Since our last race meeting, work to improve the sidecar has continued. The motor we had been using was a bit stodgy and tired, so we have given it an honourable discharge and sourced another GSX-R 600 engine which we took to Neville Lush Racing (NLR).

Anyone who has been to the NLR workshop complex at Hindmarsh Valley will know that it’s motorcycling’s version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Neville and his crew worked their magic and dyno runs comparing both motors show the new one has an increase in horsepower of more than 20%.

With the bike back together, we hit the State Title round at Mallala on the last weekend in May hopeful of improvement! In the last race on Sunday, the team set a new personal best of 1m20.230 which is about a 3 second drop from our last outing.

We want to thank Ken and Brian for helping to prepare the bike for the meeting, and Locky for his tireless work in the pits. With Leonard unable to get to the practice day on the Friday, Ryan stepped in and did a great job in his first ride as a passenger.

Unfortunately, entries for the Mallala meeting were the lowest we have seen, but the experienced pair of Grant and Scotty pushed us all weekend to lower our times.

The next meeting will be Round 2 of the Australian Championships at Sydney Motorsport Park in July, and we look forward to catching up with, and hopefully catching, our friends in the eastern states.

Royce enjoyed putting the new powerplant through it’s paces and had this to say, “Now, I didn’t just want the new motor so I could leave pictures on the bitumen with the back tyre but also to go faster!”
“We had no problems in doing the latter as the fresh engine just wants to keep pulling strong compared to the old one.
“On the Friday without Leonard, I had to go through bit of a list of backups. Jess not being able to get time off work and Gareth still mentally scarred from a quick lap I made him endure, when I found Ryan was so kind to say yes and did a great job for his first time!
“Come Saturday, we used the first session to get Leonard up to speed. The second session we managed to put the sidecar on pole with a personal best lap time with Grant and Scotty not far behind.

“Each race we went out, Leonard and I tried new things with the extra horsepower and we kept seeing our times tumble.
“It wasn’t long ago Grant and Scotty were giving us a tow, learning a lot from their lines and race craft. I’m glad we can return the favour by dangling the carrot and getting them to keep up with us young ones.
“Big thanks to the usual suspects of Dad, Leonard, Locky and Brian. Thanks to Neville for imparting some wisdom, which wasn’t just classic bikes like to go bang, but some suspension set up advice which seems to be helping tame the beast.
“All in all after some handy points to go to the state titles with 4 wins, I had a wicked time and can’t wait to get out there on the sidecar again. In the meantime until Eastern Creek, I will be glued to my phone watching the live coverage of the Isle of Man! :)”

Keen to get back into the swing of things, Leonard said, “After missing the Friday practice day, jumping on Saturday for the first session was a bit of a shock! I’d had some new earplugs made up which block majority of the engine noise, coupled with the new engine that pulls us much quicker between corners, I kept pulling my head up and realising we were already approaching the corner!

“Once I got my bearings back and started moving in time with the bike, we hit some good lap times. Although a very small field, Grant and Scotty kept us honest and improved their own personal bests in the process.

“Thanks to everyone that did their bit to get the bike ready in time and those providing advice out at the track, and as always the club for putting on a great meeting when juggling a few hold-ups… can confirm the Bradley’s Bakery choc donuts prize for scoring pole is worth pushing for!”

The team are all very jealous of those lucky enough to be over in the Isle of Man watching the TT, enjoy the spectacle and we’ll see you trackside soon!