The Newcastle Locals take it out!
It was a tight race between the Newcastle locals - Stu Adams, Scott Taylor and Chad Singleton of team Undecided and Matt de Belin, Matt Shields and Jeff Price of Team Crank in the final of the Paddy Pallin Adventure Race Series at Nelson Bay. It was a spectacular start to the Classic Course with over 525 people running from flag to flag across the Stockton sand dunes. Team Crank took the lead over the sand dunes but were overtaken by Undecided in the next bike leg along One Mile Beach. Team Crank had a steaming run around the Big Rocky coastline but were again overtaken when back on the bikes and ended up second to Undecided. Hot on the heels of these top teams were the BMX Bandits (Dave Ellis, Adrian Betts, Will Rob) who came in third. Unusually for adventure racing, the mixed teams did not feature in the top 5 of the overall placings. Australian Geographic Outdoor Magazine (Andrew Renwick. Tsalina Phang, Luke Su) won the mixed category and just made it into the top 10 with a ninth overall. Old Butt Slow where second and Up the Creek without a Paddle third. The female category was won by Blasko Era (Melissa Backhouse, Nicole Barwick and Bek Hall) followed by The Smiling Assassins and Only a Number. Whynot (Steve Williams, Craig Murell, Brett Russell) won the Novice Category, The Racing Rieses were second overall and first in the mixed category and the Mis-Adventurers took out the girls.