Topic: Victorian Titles

[Tintop]

Look's like we're all heading off to the race's.
Ev, Newmo , and I will be on the way to the Victorian Titles tomorrow.
First time for me watching somebody else racing the old girl.
Not sure how that's going to go down.
Good luck gentlemen.

Cheers,
Brian (Bear)

For those you want to follow the #92 with live timing - http://www.computime.com.au/ , and below are the scheduled start times converted to EDT

Post Classic Sidecars: Saturday April 12 (Oz)
Q1 10:10 (Friday 8:10PM EDT)
Q2 12:00 (Friday 10PM EDT)
R1 2:12 (Friday 12:10AM EDT)
R2 4:24 (Friday 2:24AM EDT)

Post Classic Sidecars: Sunday April 13 (Oz)
R3 12:12 (Saturday 10:12PM EDT)
R4 2:57 (Saturday 12:57AM EDT)

Brian (tintop)

[Tintop]

    Did a minor edit TT to eliminate the two Brian's confusion. 

[bear]

Not the best trip down last night, windy, cold and pissing down.
We got four hours into the trip and blew a transmission hose.
Two hours on the side of the road getting wet and muddy trying to chang a hose is no way to start a race weekend.
Very cold and windy this morning but no rain yet.
Free practice today,  so there will no data posted on Computime.

As I'm not riding this weekend,  I will try to keep the updates coming.

Cheers,
Brian

[Tintop]

Trust that that's the end of your tranny issues Brian.   At least no 'dogs' died this time.

I'm going to get some extra rest tonight given race #4 is at 2:24 in the morning my time.

[bear]

Yesterdays practise was a washout.
Bondy and Newmo went out in the pouring rain and it's probably just as well.
The front brake failed and it developed the "death wobbles" coming down the back sraight into "school house corner".
All good though there where no lives lost.
Looks like our front master cylinder developed some issues and the nut on the steering stem bolt worked it's way loose some how.
Both Issues where fixed last night (hopefully) and we should be good to go.
Practice and qualifying will begin in an hour or so.
.
Cheers,
Brian

[Retro Rocket]

Play hard Brian....

[Tintop]

Little off the pace in Q1, but 2nd in unlimted part of PC class.

Not sure what class '836' is??  Maybe Brian (Bear) will chime in.


A 1935 Velocette MSS 500 2nd fastest (less than a second!) to an 80 Honda RWS125.

[Tintop]

R1 3rd in unlimited, 5th overall.  Not sure what happened on lap 3(?) but the tight bunch (2 to 5) got broken up.  Racing incident??

[Tintop]

They were running late so I didn't stay up for R2, which would have been after 3:30AM .  Checked results this morning and looks like racing was stopped early.  Last 6 heats aren't posted, so no result from the Post Classic Sidecar R2.

[bear]

Not sure what class '836' is??  Maybe Brian (Bear) will chime in.

If there are enough bikes entered, they run two classes for Post Classic Sidecars, ie up tp 836cc and Unlimited.

R1 3rd in unlimited, 5th overall.  Not sure what happened on lap 3(?) but the tight bunch (2 to 5) got broken up.  Racing incident??

Unfortunately Bondy grabed neutral coming out of turn  nine coming on to the straight and had trouble picking up another gear.
I use an electronic gearshifter because of my paraplegia but we had to refit the manual gear change for Bondy.
The setup is not ideal because of the limited movement in his ankle due to a couple of previous breaks but we're still working on it.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Cheers,
Brian

[Tintop]

Missed shift entering the straight would explain it Brian.  He dropped about 2 to 3 seconds on that lap.  He did get down into the 1:12's in the opening laps; but seemed like when he lost touch with the front pack he never found that speed again.  Shifter issues would explain that.  Thanks for the update.

What happened to the rest of Saturday's schedule??  Looks like the last 5/6 races were cancelled.  Red flag incident in the 500cc Post Classic bike race?

The Honda guys must have come up with the 836 class.  Given it's off the shelf parts, and doesn't require any case work. 

[bear]

What happened to the rest of Saturday's schedule??  Looks like the last 5/6 races were cancelled.  Red flag incident in the 500cc Post Classic bike race?

There where a few holdups during the day for one thing or another and they just ran out of time, there's a 5o'clock noise curfew on the track.

The Honda guys must have come up with the 836 class.  Given it's off the shelf parts, and doesn't require any case work. 

Yep, good idea to.

[Tintop]

Are they going to re schedule your R2 from Sat??  Looks like it's been cancelled, so does that mean you only count points from 3 races, instead of 4??

[bear]

Ran race two about 30min. ago.
Not good I'm afraid.
Newmo broke a zipper putting on his leathers so they got to the dummy grid late where excuded from the warm up lap and had to start from the back of the grid.
Bondy jumped off the line well and managed to pass about six bikes before turn one.
Unfortunately his tiers where stone cold and he locked up the front wheel under bracks and dumped Dougy Flake who was on his outside off the track.
Doug speard through the kitty litter and collected a tyre barrier.

