Since our last round, we’ve been busy continuing to make changes to sidecar. The swap to Hoosier tyres has brought some challenges given the different profile, so the boys were busy changing settings to accommodate and see how it affected handling. All in all, we’ve found a setup that mostly works!

We also carried out some superficial touch-ups after the boys went for their slip ’n’ slide through Turn 1 at The Bend. A big thanks to Locky for respraying the fairing, Craig Lock for the loan of his portable spray booth, and Marty at Underground Designs for his outstanding sign writing as usual.

Our latest round of the SA State Titles was held at Mac Park over the October long weekend. Saturday through up some challenging weather, with a non-stop slight drizzle, making the track wet but not quite wet enough to put on wet tyres – especially given how grippy Mac Park is. We wasted our first qualifying scrubbing in some tyres and the next poured down, so we were stung with a grid position a couple rows back from where we wanted to be! Luckily, Royce has improved his starts off the line so we were straight into the action by turn 1.

Some tough racing ensued, which the lads will talk about, but in some of the closest finishes we’ve seen, the boys took fourth overall, fourth in the handicap race (run on your best lap time, held up at the start the amount of seconds in front you are to the next best time) and second in the Master of Mac Park feature race.

Although entry numbers were down compared to previous years, the sense of community at the track and eagerness from all classes to win was out of this world. The meeting ran like clockwork, the Medics weren’t needed at all and we had loads of spectators come past the pits wanting to checkout our machine or ask questions about the racing.

Thanks to all that helped out over the weekend, especially Locky and Deb for their continued support coming down for the long weekend.

Royce is now in possession of some extra-strength hair dye courtesy of Ann Porteous, so we’ll wait with bated breath for what appears under the helmet at the much-anticipated Australian Championship round next month. He had this to say…

“I will start off by saying, that this weekend’s racing was the most fun I’ve had on three wheels to date. Such fast, fun dicing between Mick/Dave and Jonesy/Jay.

“With the misfortunate timing of rain during our second qualifying, we were on the backfoot with starting each race. This was a great incentive to get good starts when I have recently been struggling with them on the sidecar.

“Each race resulted in the three of us all swapping positions multiple times on the last few laps. We were all trying to dive under, go around or out-brake each other resulting in fitting 3 sidecars abreast which is pretty much maximum for a skinny track like Mac Park. We only just managed to finish ahead of Mick by 0.002 of a second in the Master of Mac, crossing the finish line I honestly couldn’t tell who finished where!

“The track is such a gruelling slog for passengers, Leonard did a great job keeping the outfit steady. Next one is the big one, Australian Titles at The Bend. I’ll be going into full fitspo mode to prepare for it, reducing my time at the pub by at least half!”

Leonard was in for a rough ride over the weekend, as Royce found a way to use every inch of the track, including ripple strips and mowing the lawns through Pine Tree corner. Crawling off the bike by the end of Sunday, he said…

“I was keen to get back out to Mac Park as it had been a while, so it took a few sessions to get back into that groove.

“As usual, it was a great crowd of people and the top three F2 bikes were all lapping around about the same times, which made for some close racing! This usually comes down to Royce having to make decisions on when to pass or what line to take, with me keeping the usual position so there’s no surprises – but with two bikes chopping and changing around us, I found myself having to really watch where Royce was going, braking later or cutting corners needing me to move faster!

“All in all, it was a great weekend, I think we can still improve on times and although my cardio fitness held up, my arms were about to fall off by Sunday afternoon, so some work on the arm pump is in order before our next big round at The Bend!”

“As mentioned, this year’s Australian Road Race F1 and F2 Sidecar Championship is being held over a single round at The Bend on 21-22 November. The hype is building and teams from all across Australia will be there to fight it out for the title – we hope to see you there cheering us and the SA crew on!”