2020 North Brisbane Cup category winners declared

2020 North Brisbane Cup Results

Following on from the early afternoon report we brought you from the North Brisbane Cup, where we had reported that Jarred Brook had been quickest ahead of Jack Miller, Seth Qualischefski, Kye Thomson and Billy van Eerde in the early heats.

MotoGP star Jack Miller returned to his Dirt Track roots for a hit out at the North Brisbane Cup – Image Craig Mayne

The later sessions commenced with great racing in all classes. The juniors were riding hard and being inspired by the senior riders.

The 33 riders in the Pro 450 and Open MX were absolutely on fire. Lead changes and stellar rides from Billy Van Eerde, Kye Thomson, Jarred Brook and Jack Miller.

The schedule was on track until mid-afternoon when the weather pushed in from the south-west and then at 1530 the heavens opened. Close to 30 mm of rain fell in 30 minutes.

Predictably, this led to large bodies of water in numerous parts of the track.

Track workers battled the elements – Image Craig Mayne

The team at North Brisbane led by Andrew Brook (President) worked feverishly to remedy the situation.

Bobcats started digging drainage trenches at key locations around the track. Pumps were brought out to try and pump the deepest water off the track. People were even scooping up water off the track in an attempt to get the event back on track.

It wasn’t until 1645 that the rider and support crew were assembled to present a plan to move forward with the event. The front dog-leg was deemed too sketchy to ride and the decision was made to run long-track on the front, and still use the back dog-leg.

The quad bikers were asked to head out and do a few laps and then report on how they found the track condition. They also helped displace water off the track.

After the quads had been out the track went to effectively a long track event. As the back dogleg was subsequently deemed unusable.

The MX Open riders heat one came out with Ben Montgomery, Cyshan Weale and Seth Qualischefski tussling up front.

Jack Miller and Seth Qualischefski – Image Craig Mayne

The second heat saw Jack Miller, Dale Borlase, Ben McLaughlin and Billy van Eerde all pushing hard for the win.

Heat 3 saw Jarred Brook back on track Leading out Kayden Downing and Kye Thomson with Carl Hendrickson in hot pursuit.

Jarred Brook leads Kayden Downing – Image Craig Mayne

The club was able to get in a couple of more heats until the the 250cc Opens were on track and the heavens opened again. This ended with a small pile up at the far end of the track and the racing was halted. More discussions and frantic looking at the BOM Radar site followed as more storm cells moved around the locality of the track.

Out came the heavy machinery and the top surface of the track, which by now was very sloppy, was graded off. More time passed with the team frantically trying to get the track back in a safe operation condition. By 1905 the track had been cleaned off and we were again back racing.

Only a couple of more races were able to be run before the heavens opened again with more torrential rain and the forecast of more on the way.

After a huge effort by the organisers and support crew the sad decision was taken that the event would have to be abandoned.

Even though the finals were not held final placings were calculated on the races that had been held.

Dale Borlase, Ben McLaughlin and Billy van Eerde – Image Craig Mayne

Subsequently Billy van Eerde was declared the winner of the Pro 450 category while Jarred Brook took out MX Open.

The racing throughout the day was nothing short of stellar. The skills of the riders from the Division One kids through to the Open class was amazing. The racing in all classes was closely fought and despite the washout at the end, a great days racing was had.

North Brisbane proved again that they can deliver well run events that attract the top riders from around the country. Bring on the next North Brisbane Cup to be run in December 2021.

Billy van Eerde

“Was a good day at the Brisbane cup and the first two rounds while it was still sunny and dry were great. Track was nice and technical with some slow sections along with a little jump and it made for some great racing. Shame coming into round three it started to rain and by the end of the round it got canned right before the finals. Franko and Jack did a good job building the bikes for Me, Jack and Hooky. Other than that the club ran a great event and it was a good day.”

Jarred Brook enjoyed racing some of his old sparring partners after wrapping up pretty much everything there is to win in regards to Australian Dirt Track Championships in recent years, the 22-year-old plans to defend his titles here again this year before hopefully heading over to race the best in the USA again in 2022.

Jarred Brook

“The North Brisbane cup is always an awesome event. It’s always a pleasure to race with guys like Jack Miller and Josh Hook, they make the event unparalleled to any other. It’s a shame the weather wasn’t on our side and we didn’t get to battle out in the 20 lap feature race.”