The race was red flaged and the boys fried the clutch off the start and could only manage 14's to put them in third place for the race and third overall on points with two races to go.

Cheers,
Brian

[Tintop]

I saw the red flag on the 1st lap and wondered who was involved.  Though it might have been at T3.  To bad about the clutch.  Given all the issues 3rd is OK.

Is Mark also running in Unlimited Classic??

[Tintop]

I see from the 'Results' sheet that they got all four races in, but the 92 didn't make R4 (DNS, or DNF?).  Did you finish 3rd in class anyway??  R3 looked like it was hard fought at the front, and the last lap must have been exciting.  The boys lap times got very competitive at the end.  Congrats to all.

[bear]

Round four was a washout for us unfortunately.
The clutch trouble came down to a broken clutch spring which fried the plates.
A new clutch was fitted for rd4 but the boys didn't allow bob weight clearance on the locker and the clutch started draging on the warm up so they decided to start at the back of the grid.
They only needed to finnish the race to secure third place for the title.
Unfortunately it looks like they have ripped the dogs out of third gear, so no podium I afraid.

Brian, Mark was also riding a Z900 in P5 Unlimited and did pretty well.
He had a busy time of it because P4S/C and P5 Unlimited races where back to back.

Unfortunately Dougy Flack sustained six broken ribs in the incident during race two with our bike and had to be airlifted to Melbourne.

So all in all not one of our best weekend's overall.

I'm pleased to see Billy, Sam and crew faired much better well done gentleman.

Brian

[bear]

A couple of pictures of the weekend.

Cheers,
Brian.

[Tintop]

Thank's for the update & photos Brian.  836 seems to work well for the SOHC.  Brian Gray won the CRMC Championship with one against 980 Tridents, and 1000cc+ BMW's.

To bad about the clutch, but I understand how those things happen.  We had a starter gear issue at Mosport.  You have to remove the clutch to get at it, and when I put it back together in the dark at 11PM reversed two shim washers.  Had to take it apart and do it again next morning.   Your not having much luck with 'dogs'.

Sorry to hear about the injuries from the incident.  I found a video of the track yesterday (car track day), wasn't impressed with the runoff areas & tires.  T3(?) looked especially nasty if you went wide.

The Z900 looks trick.  Congrats to Mark.

[bear]

Sorry to hear about the injuries from the incident.  I found a video of the track yesterday (car track day), wasn't impressed with the runoff areas & tires.  T3(?) looked especially nasty if you went wide.

The Z900 looks trick.  Congrats to Mark.

Your right about T3 Brian.
It's called "Crash Courner."

Cheers,
Brian

[Tintop]

Trying to figure out the historic sidecar races & tracks you run / ran.  There's the 'Classic @ PI, and the Victorian Titles @ Broadford (this year).  Where were the Australian Historic Championships last fall, Eastern Creek, or PI?  How many other races are there for the Post Classic sidecars, and do they count together towards a championship?

[bear]

The OZ Titles are run over one event only and it is rotated between each state on a yearly basis.
There are a number of club championships, but we don't enter  because I have not been able to commit to a full calender for any club. Originally because of business commitments and now because of my physical constraints, I can only commit to around six meetings a year.
So I stick to the bigger national meetings
I'ts the fair thing to do I think anyway.
I believe the club level racers deserve to have their own club championships and know that they can get a result.
They do the right thing and lineup for the big meetings knowing that it's unlikely they will get to the the podium.
If they didn't turn up for the national meetings we would all be the poorer for it.
If you have another look the times for the Vic. Titles you will see what I mean.

Back to the Aus. Titles,
2009 Morgan Park QLD  DNF (broke an oil line)
2010 PhillipIsland VIC 2nd
2011 Symonds Plains TAS 2nd
2012 Eastern Creek NSW Back in the field somewhere,  I was just out of rehab.

How are things looking for you as far as the PI trip goes?

Cheers,
Brian

[Driller]

Doesn't sound like a great meet Brian hope the rider heals quick there's not much room for solo's let alone chairs going though crash corner.

[Sam Green Racing]

Wow, sounds like you guys had more than your share of things going wrong starting with the hose on route to the event.
Glad you are all safe though and hope Dougy recovers quickly.
We only had one mishap and that was on the way to the track. About 40 miles out of Atlanta, the tread came off the near side trailer tyre which in turn launched the fender into orbit around the Moon.
Both our bikes ran without fault all weekend and a good time was had by all.
Hope ya'll have better luck next time.

Sam.

[Tintop]

Thanks or the clarification re 'titles' Brian.  I do agree that supporting club racing is important for encouraging participation.  The VRRA (my club) is really the only place to run vintage sidecars in Canada.  There are a couple in the USA that support vintage.  I've been working with a group from the US clubs to try and establish a common North American vintage sidecar rules set. 

The one nice thing here is you can race vintage on just about all the great North American tracks.  However, it takes lots of $'s to cover the travel, and expenses.

PI is at the top of my list of must do's, sooner rather than later.  Few more $'s to spend getting the sidecar ready for this season, then time to start saving for PI.  Should have a handle on if it's a go by July / August.