Rotorua Motorcycle Club Inc

Our yearly Christmas pilgrimage to Wanganui saw us set up once again in the pits by 11am on Christmas day awaiting sign on and scruitineering.  This year Jo rode her bike from Hamilton. Dad, who was racing his 1939 350cc Velocette MAC brought down my 500cc Jawa/Briggo race bike, both bikes were entered in the Classic Class.   By 4.30pm all the official work had been done and we settled down for a low key Christmas evening.
 
Race day commenced before 6am with competitors and officials arriving and getting everything ready before the riders briefing at 7.30am. There I found out that I was going to be on the sidecar in one race and then have to swap immediately onto the Jawa so swift races and bike changes were going to be the order of the day.  The sidecar was first up for practice and qualifying followed by the bike and past experience has proved that it’s best to get out first, clear out from the traffic and get stuck in to setting a good time, as this gives us our grid position for all the races. First session put us on poll position with the sidecar and second row with the Jawa. I was having trouble with the front brake on the solo so my times weren’t as good as I’d hoped. I attended to the brake adjustment and just had to hope it was going to be okay as they canned the second practice for the classic bikes. The second session with the chair still left us on the front row with 0.2 sec separating the top 3 sidecars.
 
First race was in the sidecar and after a pitifully slow start with smoke pouring off the brand new rear tyre we settled into 3rd place behind ‘Scriv’/Steve Bryan on the 1000 BMW and John Blaymires/Rat on the 950 Moto Guzzi. The lack of rear tyre grip meant we were ‘backing it in’ to the corners quite a bit and entertaining the crowd…great fun and Jo was loving it too!  Third place on the chair with the others not far in front was a good result, especially when you consider that normally these guys are in a separate (more modern) class with their fatter tyres, kneeler configuration (giving a lower centre of gravity), disc brakes (even a brake on the sidecar wheel).
 
Then it was straight out on the bike, after a reasonable start I settled in to 5th place behind Tony McQueen (500 Norton Dominator), Warren Marsh (500 Manx Norton), my friend Andrew Drake (500 Velocette Venom) and Colin Tate (750 Norton Dominator). Nearly overcooked on the 4th lap under brakes and Graham Peters (500 BSA Goldstar) almost got past, but managed to claw it back and by the end I believe I came in 5th. However having watched it on Speedbox TV they claimed I got 4th with Colin pulling out somewhere along the line. Jack, my Dad, did okay too with a mid to lower field placing. Pretty good, as at 78 he was the oldest entrant on the oldest bike entered for the meeting. 
 
The second sidecar race saw us with another slow start and this time the Robert Hood/Ed Curlett 850 Norton got into 3rd in front of us. We chased him hard into the esses with us ducking up the inside with a lot more speed than him for the line into the right-hander but then it all came unstuck in a BIG way. We drifted into him and he cut over toward us a bit, we tangled, with his gear lever going into our third wheel which turned us around backwards into the bale wall and then a full 360 the other way up over the curb and off the track. My first real gutser in the 22 years of classic sidecar racing, which can be viewed it all its glory at www.speedbox.tv. Luckily we came out of it okay with Jo totally unscathed,  me with only a sprained ankle and the sidecar with only a slightly buckled 3rd wheel and minor paint damage. 
 
Unfortunately I couldn’t get back to the pits in time for my next bike race so had to sit it out. Probably just as well as my ankle was starting to give me grief.    Jo then went on to swing twice for Tracey Anderson on the all girl BADD (bikers against drunk drivers) sponsored fuschia pink modern sidecar.  Tracey had lost Astrid, her swinger, off the back in the first race and Astrid too had a sprained ankle (though much worse than mine).  Until the accident we had intended to take the sidecar up to Taupo for the final of the Tri-series meeting on the 28th, so we went anyway to watch and Jo ended up swinging for Tracey for the meeting and they achieved two fifth places.
 
Our sidecar is all repaired and ready for the next meeting which is the NZCMRR Classic Festival at Pukekohe on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of Feb. so we’ll see you there.

Regards
Neville and Jo Mickleson.