Round 3 of the Australian Road Race Sidecar Championships involved a 2000km drive up to Queensland Raceway, or the Paperclip as it’s colloquially known thanks to the straight up, back down and up again layout. It was the first time either of the boys had been there, so we were keen to hit the ground running on Friday.

We’d like to give a big thanks to Ken Baines for the many hours he put in to help us prepare for the event, ensuring the bike arrived safely.

Apart from the usual challenges of dodging droving cattle and mobs of kangaroos, we had to drive through the floodwaters present in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.

Water obviously found its way into the trailer, which paired with the 30-degree sun meant we were effectively towing a sauna. Not ideal conditions for the sidecar, resulting in us spending the first couple of hours of Friday practice scrubbing the bike clean.

However, we were rewarded with three days of perfect weather, some great racing and an event perfectly organised and conducted by The Motorcycle Sportsmen of Queensland Inc..

It was also the first time we had worn our new Ricondi leathers made by Race and Road. They were an excellent fit, much easier for Leonard to move around the bike in and we were genuinely surprised at how well the printed elements came up, like the addition of the South Aussie flag on our knees! The quality is top shelf, so check them out online or in person if you’re in QLD or Vic.

The turn out of sidecars was less than expected sadly, but nonetheless we had someone to chase in every session all weekend. This helped us shave time off our laps and put us fourth on the mixed grid of F1s and F2s.

Racing was tight all weekend, with the boys leaving it until the final corner to try and pass Mick Alton/Dave Rumble on two occasions! Over the course of the weekend, Keith Hoare/Louise Blyth found speed too, so were dicing with us and eventually overtook us in the final race. Overall, we scored two 1sts and one 2nd for the F2 class, handing us the round win.

On the Saturday once racing had concluded, the club offered taxi rides to punters who were keen to experience sidecar racing! Royce put his hand up to take a mate around the track, which proved for some good laughs and big smiles! Time to bring this idea down to Adelaide, we say!

Our pit crew was held together firmly by Locky all weekend, keeping us moving smoothly while Deb braved the boggy swamp that had formed around the track after floods to take all the great pics seen in this blog post! And of course, it wouldn’t be possible to get out on track in the first place without our great sponsors, Pro Realty | BJR Racing Products | NE Promo | Race and Road | Ricondi | Lush Race Engines | Underground Designs | GC Motorcycles.

The sidecar will go into hibernation over winter now, with our next Aussie Title meeting not until August at Sydney Motorsport Park. With only two rounds to go and Perth being worth double points, we’re thinking the championship will likely go down to the wire!

After getting off the phone to his hairdresser about how well received the Star Wars themed cut was this round, and maybe something from Edward Scissor Hands is next, Royce said…

“It didn’t take much learning leading up to the round at Queensland Raceway with just the six corners. In saying that, without any quick direction changes I thought we could treat it as some good practice for Leonard managing his body position as we get on the gas coming out of corners.

“With not many places to overtake except under brakes we had to have a few last ditch efforts to get past Mick Alton as well as Keith Hoare. I only out braked myself once nearly ending in the kitty litter, realising that 50m later than usual is probably a little too eager!

“Not only looking the part with our new Ricondi leathers thanks to Smarty at Race and Road, I was very comfortable in the race position feeling like I could keep going after the 7 lap races.

“The club also organised a come and try day on Saturday where the brave John Seres had a swing with me and loved it. Hopefully we can organise something similar back home for a bit fun!”

“As usual it was some great banter in the pits, everyone taking turns posing with Locky when he had one of his many naps.

“Thanks to everyone that helped over the weekend especially Mum and Dad making the big drive up to Brisbane.

“There is a bit of a break before our next round so hopefully we can get out for a couple practice days to keep our skills in check.”

After shooing the cane toads out of his gear bag, avoiding an SA apocalypse, Leonard said…

“I was really keen to get up to QLD Raceway as I had only spectated there before and don’t mind the heat! Although there’s only six corners, there’s less opportunities to overtake and every corner needs to be taken spot on to get the drive we needed to keep up.”

“After a few sessions I got the hang of the track and had the confidence to keep my head down, even though it was tough to spot any markers to know when to pop my head up… it turned into counting down the back straight and watching Royce’s foot on the brake like a hawk!

“We were using an old set of tyres from last year, so coming out of the corners as Royce tried to get the power down, I was really needing to lay over the rear to keep us from losing traction – that, paired with a bumpy turn one meant some pretty sore ribs by Sunday evening!

“All in all, it was a great meeting with some great people – the officials were accommodating and took interest in the sidecar, our shed buddy was a top bloke (although sadly he crashed out on the Friday!) and we had healthy competition from familiar and new faces! And of course a big thanks to Mum and Dad for the big drive up north and my wife who stayed down south with the little one.

“I’d also like to say a big thanks to Smarty from Race and Road who sorted out the new leathers, they’re a great fit and he was happy to make some minor adjustments after the meeting. We also had Brissy-based relative, Colin pop out for a look on Sunday which was great to catchup and a buzz for him to join us in the pits.

“I missed the Sydney round last year, so may need to spend the winter months watching on-board footage from the GoPro to try and prepare!”