THE 21st GREAT RACE, JINDABYNE AUSTRALIA, 2013. by Tony Blain

The Best of the Best

It is always a buzz as you enter the location for the latest Great Race, many familiar faces and  potential new friends, welcome you in.Jindabyne was no different, as the new GREAT RACE HARLEY V INDIAN metal start structure came into view.Approx 150 Harleys, Indians and enthusiasts will gather around this impressive piece as the Event commences the next morning.The Station Resort is a great location, with everyone staying in the one location, with food and beverage all on site.Close to 20 of us rode down from Sydney, Warwick Ellis did a great route that gave us a wide berth inland, then south on back roads many of us had not ridden before. We overnighted at Binalong that night, a great place to stop over, and the steaks at The Royal Tara Motel are awesome.Other than a few drops of rain around Lithgow, the weather was great for our two day 750 km ride to Jindabyne.David REIDIE welcomed us all at the 8.00pm Riders Brief and advised the weekends activities.Thunder storms had been predicted since we left Sydney, however all was good when we awoke Saturday morning.Before the 8.30am official start time, a 20 second time trial in the car park managed by Leigh, was a cool start whereby start and stop electronic triggers measured how long it took you to ride the distance. Goal was to do it as close to 20 seconds as is possible.I was hopeless at 17.4 seconds, overhearing Leigh advising the growing crowd of observers the times as each competitor did their best. Many were super close, with the well known John STRAW succeeding in nailing it!This was acknowledged at the Saturday award ceremony.I hope this cool activity continues at future Great Races.Thereafter, Competitors filed out from the Start, at 1 minute intervals in wonderful weather and commenced navigating around, up and down, the awesome Snowy Mountains area, before stopping for lunch at Tooma.As the first riders pulled out from Tooma at their allocated time, the wind grew and before long the intense rain, gale force winds and at time hail, greeted riders heading back to Jindabyne.Fuel and wets ( if you bought them ), were fitted at the Khancoban servo, then a checkpoint at Thredbo, as the weather cleared.From Thredbo we enjoyed the neat ride back to Jindabyne and The Station Resort, for a nice warm shower. and a couple of “refreshments”. ride on Sunday took as around the flatter areas of the Snowies, with lunch at Dalgety, then the “rolling race” ( congrats to Indian man Dugal James and his son ) in the sector between Dalgety and Cooma.Fuel, and a tricky check point was next, before heading back to Jindabyne to complete the Event.Behind the scenes the organizers were busy adding up the scores, with the assistance of some wonderful new computer programming, then off to the  banquet dinner and presentations finale to this years Event.

And the winner is………….., HARLEY-DAVIDSON!!

At last Indian were second with convincing performances by many Harley riders and Teams, and a couple of slip ups from the Indian Team.The friendly rivalry continues, with HD closing the gap ( a little ), and Indian sure to come back at us, big time…..Congratulations to David REIDIE, Peter ARUNDEL and Warwick ELLIS for once again putting on an awesome Vintage and Classic Motorcycle Event.

Scoring data and Event details will be/are posted on www.great-race.com.au