Road Racing

MOUNT GAMBIER’S SENIORS MEETING – & IT’S HOTTING UP AS YOU READ!

May 7, 2021 Filed Under: Motocross, News, Road Racing, SA Women in Motorcycling

MOUNT GAMBIER’S SENIORS MEETING – IT’S HOTTING UP AS YOU READ!

WHAT AND WHERE!

This weekend sees the Mount Gambier MCC hold their annual Seniors Meeting, for riders over the age of 45 years at their fantastic Mac Park circuit down at ‘The Mount’, with almost 100 entries received for the weekend’s action!

Practise started today (Friday), with practise and qualifying kicking off Saturday morning, before the racing gets underway – for classic and modern bikes, solo and sidecar!

So, if you have not a thing to do this weekend, and you were looking to head out for a ride or a trip – then this might well be the choice you were looking for! Great action, great viewing, great food, and always a great atmosphere at the Mac Park venue!

Spectators $10 per day entry

Catering Yes Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Saturday night tea in Clubrooms

Bar Yes , Saturday and Sunday

Camping yes $15 per person per night Under 15 free

What more do you need!

PROGRAMME

Friday 7^th May; Non-compulsory practice.

Saturday 8^th May; Practice and Qualifying from 9.00am with racing to commence after qualifying.

Sunday 9th May – From 9.00am, Limited practice with racing to follow.

CLASSES OF COMPETITION

Races will be structured into events for Historic solo, Historic Sidecars and Modern bikes.

Age Brackets for the Seniors Meeting are as follows: 45-54, 55-64, 65 & over

PLUS, ALSO ON OFFER THERE IS;

Sidecar Scratch Race: Open to any motorcycle with sidecar of any period

Sidecar Handicap Race: Open to any motorcycle with sidecar of any period.

PLUS, FEATURE RACES, with the Club will conducting the following feature races:

The 100 Plus Cup: Combined age of rider & machine must be 100 years or greater

The 85 Plus Cup: Combined age of rider & machine must be 85 years or greater

The 70 Plus Cup: Combined age of rider & machine must be 70 years or greater

The 45 Plus Cup: Combined age of rider & machine must be 45 years or greater

Combined Sidecar Cup: Open to any motorcycle with sidecar of any period

PLEASE NOTE; This is a COVID-Safe Event and all COVID Protocols will be in place and must be adhered to by all personnel on-site.

All Riders and Teams are reminded that the current COVID-19 environment changes quickly and all should understand that changes and adjustment may occur planning which are outside of Mount Gambier Motor Cycle Clubs control.
Please cooperate with all new regulations and adhere to requests from Officials and Covid Safe Marshalls. Any breach of the COVID-Safe restrictions may result in a sporting penalty and/or fines and penalties by government law enforcement.
A condition of entry into the circuit will require ALL personnel to register their contact details either by the QR Code at the track or by signing upon entry.
Competitors/entrants are fully responsible for the management of personnel in their pit area under the COVID-Safe Plan. Any breach of the COVID-Safe restrictions may result in a sporting penalty and/or fines and penalties by government law enforcement.
All competitors, entrants, and personnel are strongly encouraged to download the SA GOV App

AND IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR AN OFF ROAD RIDE, ALSO ON THIS WEEKEND

RIDE DAYS

TEA TREE GULLY – The TTG MCC are running a Ride Day on Sunday, at the Tea Tree Gully MX Track – Para Valley Drive, Tea Tree Gully, so contact the club for all the details – and get out and have a low key non-competitive ride – and the whole family as well!

RIDE PARKS AUSTRALIA RIDE DAYS

WHYALLA – The Whyalla MCC are running a RPA day tomorrow, Saturday, at their MX venue, on Lincoln Highway from 9.00am, and as it is a RPA day – no licence needed, so contact the club for all the details – and get out and have a low key non-competitive ride – and the whole family as well!

KEITH – The Keith & Districts MCC are running a RPA day Sunday, at Andy Caldecott Park, Charles Well Road, Keith, from 9.00am, and as it is a RPA day – no licence needed, so contact the club for all the details – and get out and have a low key non-competitive ride – and the whole family as well!

