Owes Beer, Nationals Rd 1
A week out and it looked like we wouldn’t have a class and unless you’re a total idiot you’d realise this mean the end of the class as a National Championship with very little chance of getting back in
A few messages back and forth and Drew comes up trumps with a Sidecar a lot of support and an entry, Alex MacDonald also loans us a Sidecar as after a little “accident” can’t ride it himself and Jay Lawrence is conscripted as rider and somehow he manages to convince Maxine Skilton to be his bit on the side
It also sees the return of that sidecar legend the mighty Spike Taylorriding the ex Reeves world championship bike with Astrid Hartnell on the side
So from looking like we wouldn’t have a championship we ended up with 7 entries which is still a piss poor effort by the sidecar community especially when there’s a line in the NZSRA constitution which say their aim is to Encourage and promote the sport and pastime of sidecar racing
Friday sees me waiting on the side of the road near Templeton for Drew and Alan to turn up so they can follow me to levels as never having been this far from home without their mums they’re a bit worried about getting lost
Couple of uneventful hours later we’re pulling into Levels followed about an hour later by Divvo
While Drew and Weaver familiarise themselves with the track we set up our gear, fit new brake pads and organise wheels and tyres to be changed
We spend a bit of time watching Drew/Weaver and Jayracer/Max combination's getting a bit of practice with neither team having ridden sidecars and drew/Weaver not ever having been to levels before but both of them seem to be picking it up quite quickly, although some newbie munter looks like he's trying to hard which results in some off track excursions and a good laugh when Weaver nearly goes off the side turning into the pits
Retiring to Hotel MacDonald sees not a bad night’s sleep and up early for the BBQ breakfast
Riders briefing become quite entertaining when some Superbike riding pussy starts going on about track safety and a steward gets right into him
Saturday Practice 1
We’re going pretty easy bedding in brakes and scrubbing tyres and only do 4 laps before pulling back in and putting it up on stands to do a check over
Jay manages to flick Max off the side when he gets a bit sideways under brakes and turns into the chicane a bit early across the grass this results in a bang on the head and trip to Timaru hospital with a concussion and means she owes beer
Practice 2
Brakes bedded in and tyres scrubbed we dial it up a bit for a few quicker laps and qualify faster than last years times but still only good enough for grid 3 with Steve/Denny on 1 and Adam/Stu on 2
After putting it back up on stand and pulling the wheels off Dave finds a crack in the front disc and none of the other spares are the same, a few hurried phone calls and one is sourced in Christchurch and we hit the road with someone picking it up and driving to meet us
We meet at Rakaia and Dave bolts the disc up to the mounting hat as we drive back, the 125GP class agree to swap spots to give us more time but as we drive into the pits we see the sidecars have already left there pit area and as we’re bolting it together we hear them leave the line so we wander over to watch
Sunday
We use the three lap scrub to bed in the rotor and are set to go, race order has been changed and we’re second up so not long to wait
Race 1
Warm up lap and pull into our grid, off the start and the usual jam into T1/T2, first lap or two tends to be a bit rougher but it’s all feeling good, Adam/Stu have pulled a small gap and seem quicker through the faster corners while we’re better at the slower ones, lap 2 (I’m counting) and we don’t seem to be making any headway on Adam but still keeping in touch we’re about 1.5 seconds a lap faster than last year but it’s not looking like it’ll be quick enough to stay in touch
We’re coming up to finish lap 3 and hit the chicane, fast right, quick flick across to the left for the middle and moving fast for the right
Mitch says later it looks like I over reached and miss the handle and are moving back for it as Dave turns onto the straight and nails the throttle, I go straight off the side and don’t even have time to think that I might not make it
I know I’m on the grass and tumbling and I remember thinking I hope I don’t hit the wall and that I seem to be traveling a far way and waiting to stop moving as I seem to be bouncing forever, finally I stop rolling and I’m lying there totally out of breath and making sure everything works
Apparently the fact I didn’t move caused a bit of concern and the red flags were out but I slowly get up after having a bit of a rest and lean against the wall and thinking I got off fairly lightly considering the speed and distance, my left wrist hurts a bit but apart from that I’m not feeling to bad
Ambos come out and give me a check over then take me back to the first aid station for a more thorough check out
My left wrist is the only thing hurting so they recommend a trip to hospital to get it checked, I get Diesel Pig to take me in and end up there all day until an x ray is done and I’m told it’s a bad sprain
Monday night however they call me and say while reviewing the x rays they’ve found a fracture and the next day I’m getting put in plaster at Christchurch Bone clinic, after an x ray and CT scan there’s some concern as the fractured radius is displaced slightly into the joint and they’re talking about possibly operating on it
Wednesday I get the good news that an operation won’t be required but 6 weeks in plaster means I’ll be out for the season
Oh yeah, slab of piss if a swinger comes off, first one in seven years so I'm not doing to badly
Originally Posted by scracha
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