Much has been made in the Australian motorcycle media over the last few weeks of the news that Chris Vermeulen (remember him?) has been given a wildcard entry into the MotoGp event at Le Mans this weekend to replace the injured Colin Edwards. As noted in my comments to dunc, I cannot see what the fuss is about. And, before I get deluged with people calling me anti-Australian, let me explain.

I saw CV’s first ever road race event at Wakefield Park in 1997. In fact I was the track commentator at that meeting. Before this date, the little Moriwaki 80′s that Tony Hatton had chosen as the “spec” bike for his new junior road racing series, had raced a few times on go-kart tracks in south east Queensland, but this was their first hit-out on a full-sized race track. The entry list was impressive and dotted with names that are now household ones to us. Broc Parkes, Chris Vermeulen and Anthony West to name just a few.

Chris was the star of the show that day and I remember Tony Hatton, when he was doing a “guest” stint on the microphone saying, “Watch out for this young kid from Queensland, he’s going to go a long way, I reckon.” Years of “talent spotting” at race meetings had already seen me notice him as soon as practice started and I was impressed. Tony’s recommendation was spot on.

From that date I followed Chris’s career closely, delighted to see him head overseas and eventually land a ride with the prestigious ten Kate team in the World Supersport Championship. Chris repaid their confidence with a win in the 2003 title race and earned a promotion to the Superbike squad for 2004. He finished 4th in his first year and, but for an injury in the morning warm up at the last race of the season in 2005, he would have won the championship.

But Chris had already had a couple of “sub” rides in MotoGp, replacing fellow Aussie, Troy Bayliss, in the Camel squad and the lure of stepping up to the big class was strong. And it was here that I feel he made the worst career move a rider can make.

Honda promised Chris that, if he’d stay another year with ten Kate and win the World Title, they’d give him a berth in the Repsol Honda MotoGp squad. But Chris, like most young people, was impatient and, instead of seeing the bigger picture, he jumped ship and signed with the Suzuki MotoGp team instead. It turned out to be a nightmare few years that sapped Chris’s confidence and kept him out of the frame for better rides. Despite his one win at Le Mans, in the rain, in which he HATES riding, by the way, results were few and far between. The bike was slow, unreliable and prone to regular catastrophic mechanical failures. The video of John Hopkins kicking the bike at the side of the track pretty much sums up Suzuki’s MotoGp campaign.

Click here to view the embedded video.

By the end of 2009 it was apparent that nothing was going to change. Younger European riders (with money) were coming out of the woodwork everywhere and Chris’s confidence was at rock bottom. Suzuki let him go (though I suspect that he was pretty glad to leave in the end) and it wasn’t a great surprise when the Kawasaki WSBK squad picked up the GP winner for their 2010 campaign. The ZX10-R was known to be a dog, but Kawasaki had promised a new bike for the season and early testing with Chris and Tom Sykes certainly showed potential. Unfortunately, it would all come to nothing. Pushing hard in Race 2 at the first round of the championship at Phillip Island, the bike selected a false neutral over Lukey Heights and Chris was spat off, crashing through the gravel trap and into the tyre wall. Worse was to come because the bike followed him in, his right knee taking the full brunt of the impact.

Chris was out, injured before the season had hardly started. A premature comeback at Brno when he wasn’t fully recovered resulted in another accident and further damage to the same right knee and that pretty much spelt the end of Chris’s career.

What has followed has been a series of painful and extensive operations and an extended period of rehabilitation. At this stage there is no sign that he will race again on a full-time basis, and, though his CV is one of which any rider could be proud (3 MotoGp Pole Positions and 1 win, just to name a few) it is still one that COULD have been so much more impressive had he waited one more year before taking the jump to MotoGp.

Is there any chance that CV will add anything significant to his CV this weekend? Sadly, I don’t think so. He is far from race fit, certainly at MotoGp level and the bike that he’s riding is slow and uncooperative. I see no good coming of this weekend apart from the sponsors having their bike out on the track. It will be, I’m afraid, the end of what should have been a stellar career.

Thank you, Chris, you’ve done us proud. Enjoy your hot rods and thanks for the memories.

