Originally I’d only planned on going up to watch but after seeing a post of sidecar bobs saying they need a swinger for the BMW classic sidecar put my name forward and scored a ride on the side with Gordy
I got some flights; Motel and rental booked as soon as I confirmed my spot on the side
In the meantime Team AGIP (Kai and Phil) book the same flight so they could get a ride with me to the track
Arriving at the track we run into Chris Lawrance at the gate who tells us we’re late and need a special riders briefing and we wander off to find the garage
Strolling into shed 11 I meet up with Gordy who if he was a bit darker in skin tone could be the world vision poster child for famine relief
We sign in, get our special briefing and we’re good to go
Lining up for practice one we make it the length of pit lane before it dies because Gordy is so fucking hard on gear, sidecar bob diagnoses a dropped valve seat and after pulling the head and Gordy trying to maim himself while he does it sidecar bob is proved right, at that point the weekend isn’t looking good so I wander off to find a guy who I know is racing a BMW solo
As I wander into his pits to introduce myself I spot Max Headroom who I know lives a little bit down the road and has the odd BMW spare or two and I immediately lose interest in talking to Voltaire in favour of trying to score a spare head off Max, he comes back over to our pit shed and before long we’re in the rental heading back to his place and he’s digging half the worlds supply of BMW heads out of his shed to sort a good one out
After swapping springs and retainers into another head we‘re back to the track and get it bolted up in time to do last practice
We roll down pit lane and do an easy lap, Gordy gives me the thumbs up and dials it up a bit harder, as we crest the little hill at turn two and Gordy changes gear (or something) I get pitched forward in the chair until I’m further forward than he is and I can just about hear him thinking “what kind of fucking unco, retard munter have I been saddled with”
A lap later and it dies coming up the hill and we pull in to find the right carbs fallen off and it’s starting to spew oil as well
Head comes off again and we pull the barrel to find the all three rings jammed in their grooves as a result of the dropped valve seat and we’re back to thinking the weekends over
Back to Max’s place again to see if he’s able to do anything with it, luckily enough it turns out he used to do automotive machining and is well qualified to fix our problem and after working between our piston and Voltaire’s “leaking rear main seal” gets the rings free and after a little bit of lathe work on the piston gets it sorted and we’re back on our way to the track
It’s about 90% reassembled before we head off for tea, where after seeing I get extra food dished out starts a few complaints at the table but little do they realise maintaining such a svelte figure as mine takes a bit of effort and eating the correct diet
After I drop off the sleep some cunt sets off the fire alarm and wakes me up, I stay in bed for a bit wondering whether to get up as the chances of it being a real fire are pretty slim but eventually get up and go check to make sure it’s not my room burning down
Sunday
Race 1, grid 16, 4 laps
First it started raining and then as we went out it really started pissing down
We line up somewhere down the back and Gordy nails the start passing about 5 outfits before Turn one and at least one other by turn 2 we end up having a bit of a battle with the Harley outfit of Keith/Carl for the last couple of laps but as they slow coming out of Turn one on the last lap we scoot past and beat them to the line
I head over to the hairpin to watch the modern sidecars and first see a swinger keen to shout some piss by falling off after a spin then Scrivy in a fit of total incompetence going into the gravel trap while Team AGIP don’t even make it off the line
I bump into Rodger96 in pit lane and he explains he wasn’t even coming up but ended up flying up with a couple of RG500 crankshafts in is luggage
The days racing is canned just before we’re due out again so I piss off back to the motel and grab some food
Monday
The weather is looking better and as the program starts from where it left off the day before we’re second up
Race 1, grid 16, 4 laps
Carbon copy of the start from the day before with making up several places before turn one and some more before turn 2, just to make sure I haven’t gone to sleep Gordy tries an inside pass up over the ripple strip on turn 4
We’ve got past Keith/Carl on the Harley when they slam it up the inside into turn 4 and practically come to halt in the middle of the corner, Gordy is hard on the brakes and taking avoiding action and stalls, showing total disregard for the comfort of his swinger he drops it into 1st crash starts it and nails the throttle and pulls a wheelstand nearly pitching me off the back, and then gives Keith/Carl a friendly wave to show there’s no hard feelings
I thought we’d get them back but the bikes developed a miss and losing power heading up the hill
Sunday, Race2, grid 8, 6 laps
By this time of the day I’m normally having a nap so the prospect of a couple of extra laps doesn’t do much for me
We get moved up to grid 8 which means we have less people to pass before turn 1 when the lights go out and for a little bit until they come sliding around the outside in turn one I think we’re going to beat Will/Julie on the Triumph
Hard out behind them and I notice where we’re picking up the chair through the hairpin and trying to get the power down they’re already sliding it sideways and got it pinned and taking a few metres off us
Gordy finally works out on the last lap he needs to pull his knee out of the carb bellmouth if we want warp factor 9 and we’re pulling them in up over the hill as the chequered flag comes out and doing our fastest lap of the weekend
Race over and I’d have to say it’s been one of the best weekends racing I’ve ever had and the fact our fastest lap of the weekend was the last one we did makes me wonder how we’d go if we’d had the full power model all weekend
Big thanks to Gordy for taking me on for the weekend when the closest I’ve got to swinging on a classic before is tripping over one in the pits
Nick for giving up his own time lending us bits and sorting out our engine problems
Steve Bryan for trusting us with his outfit for the weekend and all those individuals, clubs, marshals etc who gave up their time so we could all go racing at a fantastic meeting
Pic by Martin Halford
Originally Posted by scracha
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