Hampton Downs - Sidechairs ruin another race meeting by dumping oil on the track!

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

Think its unfair to lump all sidecars together. Some are clearly pristine machines, others old but solid and reliable and then there is the dogs breakfasts. Having a look round their pits speaks wonders for the profesionalism of some of them however some looked like a bloody scrap yard!

No lights in the prize giving tent.............agreed they wouldnt have been needed but for the oil clean up and it all seemed a bit rushed.
Next year will be so much better. better infrastructure and lessons learnt from this year, hey we may even have garages!!!!!

[jellywrestler]

Nice thread!

Its a shame all the sidecars get labelled when really it was just one fucken idiot, was he the one that cocked up friday as well?? I have spoken to several eye witnesses that said they could see the thing smoking and they kept goin! He should have his licence suspended for unsportsmenlike conduct, I would have prob had mine suspended if i could have found where they were pitted....
!

thanks for pointing out that it was just one team Chop, typical spoilt brat (motogp1) tars them all with the same brush.
Iv'e raced sidecars and I can sympathise with them continueing around the track. I was commentating at the time and yes there was lots of smoke I called for the black flag and i'm sure the team were not aware of the smoke or problem it certainally didn't appear to corner any differently through turn one indicating to me that they didn't have oil on their rear tyre and it seemed to have all it's power between turn one and coca cola.

When you're on a Solo and you get into a slide you're the only one involved, you know whether you've made an error or there could be another problem and should slow down etc. When a Sidecar has rear wheel traction issues it could be several things, oil etc, your own or some on the track, it could also be your passengers gone, checking the passngers there only means they're there, it may also be that the passenger made a mistake etc. what I'm trying to say its not always obvious that there's an issue. you also have 200mm of rear rubber on the track so oil is not as obvious as on a solo.
I'm as dissapointed as a lot of others are that this happened but I'm sure Pete or Dion weren't aware of the problem and continued on their way
Spyda

[TonyB]

They all do & are required to by the rules.
This thing emptied its entire sump into the tray & it was sloshing over the sides.

Fill the tray with this then

[sidecar bob]

Fill the tray with this then

Great idea, but maybe we should just start with not banging a plastic plug into the hole in the bottom of the sump where the level sensor was removed from.

[Mental Trousers]

It's a shame it happened. However, as already mentioned the sidecars are very closely examined at scrutineering as they've had to put up with lots of sidecars always blow up and dump oil everywhere complaints in the past. Admittedly, in the past those complaints were accurate but in the past few years the sidecar community has done a lot to sort out those criticisms.

Overall it was a bloody good day. Some things didn't go quite as planned, ie the 1.5 hour delay (I didn't time it) because of that blow up, getting underway a little bit late in the morning, the power/lighting etc and other things, but overall the AMCC did a bloody good job and should be happy (for the most part) with how things went.

[neil_cb125t]

Wait a minute i wanna make im reading this right....

did a poorly put together sidecar cause a motorcycle road racing event to be held up due to them spilling oil, and they dragged it halfway round the track........ And it could have been avioded......

"Ah side cars REGULARY blow out and seem to do about 3/4 of a lap before they decide to get of the fucking track.. then they take 900 hours to rescue, example at nationals when we needed to remove the bodywork to get one out of T1's gravel trap." quote from another thread...maybe a week ago from someone who didn't know much about sidecars......

We're so lucky that they are coming to the VMCC series!!

[vtec]

Neil, you are reading correct. I sense your sarcasm also. It is frustrating as hell. And caused many crashes in the other classes that followed; 3 no 125gp's went down at once in turn one. Also, the oil went all the way round the track, I'm pretty sure it was on every corner. The cement dust helped, but also created another hazard aswell, just not as bad as oil by itself. Bloody scary coming into turn one on the brakes and tipping in at close to 200kph, and then you run onto the dust/oil trail.

I like the sidecars, and the spectators love them too. I just wish they would stop killing people and spilling oil. When I raced Pukekohe Nationals a couple of years ago, there was a fatality. And Paeroa this year too. It's not good, cause it's not like there's a huge number of them out there. Something's not right.

[Squiggles]

Farr, how often do the other fields waste time with mechanical problems & crashes?

[Kickaha]

Anyway, I'm oviously pissed at another meeting ruined by bikes that only 1% of people at best even cared were there.

So has there never been a meeting ruined or held up by any other class?

Serious question- Given that sidecars don't lean, how hard would it be to have a decent sized tray big enough to contain all of the fluids under the engine?