BMW finally shrugged off their traction control and tyre wear issues at Donington to not only record a win, but a 1-2 win at that. Melandri beat the home-town favourite, Leon Haslam, to claim the German marque’s first victory since entering the series over two years ago. It’s been 35 races since BMW debuted and their story is one of over-supply of staff (the pits a PI were awash with people wearing BMW Motoraad shirts) and under-supply of results (3 podiums). The off-season much have seen some butt-kicking from the distinctly unimpressed BMW hierarchy as the 2012 bike arrived at PI minus BMW’s own proprietary ECU and with a Magnet Marelli unit (like everyone else uses) in its place. The difference was instantly noticeable and completely vindicated the opinions held by many pundits, myself and my good mate, Derek J Hanbidge included, that it has been the German team’s stubborn insistence on doing things “in-house” that has been the major cause of their problems since Day 1. The MM ECU has transformed the bike from a vicious, tyre-eating monster to a competitive bike without hardly any other changes being made to what was always  basically good package.

Indeed, were it not for an errant Johnny Rae in Race 2 at Donnington, the marque would have recorded not just another win, but another 1-2. Rae cannoned into the back of Melandri’s BMW who was looking for a way around Haslam and both the BMW’s were out, hence my somewhat cryptic title today. Proving that there is no justice in racing, Rae was able to sort out the death wobbles and score a win. Good for the locals, but foul luck for BMW.

(picture by Jensen Beeler of the always informative asphalt and rubber web site)

In MotoGp, Casey Stoner showed them who was boss at Estroril (sadly the last MotoGp event to be held at the popular Portugese venue). Stoner was simply too good, holding off the Spanish pair of Lorenzo and Pedrosa again and doing all that was required to keep the psychological as well as the points advantage. But the race of the meet was the Moto2 race where another Spanish pair staged the best knock-down, drag-out brawl since Rossi put Lorenzo in his box a couple of years ago at Jerez. The lead on the last lap changed 4 times and it was only a magical, physics-defying “around the outside” pass by Marquez in T7 that finally sealed the deal. Espargaro tried a block pass in “Hayden” corner, but ran wide on the exit and the race was done. I know I’ve said it before, but mark down Marc Marquez as the next Valentino Rossi, this kid will be a superstar very soon, (in fact, he already is).

And, speaking of the Italian Stallion, his tale of woe at Ducati continues. 7th place and 26 seconds behind Stoner means that there is no improvement at this stage. And poor Nicky Hayden was even worse, an ECU glitch meaning that the bike was trying to go ridiculously fast in the corners and was as slow as a slug on the straights. And the disenchantment that we have seen on Rossi’s face in pictures this season is now boiling over into words as well with the champion remarking on Monday that the WSBK race from Donington was great racing and that MotoGp was “boring” Surely we will see Rossi announcing his retirement at the end of the year as media speculation on that front begins to accelerate.

Most of the major MotoGp stars are off-contract at the end of the year but it seems unlikely that there will be any major changes at the top. Honda will surely retain Stoner and Pedrosa, Yamaha will keep Lorenzo but don’t be surprised if the rumoured swap of Spies for Dovizioso takes place. Hayden must surely go soon, he’s been past his use-by date since 2007 and Rossi may go too. If Ducati suddenly end up with two vacant seats, the question is, who will fill them? More to the point who would WANT to? Funnily enough, any rider who isn’t presently riding for a “works” team would gladly climb on the Ducati despite its woeful reputation. A “works” bike is a “works” bike after all. It’s to be hoped that the complete revamp that is promised after Indianapolis will at least partly solve the problems, although I notice that Preziosi politely side-stepped questions from journalists during the week as to why he was building a Yamaha for Rossi. How he must wish that he had never made that comment at the beginning of 2011 .

So we may well see a domino effect at work in the MotoGp paddock next year as well. The key will be, as it nearly always is, what will Rossi do? Once he has decided, the rest of the pieces should (fairly) neatly fall into place. The one big glitch that nobody seems to have an answer for is, how are Honda going to deal with Marc Marquez? Because of the “rookie” rule, he can’t be brought straight into the Repsol “works” squad as a third rider (remember, Repsol ran 3 riders for a while back then) but Honda will definitely want him in MotoGp in 2013. Perhaps Repsol will find some more money for Gresini or LCR and Marquez can make his way in through one of them, much as Casey Stoner did.

