It has been a successful season on the skis once again for the Spencer family who is now gearing up for one of the biggest races of the year in the Southern 80.
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Mark, Jess and Dannielle have all had varying degrees of success with Jess and Dannielle picking up medals on the skis while father Mark has been doing a great job in the observer seat.
"We had our first race with DoinDough with Jess and his new partner, and we went to Sydney and got a ninth overall at the Hawkesbury 120," Mark said.
"Then we went to Wentworth, which is one of the big classic river races. We got ninth overall in DoinDough, and then Danni won it in 60mph/hr class in WastinDough."
The success then rolled into the Victorian State Titles with Jess taking out two seconds and a first in the Marathon men with Mark as his observer while Dannielle took out a second-place finish in the 60mph/hr social class.
It was then off to Echuca for the Barry Beehag which saw the DoinDough team finish in eighth overall while Dannielle's crew finished first in their division.
"We weren't planning on winning or anything we just do it for fun," Dannielle said.
"We were just able to hold it on 60 the whole way and come away with the win."
The challenges have been made tougher with the Spencer's unable to train as much as they would have liked.
"Not having the lake to train on has been a bit of a pain," Mark said.
"They have gone to the gym a bit, but the only way you can get ski fit is to ski.
"Danni is in the 60mph/hr class, which means they are on it for long whereas Jess has to do different work because he is getting up around the 180km/hr speed wise.
"It has made it a little bit harder, but we have managed to get around it."
The family is now preparing to head to the Southern 80 in Echuca from February 7-9 and are looking to improve on last year's results.
"We got 11th outright there last year at what is still classed as one of the biggest ski races in the world, so we are hoping to improve on that," Mark said. "Now we are just waiting for the Southern 80 and see how it goes, and hopefully we all do pretty well."
While feeling good now, Dannielle admitted nerves might sink in as the event gets closer.
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