| Rockin' the Scott24 |
| Written by Troy Glennan | |
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We were here to WIN. If not, we were gonna fight for it – big time! The trip to Stromlo Forest was one that I won’t forget, with cameras rolling the whole way down the highway on Friday. When we got there, Toyota rally driver Neal Bates, (what a legend!) was kind enough to take us for a spin in one of his rally cars. Actually to say a spin is a lie, it was something that I am still struggling to describe. I am in total awe of what that man could with a car! A bit like what the boys and I like to do in the singletrack – except Neil had an extra 400 horsepower! After this little diversion, we were back to Stromlo in the Toyota RAV4's to hit up a lap of the course, hoping for grippy conditions as there had been some rain. It wasn’t to be, with only patchy puddles littering the course. As always, the CORC crew threw in some new trails and a few of the usual suspects. No great surprises then, so we packed up and head back to our accommodation for dinner. Feeling confident.
Give it a good crack Hamo did, being the fastest of the day until Sid Taberlay snuck past at the last moment, faster over a 17km course by 2 seconds! But by midday, it was time for the real race – what we were here for. Hamo was up for first lap and pulled out a scorcher. Matt Flemming took over for the second lap and kept us right up there. 3rd lap out was when traffic started getting thick. Adrian Jackson from Team Swell found a tight line on the switchback climb and sneaked past. From this point the Swell boys pumped out some seriously fast laps and opened up a lead on us into the night. Hoping our doublelap strategy (having proved successful at the Mont 24 hour) would help us come early morning, we soldiered through night, chasing a flying Team Swell. Team Yeti/ Gu consistently dropping further back through the night, out of contention. By midnight it was really a two team race between Swell and us. The local boys vs the Rockstars! Our plans to bring back the lead in the early morning darkness were foiled by anaccelerating Team Swell! A little local trail knowledge goes a long way (especially in the dark)! Finally, as the sun rose we started to claw it back. With a handful of hours to go we brought the lead down to just over 5 minutes.
We scared them! Swell stepped it up again and started to grow their lead. These guys could fly when they needed to! As the 24 hour mark passed, Swell had managed an impressive 29 laps, with lap times that never slowed.We placed 9 minutes down in second, which wasn’t the win we were after, but respectable all the same. To all involved with organising the weekend “thanks”, your support made riding easy.
See you at the Fling!
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On Saturday, Hamo and I were to ride the prologue. Hamo was going to have a real crack at it, and I planned get another good warm up on an unhindered lap of the course. 
