Lisa "MRS B" Hoyle #18 Press Releases

SA STATE TITLES ACUSA PARK 28 - 29 AUGUST 2010

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 06:14 | Written by Darrell Knight |

What a fantastic weekend for Can-am, the Quad Riders Association of SA and the sport of quad riding in general. After a week of torrential rain in Adelaide, blue skies appeared and remained for the two day SA State Title Quad MX event held at the QRASA home track of Acusa Park on the 28/29^th of August.

I was entering in two classes this year, Women’s and Jumbos. Having hit the big 40 since we last caught up and having missed many rounds whilst travelling around Australia as a team member of the Can-Am Spyder Experience, I was hesitantly looking forward to getting back out on the track.

The women’s class turned out to be one of the largest classes for the weekend with 9 girls lined up on the grid. Although all the girls are good friends in the pits, once out on the track the competition is always fierce.

Rnd 1 saw me getting a crazy jump on all the girls off the start line, entering first corner in first place, but it was not long before the three top riders Jeanette Lindsay, Chloe Beer and Donna Newman politely overtook me. Chelsea DeBoo will be the one to watch next year and by the end of Lap 1, Chelsea smoothly sailed by to leave me in 5^th place. Oh well, I was still pretty stoked I gave the girls a run for their money at the start grid J

It seemed this was to be the pattern for the day and again, proving my consistency, I placed 5^th in all but one race where a 360 loop by Chelsea landed me in fourth place. Finishing the day in fifth place overall, I was pleased to know that I could still hold onto the back of the fast pack in the women’s class.

The Jumbo Junior class was again hotly contested. With only four quads on the grid and my little DS90x four stroke up against three fully worked 2 strokes, I knew this would come down to my ability to either out jump and corner the other competitors or use the DS90’s consistency to finish and keep my eye out for the usual 2-stroke break down.

Well, luck was not on my side on this one and I seriously had to fight every metre of the way to keep with the pack every race. Although they would all pull away from me up the steep slopes of the Acusa track, I continued to reel them in by outjumping and cornering them, to gain back ground where ever I could.

Entering the fifth and last race in equal third place, I had to place top three in the final race in order to podium. Once the gates dropped, it was seriously on and I can easily say that the first corner on that last race was scarier than any of my previous races in the 450 class.

Giving it all I had whilst trying to avoid the manoeuvring and wheel rubbing that was going on in front of me, I took a leap of faith on the ‘cone jump’ by riding over it whilst the other rider went around it. Holding it pinned on the down ramp and hanging off the back of the bike, I snuck by the other rider to enter third place in lap two. I was shaking and exhausted, but I kept the power on and managed to hold third place for the race and bring home the 3^rd place trophy in the Jumbo Juniors class against the odds.

Thank you to all my sponsors for looking after me and my DS90X AND DS450XMX and to QRASA for putting on such a spectacular event.

MrsB xmx

Last Updated (Tuesday, 31 August 2010 07:06)

QRASA ENDURO - PEAKE SA - 18th JULY 10

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 08:48 | Written by Darrell Knight |

Round 2 of the QRASA Enduro Series was held in light rain at Peake on Sunday 18^th July. The weekend was also a Camp away, so there were lots of people there and many prepared to enter the three hour Enduro on the Sunday. Bullet and I headed up with the truck and trailer on Saturday afternoon for a relaxing dinner with fellow riders at the Peake Hotel and an early night.... (well for some of us – ps Smitty was there )

The track, compared to last year, was not as technical or frightening for the uninitiated Enduro rider, but it was a sweet lay out with smooth, steep hills leading into deep drop offs and sections of awesome railing through tight sections of trees and dunes. The best bit about Peake is the dunes, sand as far as you can see rolling up and down tree covered hills across paddock after paddock. Sounds good huh! , yeah well it is.

Usually competing in the Iron (Man) class, this weekend I rode in the Teams section with fellow Spyder Experience staff member Trent DeBoo. Riding Teams mean that you complete a lap (or two), come in and touch tyres with your other team mate, who is waiting at the starting line with their bike running and they then head out to complete their lap.

The warm up lap was a great way of checking out the track conditions, warming up in the drizzle and making sure you had the right tyres and air pressure set up for the race. It was also an important way of learning the track, as although well marked, the social riding on the Saturday had created many well worn track lines which were not part of the Enduro.

This year the Peake Enduro loop took between 12 and 15 minutes per lap to complete with the fast guys and gals averaging about 11 minutes per lap.

