EXCELLENT entries have been received for the first Round of the King of the Murray – Arena Cross, to be held at Mildura’s Olympic Park Motorcycle Complex today.
Great fields will contest the top categories, with some experienced recent professional Supa X riders heading the bill in the Open or over 450cc Thumper or premier class.
Josh Spanos, from the SA Riverland, and Kane Scanlon, from Myrtleford, will need to use all their Supa X experience to stop Open Motorcross number three in Victoria, Swan Hill’s Brenton Keep, from reaching the top step of the podium.
Also in their sights will be local rider Josh Murtagh who rode splendidly in the December meeting.
Scanlon and Spanos are class acts in the short form of the sport and the Arena Cross will be a nice change of format for Keep, who has improved rapidly, like Scanlon, since their graduation from the junior classes.
The meeting has attracted riders from Adelaide, the Riverland, southern, western and eastern Victoria as well as a smaller listing from NSW plus the regular group of locals who enjoy the intensity of Arena Cross.
The new-look Mildura Arena Cross facility is enjoyed by all riders and lends itself well to the larger 450cc machines as well as the “Lite” 250cc class.
The new jumps, berms, tabletops, whoops and off-cambered corners, are a feature of the track, which, in its new format is much more technical than previous Olympic Park layouts.
The Lite class is expected to see some great contests as Spanos lines up again, on his smaller machine, but he will need to keep a careful eye on the “star” of the December meeting, Todd Jarratt, from Hay in NSW.
Jarratt is a class performer and like Scanlon, is a recent graduate from the junior grades, where he dominated in the top junior classes.
Jarratt showed a great liking for the Olympic Park facility and dialed himself in to the track from his early heats. He showed his great skill under the lights once the meeting was under way and just before the rain curtailed the final round of heats.
Joining Jarratt as a top contender will be Ouyen’s Nathan Trigg, who is again a junior graduate making his mark in senior competition.
Trigg should be most accustomed to the Enduro form of the sport given the rolling red sand hills of the family wheat farm, where he practises, but Trigg, even since he was a junior on a 65cc machine, has ridden the Mildura track with great skill.
His improvement in recent times will allow him to mix it hard with both Jarratt and Spanos, so expect some fireworks as they throw their lighter machines around the track.
The premier junior grade sees the best of the locals in solid competition, with Cody Jones and Levi McManus expected to be the pair to beat for the prizes.
Again, the junior categories are well subscribed so new riders could emerge to keep the named riders on their toes and spectators are always interested in the no-fear style of riding from the junior brigade.
Spectator gates will open at 4pm. Official practice is set to begin at 4.45pm and will run for 45 minutes where all grades will take a mandatory practice session.
Racing will begin at 6pm.
Sign-on for competitors and officials will be from 2pm until 4pm while scrutineering will be held concurrently until 4.30pm.
Olympic Park has full catering and with no BYO by law.
Bring a chair and sit on the comfortable elevated spectator bank.
Park Motorcycle Complex is straight out Eleventh Street west, through the last roundabout on Eleventh Street.
This article appeared in Saturday’s Sunraysia Daily 28/01/2012.
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