AUSTRALIA’s biggest motorbike race of the year kick-starts this weekend in Mildura, July 1-3, and Swan Hill’s Luke Harrison is gearing-up for his third 2016 Penrite Hattah Desert Race. “It’s good fun. It’s a good race. It’s very well set-up and the Northwest Victorian Motorcycle Club run a good show,” Luke, from Gladfield, said.
Luke will be competing in the 251cc-450cc 4-stroke class, which is a gruelling 37 kilometre test of rider and machine, which goes for 8 laps (all up which is about 304 kilometres).
“Eight laps can be a bit of a challenging race. I always enjoy a challenge,” Luke continued.
“It’ll be about a 45 minute lap for me but the pros should do it in about 35 minutes I reckon. I love Hattah for the reason that you can race against the fastest. It’s pretty cool being there at the Prologue and then even at Scrutineering there always there willing to have a chat with you,” he said.
Luke finished around the 180th mark and hopes that this year he hopes to crack the top 100 mark: “That would be awesome but we’ll see how we go. I’ve been doing a fair bit of sand riding to prepare so hopefully I can get up there this year,” Luke, who competes in the 2016 Yamaha Victorian Off-Road Championship, said.
“I would really like to thank Honda Highside and my girlfriend for all their support,” Luke added.
Scrutineering for the 2016 Penrite Hattah Desert Race takes place between 4-8pm on Friday night at Quandong Park Sports Reserve at Red Cliffs, whilst the Junior Penrite Hattah Desert Race will rev into action on Saturday, July 2 at 7.30am whilst the Senior Race takes place on Sunday, July 3 at 9.00am.
For further information on the 2016 Hattah Desert Race please visit: www.northwestvicmcc.com.au/hattah.