After a solid break in the new year, our team finally got back on track for round one of the SA Titles, held at The Bend over 3-4 July. What was first intended as a single-day race meeting, under a new structure run/promoted by The Bend itself, eventually had a practice day added to the Friday, which gave everyone a chance to get dialled into the tricky, everchanging wet/dry conditions – it also made it worthwhile for a few interstate teams to make the trek over to SA.

Before we hook into the racing, an update from The Shed was provided on what updates we made in the summer break. Following the rear axle (which was welded from two halves) splitting in half in Perth last year, we gave Brian and Bear a billet of carbon steel and they machined a single-piece drive axle so hopefully we won’t have that problem again.

We also sourced a new rear shock from Maxton, which was a bit longer than the old one, so we sent Brian back to The Shed to make a new linkage to accommodate the new shock, and Hoey Racing Suspension Services helped us out with a few modifications.

Our fantastic sponsors NE Promo, who came out to The Bend on Saturday to watch, also provided us with a new pits banner with the Rowe Racing logo and team details – very flash!

Friday practice was cold and wet and we’d swapped to new Hoosier rubber that needed scrubbing in. Along with this, given they’re a slightly different profile to Avon, we spent the two days trying to adjust ride height accordingly. Not that we’re making excuses for Royce… but all of these factors probably didn’t help as we exited the pits on the first session, turned into turn one and started spinning. The rear eventually caught traction, flipping the sidecar – shooting Leonard out of the chair and Royce sliding upside-down to the edge of the track. Luckily, no real harm was done, just a few bruises and broken fairing that will keep us busy before round two!

The lads got checked over and given the nod, so after making some minor repairs that lost us the second session, they headed back out for the last three of the day and managed to find their groove… slowly.

Race day arrived and so did the intermittent rain. Qualifying saw us third on the grid, which was hard to gauge whether that reflected our true position as a number of other teams had issues in the first and only ‘Practice/Qualifying’ session.

All three races were close, with each posing challenges of whether to use slicks or wets given the fact parts of the track (the straight) were dry as a bone, while back sections had moving water! The boys did well to adapt, Royce practicing throttle control and Leonard positioning himself for the best traction/stability.

Overall, they scored a second place trophy for the combined sidecar field on the day and the top F2 sidecar.

After shooting the temperature gun at the track, then the rear tyre, then the track again repeatedly, Royce said:

“It had been our longest time off the sidecar since we started competing so I thought the first thing I should check is to see if sliding upside-down around turn one was the quickest way around. After establishing it wasn’t, we decided to get on with the weekend.

Apologies again to Leonard for hitting the ejector seat on him. He’s been training very hard for strength and cardio in our off season and this was evident in the way he was able to hold on for the rest of the weekend with bruising but not even cracking a sweat.

With a deceivingly dry pit lane, the first race became very interesting with rivers of water running across the track for the back-half of the circuit. With slick tires, this was some great practice for me and my throttle control.

We gambled slicks again for the second race hoping it had continued to dry but unfortunately it wasn’t dry enough to get an advantage against the others on wets.

The last race with a nearly dry track was great fun, dicing with everyone and reminding ourselves how much fun sidecar racing is.

Keen to get out for some better weather and work on our lap times come our next race in August. Just hoping I can buff out the couple scratches on the fairing before then!”

After duct taping his gloves back together and a Nurofen sandwich, Leonard said:

“It was great to get back on the bike after a solid break. The Bend is a big, fast track but there’s at least a few spots to take a breath, so I enjoy getting out there whenever we can.

A big thanks has to go to local sidecar organisers who pushed for the extra day, which came in handy. In saying that, most of the first day was spent recovering from the tip over! I think the cold and the shock were the worst of it initially and had no issues hanging on for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday provided some decent racing and it wasn’t long before we got back into the groove. We’ll have to wait for a proper dry track to see where times could have been, but it was good regardless to see some sidecar faces and have friends come out to support us on the day. Bring on August round two!”