On Sunday the 18th of October, I competed in a Pony Express (Enduro) at Kotupna Victoria. I partnered with my good friend and AJ's team mate Jarrod "Maso" Mason. After winning the event together last year in the 9 under 12 age group, we were keen to partner up again this year.
Ready for our sight lap Me on the left and Maso on the right
Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30am and the weather looked good after camping at the track over night. Maso turned up about 7:30am. We went and signed in for the race and found out that we were in the 12 to under 16 age group. After such an easy win last year, we were keen to step up to the quicker class. At about 9:30am we got called up for our site lap. Maso and I lined up to check out the ten minute loop that we will be racing on in our main event. We were both impressed with the track lay out but we knew the dust would be an issue. The event runs over two hours so we both knew it was important to get a good start, not to get caught in too many bikes and dust. Being a Pony Express each partner does only one lap at a time. Because I started the race first last year, Maso started first this year. The way we had the start this year was very different compared to last year. The riders had to sit backwards on their bike while their partner held their back mudguard. "Not something you would think to practice before the event". Maso got off the line in about 5th place. After passing a couple of other riders in the first lap Maso came in for the change over in 3rd place,with two 125's in front of him. Maso tagged my back wheel and off I went on my first lap. I held onto third place for the next lap. My change over didn't go as smooth as we would have liked, dropping us back a couple of positions. We managed to move back up to 4th place over the next few laps, even with us having a couple of small crashes. With 5th place rider, Jeremy "Jezza" Tyndall another one of our AJ's team mates pushing hard from behind, at one of the tight sections of the track my front wheel caught one of the tree roots and I went down. With the track being so tight through the trees, Jezza, couldn't stop and run over my back and helmet. When I sat up I saw that Jezza had stopped to ask if I was ok. I got up and back on my bike and finished the lap, with only 20 minutes to go Maso and I got one more lap each before the two hours was up and we ended up finishing 5th place overall.
MASO: The Pony Express was really good and heaps of fun. Jake and me went really well coming in 5th place. It was hot on the day and very tiring. Its good to get out and do something different besides motocross because its heaps of fun and a big challenge. Overall I thought we went really well and out pit changes were really fast.
It would of been good to have had a podium finish but we still had lots of fun and can't wait to do it all again next year.###
Jake Sheppard #180
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