Mt Wallace Hill Climb, Sunday 10th August, 2003

 

Honda CBR954           Paul Southwell              Honda CBR929           Ben Warden  (48.5, 2nd)

Yamaha R6                  Mario Ibeas                              Suzuki GSXR750         Will Surtida  (radiator)

Suzuki GSXR600         Wil Tran                                   Kawasaki ZXR1200    Clifford Peters (radiator)

Honda CBR929           Greg Hales  (48.8)                    Yamaha R1                  Adam Marion (1st ride)

Suzuki TL1000 Dave Skitt                                BMW R1150 GS         Rob Langer (rear)

Yamaha R1                  Geoff Jones (leader)                 Honda CB400              Ron Johnston

Triumph 955                 Mark Easterbrook                    Suzuki GSXR1000       Daniel Kosinski 

Suzuki Hayabusa          Wayne & Joanne Nimmo          Kawasaki ZX9R          Allan Zimmer

Yamaha R1                  Damian Tsang               17 bikes, 6 cars and 30 people

 

4wd                 Bruce Saville

Commodore     Val Jones and Spanner (dog)

Pug 206           Ben Jones

Transam           Aaron Karmiste and Elita

Commodore     Craig Morley and Ray Walker (Ray's car)

Skyline Melissa Jones and Andrew McKenna (doing the timing)

 

The ride left from West Gate bridge servo and passed through Laverton, Point Cook, Werribee, Balliang East  (police), Rowsley, Glenmore, Yaloak Vale (hill climb), Mount Wallace, Anakie Junction, Anakie, Maude, Steiglitz, Meredith (fuel & food), Durdidwarra, Anakie Junction, Werribee and broke up at Laverton.

 

A good turnout at the servo envisaged a good day’s ride ahead.  The target for the day, which has become an annual event, to view eagles floating up on thermals at Mt Wallace…

 

There’s something satisfying about being out in the middle of nowhere, following someone who knows where they’re going and leaving stresses behind.  A few open sections toured at a reasonable pace and I’m still riding by myself.  There’s finally a group in the distance, but not getting any closer.  A long straight is usually a nesting place for radars, but not today I reckon…  at that exact moment a white car appears a long way off in the distance; the front group coming up on it.  Hmmm…  I think I’ll sneak up on and slip into the group.  The car comes past; lights come on and quick U-turns.  The car works its way through the group and pulls alongside with sirens on.  A decision to keep moving and corner mark on the other side of the intersection appeared to be a good idea.  The driver hops out and speaks to a rider for a few minutes… then drives off.  Apparently he spotted one of us traveling at excessive speed but not sure which one, so lets us off with warning and mentions we should inform the leader to back off a few notches.  So then it’s off to Mt Wallace.

 

I sat down the bottom after the initial preliminary run, thinking (and saying) what a terrible, second grade, gravel road it is... and contemplated taping up remnants of shattered fairings... telling partner why the bike's in a hundred pieces... but succumbed to the fact I had to go to the top again anyway so I may as well have a stopwatch on me.

 

So I sucked in my pride and put a time on the board.  At the top I heard a 'how embarrassing' so guesstimate of 1:05ish. It was 50.8; second behind the Peugeot.  'Wow! Let's go again!' My enthusiasm had appeared from nowhere.  I think Val’s wonderful cakes and hot drinks helped in that regard.  An immediate repair to Cliff’s radiator was on the cards as the Kawasaki had picked up a stone on the run to the mountain and was oozing green stuff.

 

From the outset, Ben's Peugeot 306Gti appeared to be the way to go, but the bikes’ best was yet to come.  Ben Warden, who shortened his time by over 4 seconds, and Greg 'I won last year and am not giving up without a fight' Hales appeared as the other major contenders in the proactive group.

 

It was pretty cool to have people lining the sides of the road to watch.  I felt a bit special, really.  My second run was 48:00 seconds flat, an improvement of 2.8 seconds, and that was before my first coffee for the day!  An average time considering other years, but the award is for FOTD (fastest on the day).  I guess because of the ever-deteriorating conditions.

 

My third run was in the supercharged Commodore of Ray's.  Talk about wheel spin; traction control could not help here.  Gravel covered almost the entire 900 metres and it seemed that only the relatively thin motorcycle tyres could find any traction.  The Commodore smoked them up almost the entire way.

 

The final times were close, due to the guys’ enthusiasm and we all stayed upright.  I could not believe it could be so much fun.

 

The nice sweepers on the afternoon ride were exhilarating, that is, until one of them catches you off guard.  Adam's R1 almost braked to a standstill before overbalancing on the opposite roadside.  The resulting scuffing and couple of cracks were secured with Ben’s 100 mile-per-hour tape (a personal favorite!). 

 

Fuel and nibbles at Meredith, and another holed radiator, this time Will’s GSXR, before backtracking on the same fun curves encountered in the morning, and leading us back towards Melbourne.

 

Reality strikes at home upon viewing the disappearing rear rubber on the big Suzy, which is the flip side of good fuel economy when you allow a big bike to take a deep breath and have a gallop on the open road.

 

Thanks Geoff and extended family for the ride and timing; and Rob for the chat and rear riding.  I hope the new guys enjoyed the run.  It was nice riding with them, as it always is with the rest of you guys. 

 

Here is the table as generated by Melissa Jones and Andrew McKenna, supporters of the MSTCV.

 

Name

Bike

Trial 1 [secs]

Trial 2 [secs]

Trial 3 [secs]

Position

Greg Hales

CBR929

52.5

51.4

48.8

3rd

Ben Warden

CBR929

53.4

49.8

48.5

2nd

M. Easterbrook

955

56.3

53.2

51.5

6th

Ron Johnston

CB400

57.7

 

56.4

 

Rob Langer

R1150GS

53.8

51.4

49.7

4th

Paul Southwell

CBR954

55.0

53.5

-

 

Daniel Kosinski

GSXR1000

50.8

48.0

-

1st

Geoff Jones

R1

56.9

56.3

56.7

8th

Ben Jones

Pug206

50.2

49.5

50.0

5th

Ray Walker

Commodore

53.4

52.5

52.5

7th

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Daniel (or Danny) Kosinski, GSXR1000