VERI ran the 2nd Hopetoun GP over last weekend. Lots of sun, sand and 30+ year old Enduro bikes everywhere - it was a blast!

Saturday was an early start (5am) to get up there by late morning so that I could join in the Saturday arvo practice session on the old TT600.
It had been some time since I had been out in the desert, so it took a bit of learning to get my sea-legs (sand-legs?) back again. I did manage to get very 'close and personal' with the sand on numerous occasions, usually by dropping the bike in deep sandy corners.

The practice session consisted of going through sign-on and scrutineering, and then taking the bikes 18kms out of town to the Dattuck dune area for a chance to sample the terrain. I managed about 60 minutes before deciding that I needed to save my energy for the main event on Sunday. It did give me a chance to get a bit of a rhythm going, but I was still feeling pretty awkward in the tighter corners.



Saturday night was very chilly, and we awoke to find a layer of frost over all the bikes in the park ferme area. This disappeared as the sun warmed the air, and we were soon ready for the 9:30 start to the ride. Groups of 3 set off every 60 seconds as a bunting rope was dropped by the starting officials.







It was a quick transport section back out to the dunes again, via a couple of detours to play in one of the deep culverts that surround the paddocks up there, and a short section of deep sand into the back of the dunes area. The refuelling drop was all laid out waiting for us, so a quick top-up was done and then it was full-on into the main 70km loop.



The loop started with a short climb up one of the three optional paths into the sand hills, each looking fairly simple until you discovered that the deep sand kills off any forward momentum as soon as you start the climb. I was okay on the first run, but took a few attempts on the later loops due to the sand being made even deeper by many bikes struggling and digging trenches.









Then it was time for a bit of a play in some large sand berms and out into the scrub via deep sandy tracks. The paths were well arrowed, and the course had a good mix of fast and slow sections to keep us on our toes. Many of the tracks were normal car width, and encouraged a fast pace to keep the sand from dragging the bike off-line. There was a hard/soft option on one of the sand hills partway into the course, with many trenches being dug near the top by bogged bikes.





Some of the sections were labelled too - from memory there were things like 'Sand = Seizure' on one of the long sandy straights, 'Helmet's Hill' on a big dune in the middle of the loop, and 'Wal's Weaving' on a tight twisty single through the scrubby trees near the end.



Just when you thought the loop had finished as the refuelling section came into view, there was another detour to throw some more deep sand into the equation and to ensure that you were completely stuffed by the time you got back to the jerry cans. As the day progressed, the sand became deeper and more of a challenge with each loop due to the number of bikes churning it up.




There were a few breakdowns on the course, as expected in any motorsport consisting of older machines, but I think everyone had smiles on their faces regardless.


I tip my hat to the guy on the big twin-cylindered BMW Dakar bike - that must have been a real challenge to keep upright in the deep sand.



The track was closed at 2pm to stop anyone from beginning new loops, and the bunting and arrows began to be collected. I finished the day with 3 loops under my belt, and was very pleased with the performance and reliability of the TT again.

All in all, another great event put on by VERI - well worth the long drive, especially if you like trying different terrain to what is around Melbourne.

Great report and pics, Pete. Thanks.

Who took the shots?

Great report and pic's, disappointed I missed this event.

Serge C wrote:
My other half came along for the weekend as support crew, as did our young dog.
The dog had a ball playing in the sand and learning how to cope with noisy bikes screaming past.

Excellent report Pete and some awsome pics too. Sounds like you did very well to punt the big 600 around in such deep sand for 3 laps!