Trent started off for our team and was clever enough to not get lost on the first lap unlike half the field. Coming in, in a fast time, I was ready and waiting for him and with a light tap to my bike, I was off and starting my first lap. With the track fairly worn in after 15 odd other riders had completed their first lap, I soon settled into a reasonable pace and concentrated mostly on dodging tree trunks and tight cornering.

New for this sand event Bullet and Andy from Austraco dressed my bike up with 22 inch GNCC front tyres and a bit of a trial idea with so 22x11-10 inch ITP Mud Lite AT’s on the rear. Mud i hear you ask, well guess what, they were excellent in the sand. Never bogging, and pulling me up all the steep sand hills with the greatest confidence I’ve ever had in sand. This combination was awesome, and I’m already thinking this is what i will be running for Thumbpump next year.

By the end of the three hours, we had both competed 7 laps each and were really happy with our performance. With Trent being built like a cage fighter, the two of us could not have looked or rode more different but we both felt like we had put in respectable lap times, and in the end, it paid off with us finishing in fourth place for the day out of about 9 teams.

Thanks to Austraco for my tyres and Trent for proving to be an excellent Enduro partner (he was bribed with Cheesecakes – but it was worth it ) J

Some great footage of this event is available on the Thumbpump home page. Enjoy

Last Updated (Tuesday, 31 August 2010 07:16)

SCOUTS RALLY -QUAD RALLY SPRINT -26 TO 28 JUNE 10

Friday, 02 July 2010 04:35 | Written by Darrell Knight |

Wow, what an event and a weekend to show case quads to moto sport enthusiasts, Australia wide!

Held in the Mt Crawford State Forest, Motorcycling SA arranged a three day demonstration Quad and Two Wheeler display to support Round 2 of the SA Rally Championships and Round 4 of the Australian Rally Championships. Initially designed as a “filler” for the crowds lining the Off Road Car circuit, it soon became clear that the Quads were likely to steal the show.

The three day event proved a massive opportunity to show case quads to the general public. I was fortunate enough to participate in all three days of the event which proved to be an excellent marketing tool for the sport of quads.

The weekend began at 7am on Friday morning with three quad riders offered the chance to attend the ‘media launch’ for the SA Rally event and put on a display for the cameras. I attended this section which included a 1 kilometre gravel section through the forest that enabled the media to take any footage they required.

The next event was a “special road stage” at Angaston Oval on the Friday and Saturday night which I again was invited to attend. We set the quads up as a display on the main oval and encouraged the public to talk to us and sit on the bikes. As part of this evening’s entertainment, the three of us also got the opportunity to race around a sealed road section, under lights, in front of a massive crowd. This was a real rush and the quads proved the real crowd pleaser , yet again.

Getting home at 12.30ish, I had 4 hours and 47 minutes sleep until I needed to get up and head back to the forest for Day 1 of the Quad Rally Forest Sprint.

Organised by Gerry Jongebloed from MSA, the 17 kilometre track was an absolute blast. Gerry did a fantastic job of mixing the sections up between serious technical forestry off road riding (mind those tree stumps) leading onto long sweeping gravel road sections which were part of the Car Rally track. These road sections then darted back off into the forest section and then opened out into a huge media and spectator area crowded with thousands of people before ducking back into the forest. In the forest sections, spectators were camped, rugged up around fires but were keen to jump up and cheer us on every time we came past. We were fortunate enough to get 2 sighting laps and 3 race laps in on Saturday and 4 laps in a row on Sunday. The average lap time was approx 20 minutes.

I had a fantastic time and will add more media photos to my story as they become available. The organisers were very impressed and at one point it was remarked (tongue in cheek}, that quads would not be invited back next year as we stole the show...... J ……

Video footage of the course can be viewed at www.ThumbPump.com and further information on the event, photos and comments about the quads can be viewed shortly via the rally car website at www.sarallychampionships.com

Thank you again to all my sponsors, this event truly showcased all your products.

My Can-am pink riding gear gained a lot of attention and made me easily recognisable out on the track and the Flexx Bars were again a big point of interest to many spectators.

Of Course, as usual, my DS450xmx performed brilliantly over the three days.h

MrsB xmx

ys.