Interesting times are ahead, for sure.

Yesterday was a great day, although very tiring. Very early, we headed up to Windsor and then onto the Putty Road. We were going to the Grey Gum Cafe for the Parkinson’s NSW Market Day and fundraiser. As I mentioned a few days ago, my good mate, Dave Thompson, and my good wife, Helena, had prepared over 40 original paintings to be exhibited on the walls of the cafe. All of these were for sale with the usual commission the proprietors would have charged for the use of their venue being donated to Parkinson’s NSW.

Grey Gum Cafe

Unfortunately, not many of the paintings sold, although that may have had more to do the fact that the majority of people in attendance on the day were motorcyclists. John and Kim at the cafe had arranged for shipping if anyone bought and couldn’t take the work home on the day, but, despite achieving lots of admiring looks and comments, it seems the crowd wasn’t really into art. The paintings will remain at the Grey Gum for another month or so and Kim is confident more of them will sell, especially to people passing through in cars who can take the works home straight away.

It was a huge day. Well over 150 motorcycles came and went during the day, including some individuals and groups who visited more than once. A big contingent of classic 60′s sports cars also turned up, courtesy of a club run by the Sydney MG Club. They didn’t know the market day was even on, it’s just that they had made Grey Gum the turn-around point for the outing.

There were stalls selling all sorts of wares, an excellent country/rock band who kept us entertained all day long and activities for the kids as well. I highly recommend the band, too

Roughstock County/Rock band,

A number of raffles were held during the day for meat trays, a myriad of other small prizes with the three major prizes being one of Thommo’s original art works, a $200 gift voucher from Frasers Motorcycles and a car detailing prize for the hand car wash in Windsor. I don’t know how much was raised from all of these activities, but I believe that the Parkinson’s NSW people who were there on the day were pretty ticked at the result.

I spent most of the day alternating duties between working in the car park with my brother, directing cars and bikes to where adequate parking was available and MC’ing the event and making all the appropriate announcements. I even managed *cough cough* to sneak in a guest song with the band (thanks for the lend of the guitar, Glenn) doing a Jimmy Buffett number. What fun.

In spite of the title, the weather was superb, a classic Autumn day and the range and variety of bikes and riders that turned up was truly amazing. I’m pleased to say that VFR’s were well represented, ranging from a lovely 1990 model to a 2 week old 800 ridden by an officer from the RAAF base at Richmond.

We headed south around 1730, exhausted but happy. I’ve always believed that it doesn’t cost you to do something for someone else and that, if you do, it comes back to you one day, usually in a most unexpected way. I don’t care, in this case, if it doesn’t. I was just delighted to have been part of something great, and I can see that the Grey Gum is going to become a venue for many more of these fundraising events. Congratulations to John and Kim for their foresight and hard work and planning. If you haven’t dropped in and had a coffee there yet, you need to do so soon.

(l-r) A delicious and original Honda 750/4, Helena and Stanley, the pet Alpaca, A red and a maroon VFR800, “Carbon fibre, sir?”

Helena’s mum passed away in November 2011 and it has been a real difficulty for my wife to get used to life without her. For over 20 years mum and dad lived with us and, in her last couple of years of life, we were her primary carers as the ravages of diabetes and liver failure started to set in. Mum was a “hoarder” of some degree, keeping most everything that she thought would be important “one day”. And, since 2004 when we moved into this house, we have basically had two households full of household effects squeezed into a house that was only meant to contain one.  When mum passed away and since dad is now in a nursing home, the bulk of their effects were simply collected together and put in the back sheds until Helena felt strong enough to deal with them.

And there they have stayed, until a couple of weeks ago. I decided that, as part of my contribution to the family good, I would clean out both sheds and try to rationalise the both of them so that they could be useable again as sheds and also so that my wife could have some closure about her mum and dad’s personal effects. What a job it turned out to be! Mixed in with boxes and boxes of old paperwork (phone bills from 2005, etc) were Naturalisation Certificates, mum’s Passport from when she came out to Australia in 1959 and other important pieces of family history, all dumped in together. What it meant was that every box, every bag, every container, had to be laboriously sorted through to ensure that something important wasn’t going to be thrown out.

