear. Of course, they won the Best Dressed Award!
11. LAMB ROAST
Darren Lamb – aka “Lamby”, “Lamb Shank”, or “Chris Watson’s Social Secretary” – is a dirt bike tragic who, along with his partner Cherie, has been a core part of the Transmoto Events family for several years. Between them, Shank and Cherie handle everything from catering to competitor bags to lighting. And they do it with humour and grace. Despite being on the wrinkly side of 50, Lamby still pedals a dirt bike around pretty damn quickly too, so he races most events as well. At Stroud, Shank was teamed up with his old mate and dirt track icon, Chris Watson, but things went horribly wrong just a few laps into the race. “I cartwheeled the bike on the grasstrack over there, and fell pretty gently into a heap of mud,” Lamby explained while lying face-down on what looked like a massage table in the Medical Tent. “But then the bike landed on me, and I couldn’t get the bloody thing off. It was like the thing had me in a rear naked choke hold [laughs]. And that’s when things started to hurt.” Lamby sustained third-degree burns from his Husky’s red-hot header pipe, which are likely to require skin grafts.
But it turns out that was the least of his worries. After pissing blood that arvo in hospital, doctors became increasingly concerned about damage to his kidney and bowel, and when things didn’t improve the next day, Lamb Shank went under the knife. Or, as the caption in his Facebook post said, “Little 2am carve-up last night”. With holes in his front and rear, something tells us he won’t be too comfortable in bed for a few months. Docs say the big guy was very lucky, but will be okay. The hardest pill for him to swallow will be the news that he’s not allowed to ride for six months. Get well, Lamby.
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