I’m catching my breath this morning after a very busy weekend commentating a double-header at Eastern Creek. It was the final round of the St George Motorcycle Club’s clubman series and it consisted of practice and qualifying on the Saturday and then 10 races followed by Warm-ups and 15 races on the Sunday. It all went very well with some excellent racing and some fine socialising with good friends along the way. Sean Condon made a clean sweep of the Supersport races winning all 5 rounds as did Grant Hay in the Unlimited Class.
Best of all, my leg stood up to the strain of walking around the pits doing my homework on Saturday morning, then climbing the 45 steps up to the Commentary box at the top of the grandstand several times during the day. I was pretty beat on Saturday night, but I did less walking yesterday and pulled up well at the end of the day.
It was my good mate, Steve Butler’s last race meeting, having decided beforehand that he’s hang up the helmet at the end of the weekend. It was a bitter-sweet affair with Steve feeling that he has achieved all that he wanted to in two stints of racing and deciding to put family first. I wish him well in his retirement.
As well I made some good contacts which may lead to some useful purchases for the Shadowfax project further down the track. I am constantly being amazed at the generosity of people and at the swell of interest that my “little” project has created amongst the racing fraternity. For something that was begun merely as a project to decrease boredom and fill in my lonely days, it has mushroomed into this massive deal where people are now asking me on a regular basis how it’s going and encouraging me to keep pushing on so that they can see the bike completed and back on the track.
In other news, James Toseland has announced his immediate retirement for racing after being informed of the severity of his wrist injury. A very sad day for British motorcycling with the 2 times WSBK champion going the way of so many other British riders who ultimately collapsed under the pressure of trying to be the next Barry Sheene. Hopefully his wrist will recover enough for him to be able to continue to play the piano, his other great love.
Against all the odds, Leon Haslam has decided to sign on for another year o torture with the BMW WSBK team. I find this one inexplicable, but then, I suppose a ride in a “works” team is better than none or being relegated back to the BSB.
I have updated my Facebook photo album with some new pictures from the engine tear-down, and I’ll update this site with more detail later today. In the mean time here’s the link to the album.
