A track day at Mallala ended the New Year break for us, which was ideal give we had plenty of testing to do.

New Maxton shockers replaced the worn-out old ones and this virtually got rid of the shopping trolley characteristics straight away, much to Royce’s delight!

We also discovered that sidecars use a steering damper, so one of those was fitted as well.

After the last race meeting, we found two of the four drive pins connecting the rear wheel with the hub had sheared off, so some new ones were made and some refinements were carried out to hopefully avoid it happening again.

Lenno was unavailable for the ride day, probably because he knew it was going to be 38 degrees in the shade. Our spare passenger, Jess Watson, was thrown in the deep end and did a great job while also shedding about 20kg.

After cooling off, Royce had this to say.

“After indulging in a few Christmas puds over silly season, it was great to get back into the driver’s seat and get that race fitness up.

“Nothing better than doing it in the scorching heat of summer at Mallala! Last time we were out in this kind of heat, I was racing solo in the Adelaide 3 Hour, resulting in retiring two or so hours in from heat exhaustion, after my water mechanism stopped working.

“Luckily not having to be out there for 3 hours, Jess was keen to try some bikram yoga in the passenger seat so we eased into it with the main goal of the day to test the new shockers.

“Being pretty taxing on the body, with Jess still learning the ropes we singled out a few corners to really test what we needed. Preparing myself to wrestle the handlebars coming out of the southern hairpin, to fight the stiff violent action it used to give me, the new suspension kept the front end planted which nearly ended up in me making a u-turn.

“Great news moving forward, as we can now really start concentrating on adjusting suspension without chasing our tails. Apart from the heat, ‘twas good fun and I can’t wait for the upcoming first round of the Australian Championship at The Bend on 15, 16 and 17 of March.”