As voters flocked to the polls on Saturday, the 2010 Australian Moto Trials Championship kicked into gear at Thunderbird Park in Mount Tamborine.

With the sun finally breaking through after two days of rain, it was New Zealand import Jake Whitaker, who despite a slow start to the day, managed to finish strongly taking the lead ahead of Sunday’s final battle.

“I was third after the first lap, and had a few unlucky point scores,” Whitaker said. “Going into the second lap I felt much better and it showed in my results – the course here is great, very similar to New Zealand, so I’m quite comfortable out there.”

Brisbane local Boyd Willcocks began the day in strong form, leading after the first lap, however, with Whitaker finding his rhythm, Willcocks was forced back into second place by the end of the day.

Reigning champion Colin Zarczynski, struggled in the tough conditions in the first lap; however, improvement in the second lap saw him secure fourth place.

Zarczynski is one of four riders in the Open Solo class, and three in the Women’s class, using the Championship as preparation for the 2010 Trial des Nations – the Olympics for Moto Trials, to be held in Poland in less than a month’s time.

In the Women’s class, Canberran Michelle Coleman, has taken the lead ahead of 2009 Champion Kristie McKinnon.

As ‘Trials Week’ begins, one of the event organisers, Robert Eyers, said that despite a fair bit of rain things were positive to start the event.

“With all the rain we had on Thursday night and Friday, it did make the lower grade sections more difficult that we’d planned,” Eyers said.
“However most of the riders seem to be getting through and with the sun shining things should be spot-on for Sunday’s competition.

“When we first heard about the date of the election, we were a bit worried, however we’ve still received more entries than in 2009, and we’ve even had a quite a few spectators coming by to check out all the action.”

The Australian Championship will be followed up on 25 August with a trial at Esk, and an Arena Showcase event at Carrara on the Gold Coast on 28 and 29 August as part of ‘Trials Week’.