The supermoto scene in South Australia had been slowly growing since Tailem Bend Motorsport Park (TBMP) rose out of the ashes of the Mitsubishi testing facility at the corner of Dukes and Malley highways in Tailem Bend about an hour’s drive out of Adelaide. The Quad Riders Club of South Australia has been running quad drift and supermoto ride days since early 2010,providing South Australian supermoto riders with the opportunity to get out onto a track that is more suited to their machines than a full blown road race circuit.
In early 2011 the Atujara Motorcycle Club saw an opportunity to develop the sport through a few existing members that had SM bikes and began recruiting new members by offering a wealth of experience in developing motorcycle sports such as hill climbing and LC racing. With new members onboard to do the legwork, a SM committee was formed within the club and a plan hatched to really get SM cranking in SA. So far the results have been better than expected, numbers at ride days have risen from 5-10 riders to 40 at the last event, with more expected at upcoming ride days including those making the trip from interstate.
The most recent ride day at TBMP was held over the weekend of the 12-13th of November, and the big news was not just how many riders had come to ride, TBMP now has a 270m dirt section to make the course close to 1200m in total. Chris McArdle (general manager at TBMP) and his team had put in a huge amount of work leading up to the event to get all the dirt in and shaped, and even though there are a few areas for improvement, the track was great fun to ride.
Made of a clay material, the dirt section consists of 4 banked turns, a sweeping flat bend, a small jump and some bumps designed to unload the suspension. 2 of the banked turns also have formed inside lines which gives riders options when trying to get the upper hand over another rider. A lot of effort went into making the dirt as safe as possible and even though just about everyone who rode it fell over at some stage, most of the ‘tactical dismounts’ were low speed and more embarrassing than painful. The same couldn’t be said for the bitumen section though, there were a couple of trips to Tailem Bend Hospital on the day, the worst injury was a newcomer on a KTM 300 who re-broke a recently healed foot. Very notable was the one guy who wore nylons had a nasty highside and took the bark off both elbows and knees. It’s never fun growing skin back, but the incident really highlighted the importance of wearing the right gear.
The bitumen section was a very simple layout this time, as we have been trying to find a good compromise for both bikes and quads, but riders can look forward to something more technical and flowing at the next event, which is going to be a big one because…
Atujara are running their first supermoto ride day, the Atujara Xtreme Xmas Xtravaganza, or A-XXX as it has become known, on the 10-11th of December. Kicking off at 4PM on the Saturday, riding will continue until last light, Camping is available at the track and will be followed by a full day of riding on Sunday starting at 9AM. A-XXX is the Christmas breakup event not to be missed, it looks like another contingent of interstate riders will be coming over, so if you’re riding it will be a great chance to test your mettle against some great racers on a true supermoto tracks, and it should prove to be a great show for the spectators from the elevated vantage points lining the track.
