After a positive start to the season at Phillip Island, round 2 of the Australian Road Race Sidecar Championship saw us competing a bit closer to home. The Bend played host to three days of racing, with a busy schedule including the BEARS (British, European, American Racing and Supporters) Oz Challenge and all the usual SA/Vic solo classes.

This meant qualifying was brought forward to Friday afternoon, with the boys wasting no time getting back into the swing of things. They dropped a couple seconds off their best time from last year, qualifying in the 2m16s behind Alton/Rumble and Goldie/Johnston.

Saturday rolled around and the racing was close all day, pushing the lads to drop their lap times again. The weather had decided to play ball, cooling down a bit from a steamy Friday, but unfortunately a serious incident in the morning caused a solid delay while waiting for medical assistance. Luckily everyone was okay and we suggested all bikes should consider adding a third wheel going forward.

Although we saw an improvement to PI after replacing a clutch in February, our speed off the start line was still lacking, so the team were hitting turn one already behind the 8-ball. This provided some great dicing with Jones and Clancy, keeping everyone on their toes!

After clocking a PB of 2m14.1 on Saturday, we had secured a 2^nd and 3^rd placing before the final race of the weekend. It was a tight battle all of the way, but the boys managed to find a gap to pass Alton on the last lap, securing their first win at the national level! There was plenty of excitement up on the viewing platform from both teams and it capped off a great weekend of racing.

There’s still room to squeeze more out of the sidecar though, as we saw a couple of F2 teams managed to drop into the 2m13s by racing’s end – we’ll be prepped and ready for round 3 at Queensland Raceway in just over a month’s time to hopefully match the climbing pace of our F2 class competitors.

The closest the boys have been to lapping QLD Raceway is riding the Batman rollercoaster at Movie World when they were 7, so we’ll be making the most of Friday practice/qualifying to learn the track and fiddle with setup. The screaming and hanging on for dear life element will likely be similar for Leonard.

Thanks as always goes to Locky for helping out all weekend in the pits, Deb for taking some great snaps as seen below, plus our fantastic sponsors Pro Realty | BJR Racing Products | Lush Race Engines | Underground Designs | GC Motorcycles.

After coming dangerously close to consuming the recommended limit of Hydralite ice blocks in a day, Royce said…

“It’s always great having a local round to have a few extra support crew around hyping you up. Thank you to all those that come out to watch Leonard and I have a ball!

“Being close to a year since we were at The Bend last, we had learnt so much and we are still learning. Not only how to go faster but race craft on how to overtake. A couple times trying to get around Mick and Dave, getting ready for the change of direction to stick the bike up the inside of a corner, only to quickly realise sidecars can’t lay on each other like solos do. Still getting the hang of my starts, if only I had a bigger backyard to dedicate some practice to them.

“Each race resulted in us trying to battle our way up to 1st. Finally getting that job done in the last race was so much fun dicing with Clancy, Jones and then Mick! Getting PB’s and our first ever 1st place at a national level proves that the teams hard work is paying off and we are starting to get the hang of it all. Big thanks to Dad, Locky, Jess and Daniel in the pits and Mum, Beth and Deb for cheering us on at the top of their lungs. Looking forward to the next round coming up soon in QLD.”

Leonard was busy scrounging for loose change in his car glovebox given The Bend’s bar prices, so only popped in to say…

“I was really looking forward to The Bend round, it’s a bit easier on the passenger in terms of time to think and get into position, plus the straight gives you a chance to take a breath and reset for the next lap.

“The layout and our racing line came back to me pretty quickly, and with the extra confidence of a year’s worth of racing up our sleeve, I found I could trust the bike and Royce through corners, allowing me to hang off without meerkating my head all the time to double check where we were!

“It was great to finally catch Mick and Dave and make the move stick, they were super consistent all weekend and deserved the overall round win. As always, it was great to see so many interstate teams make the trip over. A big thanks goes to everyone who came out to watch us and our usual pit crew making it all happen. An extra big thanks from me goes to my wife for looking after our little one while I am away racing!”

We’ll see you all in a month!