We all comply with rule 27.11.1 Oil and Coolant Containment

Applies to sidecar four stroke machines, excluding sidecars covered in Chapters 23,
24 and 25.
In the area directly below the engine, the oil containment tray must be constructed
to hold, in case of an engine breakdown at least half of the total oil and engine
coolant capacity used in the engine (minimum 5 litres). The surrounding edges of
the tray must beat least 50mm above the bottom of the tray. The tray should
incorporate a maximum of two holes of 25mm in diameter and be closed with
rubber plugs These holes must remain closed in dry conditions and only opened
when wet race conditions have been declared by the clerk of the course.

The sidecar that dumped the oil was checked and found to comply with this rule

At the 2010 Nelson Port races, races were seriously delayed twice when classics left huge oil slicks, one went about 2/3 of the way around the track. I couldn't help thinking that it could easily be avoided if bikes these were forced to have some sort of oil containment system.

Can't be true, surely not a meeting held by oil dropped by something other than a sidecar? but hey it was a two wheeler so that makes it all right

.maybe a week ago from someone who didn't know much about sidecars......

Didn't know much? nah doesn't know anything more like

We're so lucky that they are coming to the VMCC series!!

That's quite correct you are, come and see us and we'll take you out for a few laps unless you're to much of a pussy

I like the sidecars, and the spectators love them too. I just wish they would stop killing people and spilling oil. When I raced Pukekohe Nationals a couple of years ago, there was a fatality. And Paeroa this year too. It's not good, cause it's not like there's a huge number of them out there. Something's not right.

Haven't you forgotten the double fatality the year after the sidecar one at Puke ? dangerous things those 600s, and what about the fatal at the Vic club meeting, it's not just sidecars who kill people

Farr, how often do the other fields waste time with mechanical problems & crashes?

The longest delay I have ever seen at a meeting was the first Nationals I did when a F3 bike went down and there was close to a 2 hour delay cleaning up the oil it dumped on a wet track, fucking F3 bikes, should get rid of them

[lostinflyz]

Neil, you are reading correct. I sense your sarcasm also. It is frustrating as hell. And caused many crashes in the other classes that followed; 3 no 125gp's went down at once in turn one. Also, the oil went all the way round the track, I'm pretty sure it was on every corner. The cement dust helped, but also created another hazard aswell, just not as bad as oil by itself. Bloody scary coming into turn one on the brakes and tipping in at close to 200kph, and then you run onto the dust/oil trail.

I like the sidecars, and the spectators love them too. I just wish they would stop killing people and spilling oil. When I raced Pukekohe Nationals a couple of years ago, there was a fatality. And Paeroa this year too. It's not good, cause it's not like there's a huge number of them out there. Something's not right.

the 125's went down for a variety of reasons, none of which i believe relate to oil.

The clean up was pretty good i thought, grip wasn't fantastic but wasn't bad, not sure if that was all oil related either.

the cement dust was mint, it gave a good reference point coming over the hill into turn one!

[Kickaha]

the 125's went down for a variety of reasons, none of which i believe relate to oil.

How dare you imply it wasn't the sidecars fault

[sinfull]

Aint motorcycle racing a sport ?

[lostinflyz]

as a note oil Catchement belly pans are mandatory at irish road race meetings (at least the NW200, and i assume the IOM) that must contain a certain amount of liquid, this applies to all bikes.

[SWERVE]

I must agree with the "sidecars on- time for a piss comment" I will watch any kind of bike racing (some of the smaller cc class provide the best racing) but NZ sidecars are a shambles.
have seen full grids of these at Nurburgring and other european tracks and they are spectacular. But NZ crowds including racers that are watching dissapear in droves when the sidcar race begins.
Feel sorry for the couple of outfits that are latest spec and the money invested in them is BIG............... but have to ask WHY have a world class set-up that cost a gazzillion dollars when you are racing against FAR inferior machinary & Munters.
Yes it isnt only them that drop oil................classsics have always been a NO1 contender for this but of late they are improving. The catchmant systems do not and will not catch & contain an entire oil or water system of a moving vehicle..............but it should help to minimise spllage to a large degree.
I always thought that the BIG BRIGHT ORANGE OR RED oil light was a good indication of your engine having just gone bang..........however only works if ou have one and its working! (probebly being used to "bung" up a hole somewhwere eh)

[blueblade]

I have nothing against sidecars, in fact I quite enjoy watching them. However it was pretty dissapointing to see this particular rig pass our viewing position (turn 3) with the swinger clearly looking backwards to see what the problem was, and for them to then carry on - on the racing line until they were well out of our sight. We were absolutely stunned that they didnt pull off immediately. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems from other comments that they continued on track back to the pits. It seems improbable that the swinger did not see they were dumping something on the track because we could see it from 50 yards away - and prior to arriving at our position they had been also billowing huge clouds of smoke.
Its very unfair to tar all the sidecars with the same brush - but on the face of it this pairing looked like a couple of muppets and really let the side down.