BEARs Christmas meeting

[Kickaha]

BEARs Christmas Meeting (while the softcocks go to rallies the real men go racing)


This meeting is run just for fun after the series has finished and prize giving is held at the end of the day

As I was still waiting for some engine bit’s I’d been left without a bike and while negotiating with Dangerous on MSN for a loner bike Stanko rang and while chatting to him he said I could borrow his RZ/FXR150 hybrid, so I promptly told Dangerous he could stick his bike up his arse as I’d had a better offer

Saturday arvo saw me round at Stanko’s shed giving him a hand to do the fork seals in it and after a short discussion he was out with the plasma cutter and doing a quick modification to the exhaust, well more noise means more power doesn’t it

Out to the track sign in get the bikes scrutineered and we’re ready to run, Glen had also offered me ride on his Ducati 750 and his word to me before riding it were “You’ve crashed or broken anything I’ve let you ride in the last twelve months try not to break this one”

Practice
I’m pleasantly surprised by the RZ/FXR it feels very planted and changes direction ok although the foot pegs are slightly to high and push me a bit far forward on the bike, I’m winding it up to 12,000rpm and it shows a reasonable turn of speed when you consider it is a stock motor, Tony Mac passes me on a another FXR and I stick with him for a lap but he slowly pulls away as the difference in the less weight and shorter wheelbase become apparent

BEARs B group Practice

Out on the Ducati and off down the straight I give the brakes gentle squeeze and fucking near go over the front of it as they’re considerably better than anything else I’ve used, after a couple of laps my wrists are aching and I’m struggling to turn the bike, a couple more and then the flag is out and it’s back to the pits

Race 1 Buckets

I line up on the front of the grid and the flag drops and we’re off into the first corner and I make a couple of passes and slot into 6th, lap two and Diesel Pig goes around me in the dipper I chase him into the sweeper and pull out and go past him down the straight, the same scenario is repeated lap after lap, although one of the Nelson crew provides us with a bit of entertainment by falling on his arse going through the dipper, I hook into the sweeper in front of Diesel Pig and feel the rear slide and then the bastard passes me in the dipper again but on the last lap I pull out of the draft and beat Diesel Pig to the chequered flag, I think he’s been hanging round Max Biaggi to much as he started making excuses straight away (my bikes not running right)

Race 1 BEARs Group 2
I get a bad start but on lap 2 the red flag is out and we head back to the pits, we grid back up and I get possibly the worst start ever and end up last into turn one and start working my way back up the field, lap 2 and I pull out and take the three bikes I’ve tagged onto down the straight another lap and I’m onto the back of the K100 and as I pull out to pass I miss a gear another stab on the pedal and I’m pulling past and then just I about rear end the Triumph who’s next in line as we brake off the end of the straight, I nail him before the fast kink and run out over the ripple strip but don’t back off and keep the place, there’s two Motards in front of me and I’m gaining on them, next lap and I hit the hairpin faster than before and get hard on the brakes, I think I feel the front brake lock and I’m sure the rear is off the ground and I’m thinking I’ve fucked it up good and proper and I run out wide but manage to make the corner but I’ve run out of time and after being 12th out of 12 into turn one I mange a 5th place finish


Race 2 Buckets

Pretty much a carbon copy of race 1 with Diesel Pig and me swapping places every lap as my line through the dipper is different every lap and he carries more speed and gets me every time and on the last lap we come up behind some juniors and he picks a better line through them and I get hung out to dry and he beats me down to the line by a bike length, back in the pits Stanko parks up his bucket which must be a bit tired as it decides to have a lie down


They’ve decided to run all the BEARs in together and so I tell Glen I wont ride his bike again (less chance of me wrecking it that way)

Race 3 Buckets

I start off the back with Diesel Pig along side and get one of the best starts I’ve had all day (or all season) and come out of turn one in 4th, again I spend the race swapping places with Diesel Pig but on one lap I don’t get back past him and although I close him down and are planning a pass my plan gets pushed out the window when Steve Rae comes past and gets in between us I get back past him and try to get back up to Diesel Pig and Steve goes up the inside of me into turn one again, the white flags out and I know I’m screwed in the run to the flag Diesel Pig is ½ dozen lengths ahead and Steve beats me by about a bike length


Stanko also put in a couple of good rides on his new Pre 82 RD350LC even getting past Diesel Pig when DP was out on James Boutlons Rd400, while James was running in a very good ride to 5th on Diesel Pigs CBX550, Darryl Cotton after just about high siding the Kwaka turbo reported seeing 210kmh on the clock and wasn’t doing to badly on it

A bloody great day although earlier on one of the hottest race days I’ve been at, heaps of bikes from a 1929 Dunelt, RD400, RD350LC, GS1000, ZI, Norton Commandos, Ducati 750, 400 ,9000, BWM K100, Triumphs, AJS with the most interesting bike being raced being the Turbopak Kawasaki

Now we just have to wait till next May/June and we’ll start all over again

[stanko]

It sure was hot, the wind blew like a bastard.
Great fun, I took my new bucket that I got from RG100, talk about well prepared, I had put oil and fuel in but hadnt started it till I got to the track, started first pop and went to practice. This is where the lack of detailed preperation started to show. The fuel line came off pissed fuel everywhere and a bit of a stressfull minute or so sorting it out while everyone was leaving the dummy grid. Practice went well untill at the end of a straight i found the brake lever had fallen off, so I missed that corner.
The bucket races were great the new bike goes quite well.

I also ran in the Cams pre 82 class on my RD350LC , so it was park the bucket jump on the LC and straight to the dummy grid not alot of time for slacking around, this was my first venture into racing other than buckets, 2 corners into the first race a bit of a prang happened just in front of me which I had to avoid by riding into the grass. ,twice in 10 minutes,

The rest of the day went well, went home sunburnt and tired. Awesome days play !

[Joni]

Sounds like it was a good one...

Well done guys.

[dangerous]

BEARs Christmas Meeting (while the softcocks go to rallies the real men go racing)

Well this softcock did ask if a real man cold take my buckets out to the track and get them passed for racing so as when I rock up a tad late from athe Magpie Rally I could kick real mens arses and race.
But doubt I'd a had the energy anyway, I did show up for a while but had that feeling that I shoulda been out there too..... never mind I got a few pics of the Z1TC altho I'm thinking that its not an orgional TC, and bugger it I only got close ups.

Turbos rock seroius shit would have loved a spin on it but it wasent runing very well here them pics anyway.
Check out the wast gate... never seen a mofo like that before it did have a cromed exhust exiting it at the start of the day but when the rider hit the max revs ant the gate opened... lol it blew the exhust clean off.