At Illawarra Riders coffee night last Tuesday one of the IR members was smirking when I was telling this story and he went on to explain that he works for a company that cleans out houses that are parts of deceased estates. Some of the stories that he told about the things that they find in the process of doing this were quite amazing.

Anyway, it took us days and days to sort, stack, repack and dispose. Fortunately our local council allows each household two free pickups of a trailer-load of trash per calendar year. Pack it all up, book a pickup and leave the stuff on the front footpath on rubbish collection day and it gets taken away, no hassles. We had used one late last year so we had another up our sleeve.

So the end result of nearly two week’s work is that our two back sheds, the smaller one which contained my stuff mostly, and the bigger one that contained both mum and dad’s stuff are now clean and we have made some sense of them. Dad’s shed has become mine and is now being filled (not really, but you know what I mean) with my fishing gear, overflow tools and stuff from my garage and excess motorcycle equipment (fairing molds from the Shadowfax, for example) The smaller shed is now devoted to Helena’s overflow art and craft equipment plus garden tools and there’s still plenty of room left in both of them! The trick now is to make sure that they stay that way!

Some time ago I bought an old Kawasaki GPZ750R as my next restoration project. Unfortunately the seller was less than an honest seller and he has been reported to ebay for his trouble. DO NOT buy anything from a seller called mark00sue from near Port Macquarie, the man is a crook. The bike itself is OK, but it doesn’t have a key, thanks to this ebay seller. Anyway, since my employment situation has not improved, I have been forced to put the bike back on the market. If you want a great little project for the upcoming winter, head to my ebay site and check it out.

Kawasaki GPZ750R for sale.

This weekend is a huge one for motorcycle sport, dumb programming, in my opinion. MotoGp from Estoril, WSBK from Monza, AMA Superbike from Sears Point and the BSB from Oulton Park as well as the IDM (German Superbike Championship) from the Lausitzring. Best of luck trying to keep tabs on all of that, though the British web site, www.crash.net does cover all of them but not with live timing, etc. Locally, Round 3 of the ASBK is on from WA as well.

Also this weekend, but closer to home, the Parkinson’s NSW fundraising charity day is on at the Grey Gum Cafe on the Putty Road, 80kms north of Windsor. From reports on-site, all 42 paintings that are to be exhibited and, hopefully, sold, have been hung (goodness knows how they found the wall space to do that) and the rest of the support crew, entertainers, stall-holders, etc, are expected to roll in and set up today. If you can make it up there tomorrow (Sunday) you are ensured of a great day and you’ll be doing something to help a worthy cause as well.

I hope your weekend is relaxing and enjoyable. I’m off to do some stuff in the garage. Ciao.

photo courtesy of Casey Stoner’s Facebook albums.

It should have been the perfect Spanish party. Jerez in the Spring, 3 Spaniards on pole position for the three races, what could go wrong?

Plenty, it seems. Firstly, the whole meeting was clouded, (yes, I know) by the typical Iberian Spring weather, rain, rain and more rain. Practice and qualifying sessions were all blighted either by precipitation or the after-effects of it in a drying track.

In the end, the race day dawned fine but with the lingering threat of rain and so it transpired. The Moto3 race (damn, those things are SO slow and they sound HORRIBLE) was like a game of ten pin bowling with survival of the luckiest being the order of the day. Both of Australia’s hopes, Arthur Sissis and Jack Miller were out early courtesy of the wet track and the race turned into a demonstration of the amazing skills of the Italian teenager Finati who spelt finis to the race very early, eventually winning by well over 30 seconds. The race for the minors was entertaining, but the Moto3′s have a long way to go before they can match the cachet of the 125′s.

Moto2 saw the usual cautious start from Marquez (who seems to have suddenly recovered from his eye troubles), hitting the lead about half race distance when rain started to fall. Unfortunately the one lap that he NEEDED to lead on, the 18th, Pol Espargaro crossed the line ahead and, when the race was stopped on lap 19, the countback to the previous completed lap saw the Spaniard awarded the win ahead of Marquez. Despite still not being as quick as the 250 two strokes they have replaced, the 600cc engined Moto2 bikes provide the best entertainment with close and brutal racing.

