Motorcycling NSW is pleased to announce that we have had our very first Minikhana Come and Try Day this month held at racing mecca Mount Panorama at Bathurst. The program launched earlier this year by Motorcycling Australia and funded by Sports AUS is aimed at getting 4-19 years onto bikes and into clubs.
The team at Panorama Motorcycle Club with the MNSW Minibike Heroes trailer on hand, ran the event simultaneously to their final Motocross meet for the season. Running throughout the entire day in a cordoned off area of the club’s pit paddock supported by members Darren McGrath & Jarrod Moore, whose children both grew up with access to Minikhana in Sydney. When asked about how he felt about running two disciplines at once Jarrod, who was also Steward for the day said, “It provided me with a nice break to move between the two forms of motorcycling, Darren was the star of the day, having a chat with all the parents and recruiting them as new members!” We asked Jarrod, who has extensive Minikhana experience if he felt it was a prerequisite for running a Come Try day, “No I don’t think so. The activities and resources that were sent out were really good and self-explanatory. The parents and riders pick them up quickly and it almost ran itself.”
Panorama Club President Mick Kovac said, “It was good to see kids that had never ridden bikes before come, try and have a go.” When asked about the benefits for his club, Mick said, “It can only get more people involved in the sport, I think. It gets kids getting out talking to other kids at school and asking Santa if they can have a bike for Christmas. It’s great for their basic skills.” Around 30 children attended throughout the day, a mixture of both new riders and junior riders from the club, that being in a regional area, had never tried Minikhana before and were loving trying out the skills-based activities with their parents! The club structured the day so that with only one entry/exit to the area, no rider was allowed in without an adult supporting them wearing a hi-vis vest. Regarding all the new adults wearing hi vis vests, Mick said, “It was good to see all the parents and volunteers getting involved and we would love to see them come back and hopefully get some new faces, volunteers and maybe even officials for our club!”
The team here at MNSW have created a video from footage at Panorama for clubs to share with their members to showcase what a Minikhana Come Try day looks like which you can find here.
Remember the Minibike Heroes equipment is available to all clubs right across NSW to use for these types of initiatives so riders can ‘try before they buy’.
Minikhana Activation & Come Try Day information be found here or if you have any questions, please contact Claire – cb@motorcycling.com.au
A very familiar face in the Sydney scene for many years, Linda Cowper-Holdforth passed away suddenly on 25th September, aged 72. Although small in stature, Linda was a dynamo from the day she burst onto the Sydney motorcycling in the late 1960s. As a teenager, she learned to ride on a friend’s Triumph Thunderbird, and had a series of small Bridgestones as road transport. After quitting her office job she used her own 175 Bridgestone for courier work in Sydney. As a member of Annandale-Leichhardt Motorcycle Club, she became a keen racer in just about everything from Short Circuit (on a 250 Hagon) to drag racing, hill climbs and road racing, initially on a Triumph and soon after on a 600 Norton fettled by Sidecar racer Col Cheffins. On the Norton she raced at Oran Park, Amaroo Park, Surfers Paradise, Symmons Plains, and from 1970 at Bathurst. That year she competed in the Unlimited C Grade – a race with no fewer than 197 entries. She also tried three-wheeler racing as a passenger for Cheffins and John Macklin. When Historic Racing began, Linda was there too, riding her Norton from 1976 to 1984, when she retired from racing and started a family, raising a son and daughter.