On the safe side of the race tape, we all looked at each other!
In our excitement we squealed like the sopranos of the tabernacle choir "Who the bloody hell is the Honey Badger and where the heck did he come from?".
It felt like a very foreign hymn sheet that we were all singing from as the 2024 season got underway.
And the Honey Badger? Well, he was the riff in the prelude to the first verse of the symphony that was composed by the WHES riders over the Mildwood / MounTurner double header.
We'd heard a murmur from the Yeti, WHES Prez Craig Shaw, that a new rider was going to lob up on a Beta and give us all something to talk about. But none of us expected what we got.
Blasting out of the gate on a clapped out, several hundred hours old and basically stock 2016 Beta 300RR (with some 'hard' parts thrown at it - note the patented 'twisted twine' front grab strap), Darcy Edgar stayed on the noise at Mildwood: moto after moto.
With all the intensity of an Italian cappricio, his riding was lively and free in form.
He was the only rider to clear the tractor tire double this year (only one other rider has done it before) and he barely finished the day after launching so high over the concrete bridge beams he exploded his rear rim on landing during the crowd crushing Bent Rythm race.
Third on the podium at the end of Day 1, he'd set the tempo for what was to come.
With zero tools, zero spares and (apparently) zero mechanical ability (his words, not mine) a few of the WHES lads had to jump in to get him ready for Day 2 at MounTurner. The King of Traction, Neil Price, offered a rear rim; Reiju Australia's Sam Rogers, Luke Abbott and Elliot Clenton all pitched in to get it on the bike.
But sadly, he was excised from the orchestra early in the set.
"Just fangin' it on the clay, lost the rear end and my pinky ended up under the bar as we slid down the road. I got up and kept riding, but I felt like I had no grip on the bars. I stopped and looked......"
Asked if he and his awesome pit support (wife Jade) will be back in the scene post healing he said "When we are back form sailing and travelling, I'm keen to get set up on a decent bike and do it properly."
I asked him if he's prepared to pinky swear and he gave me a thumbs up.
If this weekend was a symphony, then Jakob Petrig was both our crecendo and our refrain. No thesaurus is going to help me with words to describe the Adventure On Store Racer.
What Jakob achieved over the weekend beggars belief.
Yes, we all expected big things from him, given the time he has put in on the bike over the off season. But nobody expected him to dominate the entire weekend and decimate the competition on both days: Mildwood and MounTurner.
He didn't just get up over the 2023 champion, Sam Rogers on both days. He also managed to stave off Neil Price at MounTurner; an environment where the King of Traction was expected to totally dominate!
In Motos 1 through 3 at Mildwood, he crossed the line minutes in front of Rogers, the Badger, Michael Vandenberg and Tyrone Turner.
At MounTurner; he was the ONLY rider to complete more than four laps, logging a total of six. YES! SIX.
Averaging about 43 minutes a lap, he was circulating nearly 10 minutes faster each lap than the opposition, riding round the mountain twice more than he needed to to win.
Who does that????
But glory was not just in Gold. It was everywhere across the Fergusson Valley.
Silver was dominated by Tom Lilly. An ex-motorcrosser from 4 years old, Tom made the jump to HE last year (hilariously on his MX bike) and instantly became enamored with the sport and the community.
After only a few rounds in bronze, and with a better bike (2022 podium finisher Ben Wallings Husky) he spent the summer training.
Backing himself he nominated for Silver in 2024, and already he has the lads trying to tempt him up to Gold. "Hopefully I'll get bumped up after this year if I ride well."
Go hard TML! Go well hard!
In Bronze it was a full mixed bag.
Luke Graham dominated at Mildwood with wins in all three motos, but he slipped off the top step at MounTurner when he drowned his bike, giving the lead away to Jordan Haworth, who was the better man on Day 2.
I reckon it must have been a ding-dong at Mildwood though, because there were only seconds in it at the end of each race!
How many movements in this symphony you ask? Brace yourself because there is still more to come - it was not all about Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Jade Lawson and Nancy Appleby both came to Roelands ready to spills some blood in the mud. Both dove into the double header, despite the fact that it was their first ever hard enduro.
Nancy literally cooked herself at Mildwood, having on the sort of kit she was used to wearing on the enduro circuit. But after being cleared out of Bunbury Regional late Saturday arvo she was back into it Sunday.
Jade Lawson went well hard all weekend and I figured she'd be the best to ask for a synopsis as a first time WHES racer "I'm coming back to myself now, days later. I had no emotions on the way home and I could not tell if I was happy, or sad, bewildered, proud or just plain traumatised. It's like the exhaustion was so overwhelming that I couldn't check in with myself to know how I felt about it".
I reckon this captures Hard Enduro perfectly. There are few other sports like it.
I was front row at the performance, and I got to see Jade dominate a hill (on her first attempt) that nearly broke a half a dozen riders that went before her.
When everyone else just pinned it "full send", she took a tempered approach (self preservation or just good training - she is still not sure) and tractored to the top.
To see that happen - well it just doesn't get any better.
And as if all that weren't enough....then came the Juniors!
Chase Lardner is new to the sport, but he wasn't new to the Mildwood track. Barely north of 15 years, the young lad tore a vortex through the Bronze class when the juniors came from behind in each of the three motos.
All I saw of him was a flash of green (signifying a Junior rider) and a spray of dirt in my face; race after race.
He buried me in the single trail out back. I have no idea how he went on the enduro cross section, but clearly, he went well as he was slurping a protein shake in the pits each time I came in.
Raised in the burbs of Bunbury, he has no pervasive pedigree. He just comes from a family that loves to ride; he and his dad get into the single trail every other weekend in the hills of the Fergy Valley.
Thus the terrain of Mildwood and MounTurner were oh so familiar to him. He was fortunate enough to have gotten a feel for it when he and his dad were called in to help out with a few obstacle 'refreshments' earlier in the year.
And like most young lads, he is not afraid of much: I saw him hit the creek drop off just before the timing tent out MounTurner and he did not hesitate for a second. Just twisted the wrist and launched it lap after lap. This lad will be worth a watch!
If every event on the WHES calendar is an orchestra, then the double header at Mildwood and MounTurner has to be their magnum opus.
A standing ovation from Twist: to one, to all.
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