Lorenzo was on pole for the big one, and Stoner, who hadn’t even turned a wheel in morning warm-ups, was in 5th. Surely that would ensure another Spanish win? Evidently not. By third race distance, Stoner was doing his usual disappearing act and the Ducatis were dropping through the field as usual. A return of arm cramping issues slowed Stoner in the closing stages and the commentators were wetting themselves at the prospect of Lorenzo re-taking the lead but they were romancing themselves. Stoner turned it up a notch and ensured his first win of 2012. On the podium, both Stoner and Lorenzo looked happy (lLorenzo even shook Casey’s hand on the slow-down lap) but Pedrosa’s face was glum and despondent. I wonder if he knows what we are all thinking?

Rossi and Hayden propped up the back end of the top 10, over 30 seconds behind Casey as usual (this despite Hayden putting the Ducati on the front row in qualifying). Spies was again a non-event being beaten by both the Tech III bikes by nearly 30 seconds. Rumours are gathering strength that Yamaha are looking at swapping him with Dovizioso. They could do worse, as Spies is looking less and less like a race winner (or even POTENTIAL race winner) every time he goes out.

Ducati rumours continue, the latest being that Ducati will have a brand-new 75 degree engine to replace the “L” motor they have used since the beginning. Supposedly to make an appearance after the mid-season break (July) the bike should by then BE the Yamaha that Ducati said they’d never build. Rossi is looking more an more like he is just going through the motions. How have the mighty fallen.

Next weekend will be the final MotoGp meeting to be held at one of my favourite tracks, Estoril. Plenty of soul-searching for plenty of the teams in the next 5 days.

In speedway grand prix, Australia’s Chris Holder won the Polish round of the Speedway Grand prix series on the birthday of fellow Aussie speedway legend, Leigh Adams. He dedicated the win to Leigh who is still recuperating from spinal injuries incurred in an accident while training for the Finke Rally last year.

Proving that even the loftiest can fall, it was announced overnight that BMW is recalling 1414 of its 2012 1000cc sportsbikes. Due to a manufacturing process error, these bikes have improperly manufactured con rod bolts. At high temperature and/or high revs, the bots could come loose and cause a “catastrophic” engine failure. I guess owners are being notified privately, but I’m glad I don’t own one!!

Friday practice at Jerez was wet so nothing can really be adduced from the times set. Hopefully the Ducatisti won’t get too carried away with Rossi getting 2nd fastest time! Word around seems to indicate that his best/only chance of a win this season is if it’s wet.

I’ve had an email back from “Rapid Bikes” magazine so we can start teeing up their photographer for a photo shoot of the Shadowfax for the magazine. There are still some detail things that need to be done to finish the bike right off, but we’re going to leave it in “as shown” condition from the Sheene until commitments like this are finished.

In injury news, Kawasaki has announced that Joan Lascorz has been released from hospital and is conversing with his carers. Notably absent from the medical report is any mention of how his body is recovering and whether or not he has movement in the peripherals, so we look like still having to wait for some time yet before the situation becomes clear.

In WSBK, Effenbet’s Cnadian recruit, Brett McCormack looks like being out for at least three months recovering from a big “off” at Imola. No word on who his replacement might be as yet or whether he will be replaced at all. Unsurprisingly, super-sub, Anthony West’s name is in the frame. 

Well, that’s it for today. I’m looking forward to Jerez with great interest as it looks as if, from 2013 onwards, there will be one less Spanish round of the MotoGp World Championship (not a moment too soon, in my opinion).

Don’t forget the Grey Gums Parkinson’s fundraiser next Sunday, May 6th. My lounge room looks like a art gallery at the moment as Dave and Helena are making sure that all the paintings are catalogued and ready to go. I could show you some preview pictures but they’d probably kill me. 

This weekend sees round 2 of the MotoGp World Championship at Jere, in, you guessed it, Spain. For most teams it is regarded as the real beginning of the season in the same way as the WSBK fraternity regard the Imola Rd 2 of their championship as being the real beginning to their season. The “fly-away” rounds are at the least an inconvenience at at most a nuisance to teams who are based in Europe and hate the travelling and all that it entails.

