Madness at Midnight Over the Weekend

Twenty two riders assembled themselves in Currumbin on Saturday night to participate in Jamies "MIDNIGHT MADNESS BIRTHDAY BASH", and what a night it turned out to be. The Bus left at about 10pm fully loaded with skaters, some of them not having any knowledge of where we were even going to be racing yet.

The racing format consisted of each rider racing in three heats with each heat to be run at a different track. There was three four man heats and two five man heats for each destination.

Everyone was given a number and then the heats were drawn out of a hat for each track. Points were awarded according to the place you came in your heat. The six riders with the least amount of points then competed in the final. At each destination everyone was given one practice run at each track before competing in their respective heats.

HEAT ONE

The first heat took place at Pinnacles. Great track, slow to start then a fast corner followed by a long flat straight then a long sweeping left to the finish line.

From the word go the atmosphere was electric with a lot of the racing being super tight. The awesome sound of skate wheels rolling on tar echoed down the hill in the night as each heats riders came searching for the finish line.
There was drafting going on all over the place, mainly on the flat straight out of the fast corner, it made some great racing possible with Hammo doing it beautifully to come from last to first and win his heat just beating Jeremy in what was one of the many tight races through out the night.

Ash, Jason, Steve, Hammo and Jake won the first round of heats and it was all back on the bus and off to destination number two.

HEAT TWO

Heat two was competed at Uppsie Downsies and was by far the best track to race at, with the whole track well lit up from start to finish.

Uppsie Downsies is a favourite track for a lot of local skaters. It starts off with a nice gradual decent then picks up speed very quickly through an S bend and then spits you out onto the home straight which is straight down and steep.

Heat two's racing was again awesome to watch, everyone was having a red hot crack at it which made it all the more exciting to be a part of. Steve, Ash and Jason were absolutely flying all night and won their heats again, with Jeremy and Kurt winnning the other two races. 14 year old Josh, Austin, Locky and AJ all placed second as they did in the first heat and with one heat to go there was plenty of chances for people to sneak into the top six.
We were all having a ball but secretly we all just wanted to beat Daddow down a hill just once.

HEAT THREE

The bus pulled up for the final heat which was held at Tierny. This track was a doosy to race on at night, approx one and half kilometre of winding road with some fast some slow but one thing is for sure it was not all lit up.....coming to the crest of the main hill on this track there is no light and it is as black as you can get so you just had to trust your instincts and hang on going about 65 to 70kmh...what a blast.

With everyone giggling like a bunch of school girls at the start line, about how freaky the dark bit on the run was, we were ready for the final heats for the night. Jason left everyone behind in his heat winning in very inpressive style by a very big margin and completing a hatrick of wins for the night. Arbi, Locky, Josh, Hammo, Kurt and Jake needed to win their final heats to have a chance at the top six but just missed out. All six riders skated consistently all night and helped the intensity level of each heat rise as the night went on.

Ash, and Steve smoked everyone again with Austin and a very impressive AJ taking out the other two heats.
So it was done, the bus was loaded up and it was decided that Uppsie Downsies would be the location for the final.

THE FINAL

Back to Uppsie Downsies and it was free ride to the bottom to wait for the finalists at the finish line.
The Top six riders to compete in the final were Steve, Ash, Jason, Austin, Jeremy and AJ who just blew a few of us away with how much he has improved over the last few months.

The night went so well to plan that the final was at exactly midnight and what a race it was, the speed they were carrying out of the final corner into the straight was unbelievable, the boys took it to another level in the final and it was an awesome spectacle.

Jason just got Steve with a draft to win by barely a board length with Ash and Austin bearing down on them both but left their charge a little to late. Well done to Jason, he is flying at the moment and earnt the win by skating hard all night. Ash let us all now hes coming with some fantastic riding throughout the night and Steve was at his brilliant best as usual.

FINAL STANDINGS

1- Jason 7- Lochland, Josh 13- Butternuts,Jack, Sammy Zane
2- Steve Daddow 8- Kurt, Hammo, Jake 14- Kristopher
3- Ash 9- Arbi 15- Lance
4- Austin 10- Pokey
5- AJ 11- Millsy
6- Jeremy 12- Jamie, Oden,

First second and third recieved trophies (pictured above) and cash, EARLY SKATE supplied safety gear for Jamies Midnight Madness encouragement awards.

AJ recieved new pads for just smoking the track up all night and showing what practise will do for you. And Jake won a helmet for great riding all night.

Boys what can i say, another successful outlaw event done and dusted. I had a great time and I know Jamie had an awesome 40th birthday and really appreciated the effort everyone put in and the turn out was perfect.
Thankyou to every one who turned up and hopefully there will be more events in the near future.
Special thanks to Pokey for organising the event, awesome job mate, Extreme Marble and EARLY for sponsoring AGAIN....And a huge huge huge thankyou to Mr Daddow. Showed us some great tracks during the day and inspired us all to push just that little bit harder and go that little bit faster.

The night ran smoothly and went to plan and the racing format was a great idea.
Keep Skating and see you all at the Skate Australia Premier in a couple of weeks.

By Butternuts