The Petrig Pack never opt for easy. It doesn't seem to be in their DNA!
It may have taken her a smidge under three and a half hours to complete a lap, but young Sienna Petrig put in a staunch effort to finish the Toodyay Terror 2.0 on the weekend before last.
There was never any question: Sienna was committed from the flag!
She was not going to let one single obstacle break her: not even the infamous water fall that has tightened the sphincter of most of the WHES riders that have gone before her.
And, true to the spirit of WHES, every single Bronze Class dust maker and back marker leaned in to help the young rider plough through the entire circuit, from start to finish.
"To be up against experienced riders! Full grown men! I knew I wanted to do a full lap to prove to myself that I was good enough to be a hard enduro rider. And I knew I needed to do the lap properly because I would only be cheating myself if I didn’t."
"I was so nervous because so many people were watching me ride. I wanted to prove that I could ride it, despite the challenge of being a short rider on a big bike!"
Unlike big brother Jakob, who is 185cm tall, Sienna suffers Duck's Disease being only 165cm short! That is 5'5" in the old language, but she still managed to muscle the 300 around the track.
Finishing the race was no mean feat for Sienna, but getting to the starting line was not that easy either. To get on the track and get amongst it at the WHES Toodyay Terror 2.0, the young rider had some hoops to jump through.
Because of her age, she needed to be endorsed by a MWA accredited instructor. To the rescue? Trial and Enduro skills legend and all-round nice bloke Neil Price. After coaching and mentoring Sienna for two days, Neil was happy to sign off on her ability; confident she would give the Terror plenty of what for and then some.
And that she did! Now she is looking to the 2024 season, keen to get out amongst it again next year!
In the heat of the moment, sometimes it is easy to forget that racing is as much hard work off the bike as it is on. A lot goes into it, long before an axle even passes under the green flag.
Case in point: it has been a little over a week on from TT2.0 and the Petrigs are already putting it all back on the trailer and heading east for the Wildwood Rock Extreme.
So committed to the event are all those that are supporting the WRD Junior Academy Rider, the administration of his high school actually rescheduled his Year 11 exams! That enabled the lad to get his schoolwork out of the way early so he could focus his full attention on this national event.
A high school that actually appreciates, and is willing to accommodate for the opportunities that dirt bike racing may present to riders like Jakob - what the?
And with that dad Josh and his fellow riding buddy have jammed their bikes, and a couple more, on the ute and in the trailer, slapped the "L" plates on the arse-end of the caboose and put Jakob in the driving seat to get the journey underway.
Others making their way across the dirt divide include 43-year-old Bronze Class rider Grant McCarthy, who's hard enduro goals are pretty modest when compared with young Jakob. Be that as it may, Grant still wants to have a good hard crack at the "REAL RACE THAT STOPS THE NATION".
"Moving up to silver this year was a big step. My goal was top 10 in Silver for the year, and I have made it. Pretty happy with that achievement! A huge shout out to Jakob Petrig for all the time out riding and always having the patience to stay with me on the track. To my 2 boys, Cooper & Tyler, thanks for being my number 1 supporters. And thanks, WHES for everything! Now for the biggest challenge of the year I’m off to Melbourne to take on the Wildwood Rock Extreme."
Wildwood is the event that really sucked me into the Hard Enduro scene. But, as a Sandgroper, I struggle to put the scale and nature of the event into a reasonable context when trying to describe it.
As words had escaped me (yes, it happens), I reached out to Greg Peterson. He struggled too......and then nailed it.
"While it may not pull in the largest amount of Hard Enduro competitors it certainly holds its own and attracts the largest crowd of spectators. After all, it IS the longest established spectator based HE race on the calendar!! Event organiser, Steve Braszell, encourages the public to attend and the location is perfect. It is only 20 mins from Melbourne airport."
"Wildwood is iconic!" A Gold Class description of this incredible event.
Personally, I think what makes Wildwood such an iconic event is, quite simply, the way the track descends from man-made chaos down into mother nature's irritable bowels, and back out the other side.
" You'll &*&$% love it, it's so much fun to watch".
As WRD Rider Wade 'the Bull' Ibrahim said in 2022 "Wildwood just doesn't let up!"
"There is not much time for rest at Wildwood. It sorts a lot of people out. You need to be strong in the mind and keep pushing."
This is an event that has something for every rider and everything for all of the spectators. And thats the very reason we too are making the trip over to watch the chaos unfold.
Yes, Twist will be at ground zero and we can't wait to give you a braaap by braaap breakdown of the event as it unfolds.
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