Staged by the Hunter Motor Cycle Club, and sponsored by Chris Watson Motorcycles and Honda Australia, the meeting attracted riders from as far away as Townsville and Melbourne.
The feature event, the first staging of the Rod Allen Memorial Pro Open Trophy, was as an exciting race as fans could hope for with teenager Jarred Brook passing Damien Koppe on the last corner. The Queensland 1-2 was followed by local teenager Mackenzie Childs in third and Luke Richards fourth.
Brook actually scored a clean-sweep of his three classes leading home Childs, Richards and Koppe in the Pro 450 final, while in the Pro 250 class Brook beat Boyd Hollis, Bayley James and Bailey Spencer.
Meeting organisers added a Shoot-out to the program with the top 12 riders who had qualified for the Pro Open final engaged in a series of match races where the winner stayed on the track to take on his next opponent.
Damien Koppe won an exciting finale to the Shoot-out beating Paul Caslick – significantly the two oldest riders in the competition outdoing the entire younger brigade.
Other 2-wheel winners in the seniors were Paul Caslick (Over 35s), Jake Farnsworth (Pre ’90 machines) and the very impressive Sally Smith who beat Kelly Brown and Bree-Anna Etheridge in the Pro Womens Open.
The first staging of the George Watson Memorial Trophy for dirt track sidecars resulted in a 1-2 finish for two teams from Gunnedah – with debutants Jim Jobling and passenger Nathan Damir outpointing Brett Pearce and passenger Andy Harrison.
Junior racing again showed that the future of the sport is in good hands as many talented youngsters provided their share of exciting racing.
Billy Van Eerde from Singleton was again the standout in the older age brackets winning two classes and beaten by Harry Maxwell from Proserpine in the other, while Kye Andrews of Taree was also prominent.
Interstate riders won six of the ten junior classes with Gold Coast duo Jett Kubelka and Harrison Voight each claiming two class wins and Brisbane rider Glenn Nelson also a winner.
Luke Bush from Kurri Kurri and Jayden Holder from Kempsey scored class wins.
A special mention must be made of Damien Koppe and Kayden Downing from Townville who undertook the long drive south for the meeting. They picked up Harry Maxwell and his bike in Proserpine and then had to detour inland to get around the Rockhampton floodwaters. Each of the trio was rewarded with impressive displays.
