Broadford – Sunday
15th October 2006
|
Ron Johnston |
Bandit 1200 |
Jacinta Thomas |
Honda CBR919 RR |
|
Andrew Kennedy |
CBR 929 RR |
Paul Tallents |
Honda CBR919 RR |
|
Peter & Marleigh Feistl |
CBR1100XX Blackbird |
Shane |
Honda CB250 |
It is a bit hard to give up one of Geoff Jones’
rides, but I had promised to go and watch my neighbour Stuart race his rebuilt
GSX1100. He had totally rebuilt the bike including a fresh engine, reworked
frame, new triple clamps, and frame painting. He did all this in the two weeks
leading up to the race meeting, finishing on the Thursday night, with practice
on Friday.
Stuart came over to my house Friday night and
borrowed a car battery for the rollers to start the bike. He said he was having
a sh-- day. He couldn’t get
the bike to run properly and it had handling problems. He was hoping Saturday
would bring better results.
Andrew Kennedy had seen me earlier in the week
and had sourced some free tickets, so that was a bonus. Sunday morning Andrew, Shane and I left from
Andrew’s place at 9 am and that gave us an hour or so to get to Broadford. When
we arrived, usual stuff: wait in line, hand over tickets. I expected to travel
over a dirt road to the track, but lo and behold, they have sealed it to the entrance,
where it turns to dust. The dust looks like flour, two inches deep. Yuck. Bloody terrible. You should have seen the cars that were parked
there at the end of the day; what a mess! We found a park just outside the pit
gate away from the dust. Hopefully, at the end of the day they would still be
clean.
Walked over to the pit area and found Stuart
and had a look at the bikes. What a sight: an old BSA, Nortons, BMW, JAP, AJS, Indians
with hand gear change levers, Harley Davidson, Matchless, Velocette, Vincent,
and Triumph. There was even 1984 Norton Rotary. That thing had a bit of stick, not
taking much to lift the front wheel off the deck. From memory, I think they did
alright in the
Stuart told me that he didn’t qualify his
GSX1100 on the Saturday and that instead he was riding the Norvin parked next
to it. It looked pretty slick with a Norton frame and the famous Vincent vee twin
motor, all 1300cc of it. To start the bike they had a single cylinder, petrol
powered large skateboard wheel. Crank up the revs and jam it under the back
wheel, spin it up and then let the clutch out. Hopefully it would fire up. He
usually had to do it twice. It sounded awesome, though a bit hard on the ears
with straight pipes. They had taken the muffler off. Top bike.
Stuart did three races on the bike and led from
start to finish. There was another bloke racing the same bike but he didn’t get
a look in. Coming on to the main straight he just blitzed them. You would watch
Stuart pull away from him and gain 5 or 6 bike lengths on him at the end of the
straight. The lead would increase every lap. Stuart was telling me the owner
has had the bike three years and spent $150,000 on it, and it still needs a few
things done. Talk about passionate! He’s the man. For more information about
the bike and the owner contact website www.norvinracing.com
and another site is www.thevincent.com
Hope you enjoy. The bike will be racing at
Ron Johnston