Last Updated (Monday, 05 July 2010 07:08)

2010 Tattersall's Finke Desert Race

Friday, 18 June 2010 05:29 | Written by Mick@47 |

If my teary eyed Thumbpump story had you thinking "wow...she's a bit of a woose isn't she?" stay tuned, because the Finke desert race had me reaching for the full box of tissues.

Now you may be thinking....... Well why does she keep doing this? ... and as soon as I know, I will pass it on, but there I was again arriving in Alice Springs for another of Australia's toughest Desert races.

Feeling like I recovered well after Thumbpump, I was pretty confident that my body would see me through the gruelling event. Mentally however it seemed I had some work to do still, with my nerves making me shall we say "a little sensitive" in the week leading up. A new and controversial numbering system for Finke this year meant that I was unable to use my usual race number of #918, so for this event only #915 was plastered all over my quad.

So there I was out on the line for Prologue with 491 other die hards. Although my time was not great, it was good enough to have me lined up for day 1 and blitzing the boys of the line to take the lead in my row out through the gates and into the desert that would make or break me.

The surface changed dramatically throughout the 229 kilometre journey down to Finke. The prologue track was nicely graded but once you hit the open land, the terrain went from bright dense red soil, to slate and rocks, onto gravel and sharp faces, through to deep sand, and eventually into four stretches of some of the deepest bull dust you will ever see, let alone be expected to ride through. In between these sections you were faced with kilometres of whoops stretching as far as the thick dust would let you see, which were broken up by, well, more kilometres of endless whoops in swirling red dust. But don't worry about me too much, I did get rest... oh yes... there were two fuel stops of 30 seconds each which were nice and relaxing, so you no... can't complain really.

Anyway, I made it to Finke in 3 hours and 55 minutes with my gorgeous new pink black and white Can-am gear sporting an overlay of orange dirt now matching the local landscape, my DS450, everyone else's bikes and gear, all the cars that travelled down to Finke, everyone's swags and our Can-am quick shades (do you get the gist that it was fairly dusty?)

Mick from 47industries was kind enough to tell me "oh yeah you made it easily"... but the reality was that I made it by the skin of my teeth with less than 5 minutes up my dust filled sleeve. But I did make it in time, and so many didn't. I was really happy and felt physically and mentally sound (some may differ).

Having seen Bullet at fuel stop one, I knew he would not be waiting for me at Finke but I was fortunate enough to have the Can-am X team and 47industries looking after me and my bike. A big thanks goes to Adam from QuadSquad and Rick Beer for looking after the maintenance on my bike that night at Finke. Awesome (Colin) Lawson's pep talks were invaluable and Tiff and Charlie did a great job of forcing toast and drinks down me.

Day 2, we were all up bright and early packing up and making sure the support team could get a good head start back to Alice. I headed up to the start line with my fellow riders at 9.30am for riders brief and then hung around pretending I didn't need to go for a wee every 5 minutes for 3 hours until my starting time finally arrived at 12.58(ish).

Off again down the race track, and my original goal of making it back in 4 hours was quickly replaced with ‘just making it'. I don't know what was in my camel back on the way down, but I felt like I was on a different track on the way home. In reverse direction, day 2 began with the whoop sections first. They seemed easier the day before going the other way, but by the 50 kilometre mark I was already physically shattered. I kept going though, but I was really starting to worry that my speed was not fast enough to get me there in time. Arriving at my first fuel stop 86 kilometres later, I acted tough for the refuelling team and headed back onto the track for another hour or so. Reaching my final fuel stop and seeing Bullet waiting with the boys (including one dressed as Spider Man) to refuel me, a few tears busted out but I kept going.

As I left the refuelling area and rejoined the track for the final 81 kilometres I remember yelling out "thanks Spider Man." Five minutes later, I passed a girl on the side of the track shouting encouragement dressed as Wonder Woman. I remember yelling out "thanks Wonder Woman" and then thinking to myself "have I lost it? Did I actually just thank a couple of super heroes?" I kept going anyway.

Coming in across the line, I made it in time "Whoo Hooo!" At 3 hours and 55 minutes again, I cemented my place in the team as the most consistent rider. My time down and back was only 27 seconds apart which is amazing over such a long distance. It was great to have all the support team waiting at the line and I was so glad to see Mick, Tiff and the 47industries control room ready to take me back home.

I drove the bike straight up into the trailer, turned it off and cried like... well... like a girl. As Mick said "I had a tough day at the office".

Thank you to all my sponsors for your continuing support and to the entire Finke Desert Race support team for helping me out throughout the event.

MrsB xmx