Battle of the Streets Paeroa 21st February 2010

Because of the workload in the last 2 meetings and the BEARS Sound of Thunder being the following weekend I had no Classic bikes for Paeroa, which felt strange.

The Ducati 749 was entered in the Supersport races and the 999 was in the F1, King of Paeroa and BEARs races. Eight races was a bit of a holiday for me but we were kept busy with bike problems and my duties as Riders’ Rep.

The weather didn’t disappoint with the customary cloudless skies. This must be one of the only race meetings to have never had a wet day in its history.

Practice went well and we qualified on the front row for all but the F1 races and our main threat in the BEARs, Peter Tanner’s Aprilia, dropped a valve.

In the first Supersport race I was running a close 4th and getting ready to make a pass for the podium when the 749’s clutch failed. The KTL boys did a quick swap to a spare clutch for the 2nd race. It made it to the end but it was starting to slip in the closing laps. Fourth, under the circumstances, wasn’t too bad.

In the King of Paeroa I was running just behind Tony Rees and Ray Clee and again as I was contemplating a pass the gear lever clipped the curb and broke off. I managed to keep my spot by doing the last 4 laps stuck in 3rd gear.

The F1 race was a disaster as well with 8 out of the 14 teeth breaking off the front sprocket on the start so another DNF.

The BEARs race went to plan leading from the start to finish with no real pressure so there was time to entertain the crowd backing the big Duc into turns and sliding her out.

We prepared for the last round of races only to have the meeting abandoned due to the number of crashes and lack of time. A couple of non-racing accidents off-circuit also stretched the ambulance resources.

The next meeting is the BEARs sound of Thunder in Christchurch. What could possibly go wrong there?!

Thanks to Pommy Dave and both Rob Taylors as well as Kerry of KTL for their help and support - it’s greatly appreciated.

CMRR Hampton Downs 13th-14th February

This was to be the first bike race meeting held at the new Hampton Downs track. I’m not sure whether we were privileged or guineapigs used to find the problems and there were a few.

The Empire Star was the best bike to have out of my 3. She just suited the track perfectly; her willingness to turn tight and change direction quickly and the lack of bumps made her the most fun bike to ride. I had some good dices in the early laps of the races with Ginger Malloy on his Bultaco. It’s so good to see him back on a bike and going quick. The challenge from Mike Farrall started well but his old bike lifted the barrel off the cases and his new bike broke the gearbox on the starting rollers. It was the end of his trip and it wasn’t the way we hoped it would end.

The Goldstar still had the long stroke motor and with the shorter straight we were closer to the front guys. The normally faultless handling was upset with a front end patter on the sweeper (I later found out Dave Cole was having the same problem). I was dicing with Terry Martin for 3rd and 4th positions but in the Sunday race I pushed a little too hard into the sweeper and lost the front and crashed. Neither the bike nor I was badly damaged, sorry Neville.

The Commando races were the reverse of Puke with Steve Bridge on the Ducati unable to stay with us on the tighter track. We won all our races and set some quick lap times. Steve and I were both entered in the Post Classic races as well but had sat the early races out to save our bikes. The last race of the weekend was the Post Classic and we both lined up for the start, Steve was on the back of the grid and I was 13th.

Surrounded by big pre ‘86 Jap bikes it was a nervous start but at turn 1 Steve was in the lead and I was 2nd. By turn 2 I had the lead but there was a problem. Every time I shut the throttle to enter a corner the rear of the bike chattered really badly. Steve was pushing me hard and I knew the lap times were good so I put it down to me trying too hard. I managed to brake early and drive through the corners which improved the chatter. I managed to get a break on Steve on the last lap and set the fastest lap of the meeting. On the in-lap I realized how bad the problem was and in the pits we realized the swingarm was broken clean through on the drive side. Someone must have been watching out for me!!

Commiserations to Mike having to head home with 2 broken bikes.

Thanks to SBR, Neville Wooderson and Paul DeLacy for letting me race their bikes. Also thanks to Aero Machinists for their superb workmanship.

Classic Festival Pukekohe 5th - 7th February

There were a few problems getting Mike Farrall here but come Friday practice everybody and their bikes were at the track ready to go.

Mike was going to be the big threat in the Pre-war classes on his very quick Rudges and Lee Gourlay on his 500 GP Paton in the Post Classic against SBR’s Commando.

Practice went well on the Empire Star and we quickly got reacquainted as I hadn’t ridden her for a long time.

The Commando was feeling awesome with its new crankcases. It was almost a year ago they broke during my last ride on her. We were quickly up to speed and putting in times close to our lap record of last year.

The Goldstar didn’t go well and we had a timing issue which meant we would have to go back to our standard bore ABSAF motor robbing us of top speed.

The first Pre-war race on the Empire Star I threw away. I had a good lead over Mike going into the last lap and eased off too much, and then I got baulked by back markers at Castrol and the esses. As I headed for the line Mike blasted past to take the win. This was the first time since Paul DeLacy built the bike it had finished in any position other than 1st. Sorry Paul!

In the rest of the races I didn’t back off and managed to win all but the graded scratch race against much faster more modern bikes. I got a tow from 3 Post Classic bikes on the last lap and put in a 1min 14.95sec, the first time a Pre-war bike has ever been that fast.

The Goldy struggled for top speed and although the chassis was working really well and I could make up time on the brakes and in the corners, I was losing too much on the straight to contest the top 3 spots.

The Commando was in the same race as Lee on the Patton, a new copy of a 500 GP bike making more power and lighter than our bike. Steve Bridge had a new motor in his 1000cc Ducati and it was also going very quickly. We were all in different classes with the Commando being a 750cc but we all wanted the outright wins.

I managed to beat Lee in 2 out of 4 races as he struggled to learn Pukekohe’s bumps.
Steve was a different matter. I did manage to get past him a few times and threw everything at him but couldn’t make up for the straight line speed. His bike was also handling much better than last year. Our lap record set at this meeting last year of 1min 5.4sec was smashed. We managed a 1min 4.9sec, Steve did 1min 4.85 and Lee did an amazing 1min 4.35sec.

A great weekend’s racing - many thanks to the CMRR club for making it happen.

Also thanks to SBR, Neville Wooderson and Paul Delacy for letting me ride these amazing bikes and Joy for the lunches.