Jorge Lorenzo heads into Jerez with a lead that he probably wasn’t expecting to have given the Honda juggernaut of 2011. He can scarcely expect to see Casey Stoner afflicted by cramps again, though many were surprised at just how fast the 2012 Yamaha is. However, given that the Spanish riders always “lift” for their home races, he certainly isn’t going to go without a fight.

Will Rossi spring a surprise and put it on the front row? Will he even see which way the pack went? Don’t expect too much, the Doctor is a beaten man and knows that, failing a completely new bike with a new 75 degree engine (don’t laugh, it’s being suggested), he’s consigned to the doldrums for the forseeable.

All eyes will again be on the CRT bikes with the dire predictions of lack of speed from the second-string formula being proved uncomfortably right at Qatar. Apart from Colin Edwards who is in the twilight of his career and hasn’t produced a top level ride in years anyway, the lesser-lights in terms of equipment and riding roster had better get used to a pasting for 2012, unless DORNA steps in and gives them even more of a technical break than that which they presently enjoy.

In other racing news, Pedercini Racing’s David Salom has shown that there is honour in the paddock after all by rejecting an offer from the “works” Kawasaki squad to replace the injured Joan Lascorz in favour of staying with the team for whom he has signed and with whom he feels he has a moral obligation to stay. I, for one, am most impressed.

And, finally, courtesy of my good friends at visordown, the list of the worst motorcycling fashion faux pas. I thought this was brilliant. I wonder how many of these you have committed, I know I’ve been guilty of a few, but I’m not going to say which ones.

Don’t be a motorcycle fashion victim.

So it’s ANZAC Day again, it seems to roll around so fast these days. A day on which we remember the sacrifice and gallantry of our soldiers who served in that futile piece of military grandstanding known as Gallipolli. In these days of know-it-all commentators and left-leaning media it is common to decry the Gallipolli tradition and point to all the errors that were made and the overall lack of impact that the landings and subsequent battles had.

But surely this isn’t the point. Few, if any nations have a military history that is filled with only successes. Indeed, the greater the nation the more it seems that they have been defeated in battle at least as often as they won.

No, the point of ANZAC Day surely, is that our soldiers left our shores as a disparate bunch of raw recruits and returned a strong, united and respected fighting force. Iron is forged in the heat of the furnace and a nation’s mettle is most surely tested and proved in the heat of battle. Despite not achieving a military victory at ANZAC Cove, the Australian and New Zealand forces went on to Europe where the qualities of fighting spirit and battle-hardened stamina made them the infantrymen of choice when the toughest fighting in the trenches of France and Belgium needed to be done.

So we pause today to remember and to express our gratitude to the men who forged a nation’s reputation in that most extreme of furnaces, that of war. In whatever way you choose to commemorate the day, at least pause for a while and be grateful to those young men who raised this nation from obscurity and placed it at the forefront of the world stage.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

On Sunday 6th May (that’s in two weeks’ time) the lovely people at the Grey Gum Cafe on the Putty Road, north of Windsor, will be holding a special event. Most of you will recall that this road house was the subject of a recent vicious and totally unjustified attack by the Singleton Council who issued the owners with a Notice to Close unless they spent $250000 installing purpose-built slip lanes for the entry and exit from the cafe onto the Putty Road. Despite the fact that the owners, John and Kim, had satisfied all council requirements when building the establishment just a few months before this action was taken, council, for whatever reason, none was ever given, pursued them outrageously and did everything that they could to close the Grey Gum down. As a cafe, approximately half way between Singleton and Windsor, and the ONLY place where travellers could stop, revive and survive on that whole stretch, the actions of Singleton Council and the motives that provoked them seem as bizarre now as they seemed then.

Due particularly to my brother and his well-developed sense of right and wrong, the motorcycling fraternity became aware of the predicament of John and Kim and a huge campaign of support, fuelled by widespread exposure of the scandal on online motorcycle forums began. It rapidly gathered momentum to the extent that the media got involved, the RTA was petitioned and Singleton Council were left looking very totalitarian and very exposed. It took a while, but, by the time that inspectors from the RTA arrived to inspect the situation, the first words from the RTA exec’s lips to Kim were, “We don’t want you to shut down, you are providing a very important road safety function.” (which John and Kim and everyone else except the cretins on the council already knew). The council’s case wasn’t helped at all when two of the elected council members stopped in for a coffee, purely coincidentally, identified themselves as aldermen on the council and were totally mortified when Kim asked them why they were trying to close the cafe down.

