First off-road race! What a jol!

It was 08:30. Steam was rising from my shaven head and my dedicated pit crew, Sean, was laughing his ass off. I was at the start of the WCOC Swartland 200. It was damn hot inside the Leatt body armour, and I was sweating like a Arab at a American Immigration desk.

When Offroad2 Invited me to take part in the Swartland 200, I thought, 'Hell, why not!'. I had purchased a Kawasaki KLX450R three weeks prior, and seeing I had a plastic bike now, I could just as well give it a shot.

Getting kitted up:


Start baby, start!


Please idle on your own, chop!


Pit area:


Now, standing at the start, I wished this wasn't only but the tenth time I rode the bike. Any-case, you know what they say 'Pussies will never be heros'.

Steam rising from my head. This body-armour is flippen hot!



Got to say howzit to Weskus, Tau, Breekbeen and Socket and with the exception of Tau, I think I was not the only one a bit anxious to start.



They had rider briefing 10 minutes prior, and announced that the organizer of the Namaqua and his son were taking part, then they announced the organizer of Amageza was also taking part. Ai, damn. My fore-arms sommer started cramping in sympathy! As if I wasn't sweating enough already!!



And so we started. Row by row.

First riders off!


I had found myself in the 4th row, and had a smog of two-stroke from the front and the angry bark of two stroke behind me. Damnit again. I would have liked to start further back , so I could scope out how this race works. Anyhow, to late now. There's a time when one must just say 'F#k it', and just wing it.

And then it was my row's turn. From the start, there was about 30m, then a 90 degree turn left and another 80m before the track vanished into the trees. Seeing that four bikes would be fighting to get to that turn first, I decided to hang back a bit so I don't f#$% up and fall in front of the spectators.



And off we went. Around the corner, down the little straight and into a single track. It was twisty around trees, under branches, over logs and before hitting some more open track, a nasty 1.5m vertical embankment. At this stage I was still holding on to my position and the KLR was going strong. I could feel I had a death grip on the handlebars and tried to relax. Yeah, sure. 5km later after a small sandy section we hit a river bed. There was still water in altered with some rocks before we had to climb out. I heard some nasty two-stroke gnarls behind me, so I let some of the riders from the group behind me pass.

By this time my forearms had shut down. I could hardly open or close my hands. This sucked big time and I had to stop every 5 minutes to try and relax my forearms and get the blood flowing again. I knew I had to chill, but every time I stopped to rest my arms, I would be overtaken. Damn, I hated it. That and the first time navigating with little orange markers, (green and you're on the wrong track) didn't help the stress factor much.

The track was very varied. From single track through, under and over trees, to small dune sections, open farmland with some nasty ditches and more open jeep track. One loop was 37km long. By the end of the first loop I had lost about 30min having to rest, and I was sure I was dead last.



By the start of the second loop, I had relaxed much more. I knew I was most probably last, everyone was ahead of me and I could now just ride my own race. So I chilled down, and raced. And then it started to be more fun. My cramps subsided and I understood the nature of the track and how to navigate using the markers much better. I was picking up pace and seemed to gel better on the KLX. Near the end of the lap, through a section of trees I heard a whistle, a shout, and revving engine at the same time and pulled off the track, past came Tau flat-taps. Damn, that dude is fast.

By the end of the lap, my time was 30 minutes less than on lap one, and I was fully warmed up now. So I started to chase. I was going to do three laps before the time ran out, come hell or high water. And then it went wrong. At one section of track there was a climb up a twisty sand section between some trees. My front clipped a stump and I went down hard. I think my left upper leg hit something cause it was hurting like a b!tch. As I picked up my bike, a rider I had past just minutes before on a more open section past me. He must have thought, 'Ja, jy wil mos'. I got on the bike, started it, and went chasing him. I could feel my left leg was sore, so I couldn't stand, and had to sit and ride.

Through the trees, around the vineyard, over the dunes, through the trees, over the railroad (much easier with a plastic than on a DS bike!), past the silos, down the straight at 140km/h then back through trees, over the plowed land, across the road and into the pit area. My lap times was down to sub 50 minutes. I was really enjoying it now. I thought this would be the checkered flag for me, but the marshals waved me on. As I come cruising to my pits, there was Andy, AntonW, PureOrange, Sprocketbek and another rider on a Tenere. Was mighty good seeing them and I was lambasted for making them wait so long.



After putting in a JIC factor fuel of about two litres, I was off again. I had no idea where I was in the standings. I was lapped by only three riders, wereof Tau was one. So again I was pretty much on my own.

My left leg had subsided into a dull throb by now, so I could stand some section, which made riding whoops much faster. I passed more riders. When I got to the end of the loop, I could see the checkered flag ready. Damn, just as I got into the swing of things. I was ready for two more laps.

When the times came out, Tau had won with 6 laps under his belt. Weskus was 12th. I was 13th with four laps.

Holding my finishers medal proudly.


This was awesome fun. If you do a couple of off-road races and train for them, nothing I can throw at you with the exception of the dunes, should faze you on the Amageza.

I am definitely going to get my self a yearly MSA race-number, and do more of this racing.

Thanks to my wife, Sean and his family, and all the WD who came and supported me.