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 This years Thunderbolt Rally saw a change in location from Stroud to Dungog, and, although there is not much distance between the two towns, there was a very noticeable difference in the locals participation in the rally, now, I might be doing the residents of Stroud an injustice but the town always seemed to be devoid of locals whilst we were there, and I am sure that very few of them attended the rally venue itself. Dungog, on the other hand, seemed to have got involved in the rally in a bigger way, and judging from the amount of local sponsorship on the demolition derby cars that were parked on the footpath all round the pub I am guessing that a big percentage of the businesses in town had a bit of input somewhere. The number of locals out and about on Friday night was perhaps due to Dungog having a slightly younger population than Stroud, but, it was at the rally site on Saturday that you could really see the difference with a lot of people not wearing leather vests and Johnny Rebs in attendance. |
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| In addition to the Demolition Derby there was a Motocross event scheduled on site for the day, and whilst waiting to get my clearance to enter the track, I noticed that quite a few locals ranging in age from kids right through to not so young adults, were getting day licences in order to participate, plus many of the local clubs had set up in the various showgrounds catering facilities thus ensuring that you did not have to go very far to get a good feed. Also apparent, given their previous behaviour at a number of recent biker related events, there was a very low key police presence, which refreshingly harkened back to good old sensible policing, and, in my opinion, those police involved on the weekend more than deserve congratulations for their attitude towards the rally, as I said, a refreshing change. |
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| All the usual events were on during Saturday, and there’s no doubt that the winners of the various categories were well pleased with their trophies or cash prizes, because, I can tell you one thing that’s for sure, the AMC are not shabby when it comes to rewarding contestants for the quality of their work and time involved, however, sadly I did see a blatant example of penny pinching, when, a few people who were obviously too tight to splash out for a ride in the helicopter, attempted to paraglide over the rally site by hanging onto the vendors tents when a huge windstorm blew up during the evening, one can only hope, that, after the wind had died down, the stallholders gave those cheapskates a severe rap over the knuckles for trying to take advantage of them during a crisis. |
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| Crusty |
