Despite several of the elite category backing up from racing as the National Championships, the dust was still flying as they headed straight out and up Secret Valley in reverse.

New national champion Nick Chisholm took the first lap from Stevie Roberts before the burn of Saturday's effort took its toll.

Sadly Stevie didn't do his maths right and arrived in time for a fourth lap, clocking up a mammoth 54:57 of racing as he took first place. Nick and Ben Clark played a much smarter game, missing the cut off for that fourth lap, coming in second and third respectively, leaving Stevie to slug it out on his own solo adventure.

Division A racers were giving nothing away with the lead changing riders to the bitter end. Steve Mair emerged victorious and a sprint finish sorted out Alex Day (second) and Joel McIntyre (third) by a second. Back down the Division A ranks ol' timer Marty Siddons gave spectators a thrilling sprint finish with elite rider Nathan Watson, who made a return to twilight racing this week.

As predicted, Divison B had a shake up at the top. However, there was a slightly larger margin for error than anticipated with Mick Allen holding 16 seconds up on Terry Worboys and Mathew Mackay.

Ethan McDonald is absolutely dominating Division C with another win while Nathan Sharples (2nd) and Jeremy Deasey (3rd) both have that top possie in their sights.

Happily, today saw a cluster of recreation riders on the start line with new and familiar faces waiting patiently. Thank you to our recreation riders who forfeited some of their funline fenceline loops to be pit crew and first aid officers. Congratulations Fiona McMillian on your three fenceline loops. Amanda Shaw was second place and Jasper Thistle third.

Our dirty dirtmaster B group rode a 3.5-minuteish loop around the sacred tree taking in some of the best fenceline has to offer. Jonah Sylvester came up trumps with eight solid laps. Harry Meppem equalled this eight laps but rolling over 2:46 behind and Andy Considine raced into third with seven laps.

The dirty dirtmaster A group had a slightly more challenging six to seven-minute loop with more climbing but including the bonus "Big Dipper" at the bottom of fenceline to make up for this. Ben Shaw, who despite feeling a little under par, rode six laps into first position. Jock Barwick just missed out on getting out for another lap clocking up five laps with Seth Allen coming in third, also with five laps.

Thank you to all you crazy riders and parents for coming and sharing a midweek hit-out. Many thanks to our intrepid volunteer rego and time keepers Mel, Kirsty, Noel and Sharna had their race faces on helping 83 racers out onto the trails. See you Wednesday 5.30pm rego and skills sessions with Marty. 6.15pm rider briefing and race start.