The 2023 staging of the Corbett’s Group North Brisbane Cup meeting this Saturday (December 9) will mark the end of the dirt track racing season and it looms as a grand final bringing together stars of various disciplines of the sport to do battle for honours.
This meeting is the most significant on the North Brisbane Junior Motor Cycle Club’s annual calendar and again this year it has attracted a classy line-up striving to add their name to the honour roll of winners.
Just who should be the headline act among the entrants probably depends on which discipline of motor cycle racing you follow as there are stars from road racing, speedway and dirt track regulars, while some who have made their mark on the world stage will be racing against successful domestic racers.
Moto GP rider Jack Miller again returns to where his racing days started, on dirt, and he never goes anywhere to just make up the numbers.
Also from road racing are Harrison Voight and Cameron Dunker who last weekend were battling for honours at the final round of the Australian Supersport Championship at Tailem Bend.
Dunker turned 16 this week and this Saturday will be the first time he has faced senior opposition on dirt.
The Cup meeting will mark a return to racing at their home track for two riders who have left a significant mark overseas.
Jarred Brook became the first Australian to contest the World Flat Track Championship this year where he finished a highly creditable sixth racing against riders from all over Europe, the USA and Argentina.
The other returnee is Max Whale who has spent several years in the highly competitive AMA flat track season.
Also part of that American competition is New South Wales teenager Tom Drane and he and Whale will be well suited to the longer races that will be a feature of the meeting on Saturday.
Heat races will be raced on both track (an oval circuit) and dirt track (which has an added right hand corner) over eight laps with the big guns in the Pro 450 class finishing off with a 20 lap final, with other classes having ten lap finals.
Most of the speedway regulars started out racing dirt track, at North Brisbane, so they will feel right at home.
Ryan Douglas, Kye Thomson and Zaine Kennedy have all raced overseas and they will feature alongside Declan Kennedy and Dale Borlase.
Many of the best dirt track riders in Australia at present are only teenagers, or in their early 20s and the likes of Billy Van Eerde, Cyshan Weale and Seth Qualischefski should be prominent among the Queensland entrants.
From New South Wales, 17 year old Cody Lewis has two Australian Championship wins to his credit, and along with Brayden Gay and Reid Battye is expected to be battling for honours.
A Womens class, Dirt Track Sidecars and the ATVs will all have either reigning or former national champions in their line-ups which should ensure quality racing across two, three and four wheel action.
There are also three classes of juniors as part of the programme, again with some championship winners amongst the starters, and also an Over 40s class who although they may be slightly slower than the open class invariably match them for their intensity when their races start.
It will be a big day of action starting at 9.30 am with the racing finishing under lights in the early evening.
For more information contact Zac Afeaki on 0422 974998
