Earlier this month for the October long weekend, we headed down to Mac Park in Mount Gambier for the final round of the South Australian Championships and the Master of Mac Park. Although we have had a couple of track days at Mac Park, it was our first race meeting there.

A field of 15 sidecars saw great racing throughout the field, especially at the front where we diced all weekend with the Hutchesson brothers and Mick Alton/Dave Rumble.

The SA State Championship and Master of Mac are combined fields, so there is only one class, not F1 (1000cc) and F2 (600cc) like recent national meetings – which meant different bikes were performing better through different sections of the track, all making for great racing!

The Hutchessons took out all three wins, with our team placing second for each race typically by only a fraction of a second, with Mick and Dave also just a fraction behind us in third. It was nail-biting racing down to the final lap, with Royce making a few last-minute dives.

Thanks to Gav Porteous for his advice and special thanks to Mick Alton who helped us immensely in set-up, which probably cost him some of those placings!

We also learnt a lot in race-craft, particularly not to show your hand too early as by the final standalone feature race, the Master of Mac, Mick knew where we had been able to pass him in earlier races and showed us how to ensure it didn’t happen twice! Congratulations to the Hutchesson brothers who can add a Master of Mac Park win to their impressive racing credits, and Mick/David for an impressive, hard-fought second place.

The weekend’s results gave us enough points to claim the overall 2024 South Australian Championship, which we are super proud to have achieved in our first full year of racing.

Thanks to Greg and Deb Lock who were with us at all race meetings throughout the year and put in 100% through rain, hail and shine.

Work now begins on the outfit during the off-season and we look forward to joining the Australian sidecar family again in 2025.

After measuring the width of the sidecar against the width of track on Water Tower corner ready to start drawing up race moves in his playbook for next year, Royce had this to say.

“The last round is always the most bittersweet. It’s the best we have been and we know we still have so much more to give but now have to wait until next year until we get to go back out again.”

“Leading up to this round we knew Mac Park was going to be a very physically demanding track so we had to be in peak fitness. I knew Leonard had been training very hard to prepare, which pushed me harder in the lead up as not wanting to let each other down.

“Once at the Mount with rain always imminent, we seemed to dodge any fully wet sessions and improve on our times with each outing. Still figuring out how to get the sidecar off the start line smoothly, we improved each time decreasing the gap we have to make up before catching the front two.

“Battling with the fastest oldest newcomer of the Isle of Man ever, I learnt so much on and off the track from Mick Alton, plus David Rumble was also imparting his wisdom unto Leonard where he could.

“For my local tracks like Mallala and Mac Park, after doing upwards of a thousand laps at both, I had established racing lines to overtake in every circumstance. Soon realising when I went to overtake Mick around the outside of water tower, thinking he can just lean on me as I go up the inside of him on the last turn, I quickly realised sidecars don’t quite work like that and had to button off.

“The next lap though going up the inside of Mick around water tower, allowing me to close the door on him on the last corner of the last lap proved to be effective. Each of the three races we overtook Mick on the last lap in different spots. Come Master of Mac his incredible race craft took into account each place I had previously got them, denying us each attempt to get past.

“We still managed to get enough points to take out the South Australian combined sidecars Title. Leonard, I and the whole team were very chuffed with these results, not expecting much for our first full year of sidecar racing.

“With still so much to learn compared to our competitors with 10-40 years of experience I feel like we still have so much to learn and so much to give. Thanks again to everyone who has helped us along the way, all the sponsors, Mum and Dad, the Locks, Gav and Brian – and Beth for letting me out to play!

“In the off season, I will have the pleasure of racing Andy Burford’s Suzuki TR that I previously raced. This will be in the historic state championship at Mount Gambier around Christmas time. I can’t wait for a bit of two-wheel riding but I just need to keep in mind that I don’t have to look over my shoulder to make sure Leonard is still hanging on!”

Finishing his Voltaren bath and Nurofen sandwich after 3 days ‘in the ring’ that is the sidecar platform at Mac Park, Leonard said:

“Coming into Mac Park was a bit of an unknown, although in the early days we had done plenty of practice days there on the sidecar, we haven’t had the chance to return since picking up our pace and making loads of setup changes – and never at all for a race meeting. Physically, it’s a really tough track and I was getting beaten up through a few corners, so was trying all sorts of new padding arrangements – other than painkillers and a tiny violin playing in the pits, not much helped!”

“It was great to have Friday practice to re-learn some markers and get a feel. From the outset in qualifying and all the way through to our final race, we were just pushing super hard to chase! We knew we had the pace to match the front two, it was just doing those times at the right time and not getting tangled up too much!

“Having Mick and Dave in front for most of the races was great to watch where they are on the track and how they move. A big thanks to them and the Hutchy brothers for leading the way all weekend and helping us improve. Both teams were always more than happy to discuss changes they were making or suggest things we could try to get quicker. I suggested they wait 3 seconds once the red lights had gone out just to be safe there are no jump starts…

“A big thank you goes out to all the SA Sidecar teams that have been extremely welcoming all year at these meetings, plus the interstate guys that in a short span of time have all become great mates and competitors.

“Taking out the SA title is a dream come true and something we can look back on fondly when Googling our names on the MSA website in 20 years time. Next year we’ll be pushing to go one further in the Master of Mac to get our name on that elusive honour board!

“As Royce said, a huge thanks to the family for making this happen, everyone who came out this year to watch and support us, Brian and Gav, and especially the Locks who travelled around the country lending a hand and most of all my lovely wife for supporting me to take the time out of our busy lives for this new adventure!”

Enjoy the summer break and we’ll be back with an update for 2025 in due course once racing calendars are released!