“What do you mean, close you down?” was the reply, “We don’t know anything about this.” Bureaucracy gone rampant. A subsequent “Show Cause” meeting with the council was a debacle with the council buckling completely to public pressure and to their exposure as a bunch of little Hitlers in the public eye and the Notice to Close was rescinded.

So, as a means of saying a big “Thank You” to their supporters and particularly to the motorcycling fraternity of NSW, John and Kim are having a special celebration day at the cafe on the 6th May, as the above flyer indicates.

It will also be a charitable day. My best mate’s partner suffers from Parkinson’s disease and when Dave and Sue were passing through last year they stayed at the Grey Gum, parking their motorhome in the dedicated camping area around the back. John and Kim were very upset when they saw first-hand what a terrible toll the disease takes on those who suffer from it and those who care for those who have it and they asked Dave if he’d be interested in staging an art exhibition there as a fundraiser for Parkinsons NSW. Dave is a very talented botanical artist, working in water colours. Dave agreed in principle and said he’d get back to Kim with some tentative dates. He reckoned without Kim’s dynamic organisational abilities. By the time he and Sue had returned from a quick loop through South Australia, the exhibition and the date were already set in stone and Kim was on the warpath.

So, the event will feature around 24 original artworks by Dave Thompson as well as over a dozen original artworks by one of his students, my wonderful wife, Helena. All of them will be for sale with John and Kim waiving the usual commission to which they would be entitled for running the exhibition and providing the venue. The usual commission will, instead, be donated to Parkinsons NSW.  As well, one of Dave’s original works will be raffled on the day and the full proceeds from the sale also donated to PNSW.

There will be entertainment, static displays, jumping castles for the kids and a Junior Painting Course, conducted by Helena and Thommo to introduce kids to the joy of water colour painting.

If you can make it on the day, please try to. It’s going to be a great day in support of a very worthy cause as well as your chance to encourage John and Kim in their new business venture. As my brother always says, “Don’t miss it if you can.”

picture courtesy of visordown.com

As previewed in my last entry, the takeover of Ducati by the German Audi/VW conglomerate has been confirmed, the Italian company being valued at 1.2 billion dollars. Just how much of that is Ducati’s debt burden has not been disclosed (nor will be) but you can bet the meticulous managers at Audi will be looking long and hard at the financial records and checking to see if there are savings to be made. I have already uncharitably suggested that a major saving could be the scrapping of their MotoGp project which continues to hemorrhage money at an unconscionable rate. Don’t expect this to happen, but it should. And, as a result of the takeover, AMG Mercedes has announced the end of their partnership with Ducati.

Speculation is now centred on who will be the new CEO of the company with suggestions that one of the German execs from Audi will be brought in to replace the Italian CEO.

And, apropos Ducati (what news item these days ISN’T about Ducati?) this excellent summation from David Emmett of  motomatters.com. It’s a long read, but, like everything that David publishes, it’s worth persevering to the end of it.

Between the devil and the deep, blue sea. David Emmett.

The proposed MotoGp test at Mugello yesterday and today, which, incidentally, was going to be undertaken by Nicky Hayden alone, was washed out and didn’t happen.

Now, let me ask you a question. In order to bear a manufacturer’s name, a motorcycle needs to be at least partly built or assembled by said manufacturer, yes?

Apparently not, as this article will confirm. Norton is entering the TT races with a bike where the frame is built by Spondon and the engine by Aprilia. If it wasn’t the 20th of April, I’d be suspecting that it was the FIRST of April.

“Norton” to enter the Isle of Man TT races.

Being as of this is my 1000th post since I started this blog in 2008, I’d like to thank all the people who have supported me, registered as members, offered comments and suggestions and contributed in any way. I never suspected that we’d still be going nearly 4 years after beginning.

In the very near future I hope to be able to announce some news that I find exciting but I can’t say anything about it just yet. As always, watch this space.