Students and Old Scholar at SA Motorcycle Road Race

While many Trinity families were hunting for chocolate eggs over the Easter weekend, two current students, Georgia (Year 12) and Xayvion (Year 7) as well as old scholar Paul van der Heiden (1997) made the journey to one of the country’s premier motorcycle racing events at McNamara Park Raceway in Mount Gambier. Not only did the weekend mark the start of South Australia’s racing season it also hosted the annual Easter Cup which attracts racers from nation wide to compete at this 2.4km long circuit which boast 110 years of racing history.
 

Georgia unveiled her freshly designed #22 Yamaha R3 and put down some solid lap times in what proved to be some very testing rain-soaked conditions to qualify in the middle of the pack with fierce competition in front and behind in both the limited class as well as the hotly contested super sport 300cc category. Whilst constantly hassled by wet weather racing, Georgia battled consistently against highly experienced local and interstate riders making convincing passes at turn one and showing off impeccable top speed drafting along the undulating back straight and ended the weekend with a solid standing to the start of the season.

Xayvion piloted the MSA owned bike #7 bLU cRU to contest the South Australian Junior Cup as well as his own bright yellow #333 Yamaha R15 in the Junior state titles. Facing some stiff interstate competition in bLU cRU Xayvion qualified in position three on the grid and rounded out the weekend with a third, second, second and second in his respective races to take home second place overall. While the #333 bike was less competitive than he would’ve wished, Xayvion battled well putting down a number of PBs and reaching lean angles low enough to drag an elbow around pine tree corner.

Old scholar Paul van der Heiden continues to be a well-respected personality in the road race scene of South Australia and on track consistently rode with the front runners in the superbikes category astride his 1000cc #76 BMW. Finishing only just outside the podium positions during the state titles round, Paul was able to pull something special out of his bag of tricks for the Easter Cup feature race to take out third place whilst keeping pace with first and second and lapping a whopping two seconds faster than his next closest competitor.

With round two coming up at the international Tailem Bend circuit in July and a round in Phillip Island in September, they’re already anticipating a nail-biting season which is due to finish up at the local Mallala Motorsport Park in mid-November.

Source: Daniel Amoy