The week before the event we were doing a bit of race prep and changing one of my handles, unlike last year I didn’t require a visit to the emergency after hours after finishing it
4.30am Christmas day and the awesome turbocharged, intercooled, slashcut equipped transit vangina rolls up the drive, in go the bags and we’re on our way
12 hours later 3 very tired people roll into Wanganui, we check in at the hotel then go and sign in
As I got to fill in the entry forms Divvo has been renamed Septimus for the event in retaliation for me ending up as Rupert and Farquar at Nation rounds last year
We unload the outfit and fire it up, Septimus thinks the top end sounds funny and shuts it down and then plugs the dash in and fires it up again, it’s indicating no oil pressure so he shuts it down again, thinking it’s possibly a faulty sender he cracks a banjo bolt open and fires it up, there’s no oil squirting out so it gets shut down again, best guess is that’s it sheared the pin that drives the oil pump so we’re out before we even start
We pack back up and head off to check out some other sidecars at Steve Brons, after a bit of a drool session over the latest and greatest LCR out of Europe, Septimus, Joni and I then meet up with Her_B4, Lynda Blair and co for tea
On the way back from that we’re walking down the road when someone yells out “Septimus” this resulted in Septimus jumping though a car window and biting him on the groin
The next day me and Septimus are up early and off to the track, one of the first people I see is WT looking for a pit spot, as he hasn’t staked a spot out the day before he ends up in the cheap seats
We wander about for a bit, practice and qualifying rolls by and then the races start, I really only interested in the sidecars and real interesting it was to when a few of them get together into turn 1 and Burt and Tim roll over the top of Steve and Rat, Rat ends up with a broken arm and gets an ambulance ride and the race is restarted and Stacey and Leighton walk away with the win
We wander around some more and then head back to the motel for a few minutes when the mobile rings and Septimus lets me know Steve Bron is looking for a swinger,I was quite popular for the first time in my life with 3 people looking for a swinger, I quickly give Steve a call and check how mental he’s going to go in the race and then grab my gear and head down, the outfit I’ll be on is the #77 LCR which is straight out or Europe after winning the world championship with Tim Reeves and Pat Farrance onboard
I haven’t ever been on a sidecar around here and the only practice I’ll get is the warmup lap so for the first time in ages I’m slightly nervous but Steve has promised he’ll be gentle with me
We roll out on the warmup and I’m trying to work out where to place myself across the railway lines and through the cemetery, we line up off the back and are good to go, true to his word we’re not going hard out, across the railway I’m moving slightly to the left the right an full out for the left before Robert Holden after 3 laps I work out I don’t have to move from the right at all until the last left, the changeover for Robert Holden I’m struggling with as I’m moving just a fraction early and getting hammered into the fairing under brakes and then up the hill to the bridge where I thought the swap over would be easy it’s bumpy as fuck, I cant get my feet in the right place swapping back over after the bridge and we’re not even going that quick, we come up behind Johnny and Brett and make the pass but on lap 4 with the arms pumping up and having doubts about staying on I give Steve a tap on the back and he backs it off a fraction and we come home 6th after working our way up from 13th
I roll off the outfit in the pits and Steve asks me how it was “fucking awful” I reply, I seemed to be suffering a lack of coordination and was finding an unfamiliar outfit and track all a bit much but a couple of HTFU pills and I’m ready for the feature
We go off grid 8 and still taking it easy, with only a one race gap I could have done with more recovery time, the power delivery on this thing with the GSXR1000 is a lot harsher than the Busa I’m used to we slot into 7th straight away and chase around after a couple of others I only last a 3-4 laps before I need him to slow up, lap 6 and we get close to another outfit and Steve dials it up again resulting in a near miss when I miss my footing and just about go off the back through the cemetery we come up behind them into turn 1 and go up the inside out of turn two and go after another, we catch and pass on the right hander up to the bridge and run home in 5th with our best lap just under the minute mark
An awesome opportunity to go out on some top machinery and without doing the practice and qualifying I really wasn’t up to it at full pace and a bit of cantbefuckeditis after thinking I wasn’t going to be racing didn’t help, the power comes in with a bigger bang than what I’m used to and it hooks up like you wouldn’t believe
A seriously trick bit of machinery and a big thanks to Steve for taking me out on it and also to Joni for all the helping out with organising the trip making sure I was fed and watered and putting up with two difficult guys in a transit van for 9 hours
Another 12 hour trip home and the day later I’m still tired and sore and looking forward to next year
Originally Posted by scracha
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and made a lot of it worth it! Lovely to meet some new faces as well!
yank tank at Glenorchy 2006 rally
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