RENMARK – The Riverland JMC are running a RPA day Sunday, at Riverland MX Track – 19695 Sturt Highway , Renmark, from 9.00am, and as it is a RPA day – no licence needed, so contact the club for all the details – and get out and have a low key non-competitive ride – and the whole family as well!

All of the Club contacts are listed in the Club Directory here on the MSA website; www.motorcyclingsa.org.au/clubs/club-directory

DALLAS SKEER @ ROUND 2 OF THE 2021 AUSTRALIAN SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP

April 28, 2021 Filed Under: News, Road Racing

DALLAS SKEER @ ROUND 2 OF THE 2021 AUSTRALIAN SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP

The Kenny Blake Foundation scholarship recipient gives a rundown on his exploits at round 2 of the 2021 Australian Supersport Championship, read on ….

The pace continued over last weekend at Wakefield Park for the Australian Superbike Championship in Goulbourn NSW for round 2. Cold morning temps didn’t stop me from reaching new PB’s and coming away with some good results and showing what our small team is capable of.

Coming into winter means the mornings are quite chilly and Wakefield Park isn’t known for having the best surface. After testing there 2 weeks prior to the round we knew where we stood and what needed to be done and Friday practise went a little slower then I wanted. Being off the pace a little bit we were still able to put in some decent times to finish 5^th fastest for the day after making some small changes to the bike.

Saturday saw two 25 min qualifying’s where we had to run the same set of tyres over both sessions due to tyre restrictions. The first session didn’t go to plan as while on lap 2 running off track and into the gravel trap not quite making it out and dropping it. Luckily there was no damage and I was able to pick the bike up and get back to the pits. A quick check over with the team and back out to try and set a lap with fresh tyres still on. Even though the track was cold that morning the Pirelli tyres hooked up well but the slight get off at the start hindered me all session and I was able to put in a 59sec.771, 5^th fastest after 12 laps 1.2secs behind 1^st place. The second session wasn’t any better as I did the same lap time but also on the same tyres. Even though the track temperature was warmer later in the day this track requires new rubber to get the full amount of grip to put in solid lap. It was good to throw down multiple 59sec lap times and show some good consistency on worn tyres, similar to what they would be like in the final laps of racing. . So starting from the middle of the second row in 5^th gave me a good choice to if I go on the inside or outside into turn 1 off the start.

We arrived Sunday to a very foggy and wet track and did not do the 5 minute warm up a it wouldn’t have been worth anything as the track had only just dried up. So we looked to make up a position in the 16 lap races.

Race 1 was an eventful race after holding 5^th off the line but getting dropped back to 6^th into turn 2. After taking back 5^th place I started to close down to 4^th who had a few seconds gap. The there was a crash and the race got stopped and was to be reduced to 6 laps. I struggled to get into a comfortable rhythm and was in a group of 4 riders battling for fourth place for the 6 laps. Made a small mistake coming onto the straight on lap 3 and dropped to 6^th place and didn’t have time to make a move back until getting ran wide on the last corner getting pushed back to 7^th. I was able to catch up slightly with 2 laps to go but didn’t have time to line up a pass. Then the rider in front of me made a pass to take 5^th place and making the other guy run wide and crash out, giving me 6^th. Even though I would have liked to finish a little higher up I was happy to get back to my PB pace and move up one place to 6th in the championship after that race.

Race 2 went a little better for myself after getting slowed up by the riders in front at turn 1 and losing my run up the back straight of the track instantly dropping a second behind. Siting in 5th I had a few riders behind me that I was able to pull away from comfortably while doing consistent PB lap times of 59sec.443. By lap 13 out of 16 I was able to reel in the 3 second gap to 4^th place but just didn’t quite have enough laps to line up a pass. A last ditch attempt at turn 1 on the final lap saw me coming in to fast running wide losing half a second and had to settle for a close 5^th. This race was good for myself even though I was by myself for most of it as my lap times only varied by half a second over the 16 laps which is what got me closer to getting 4^th.

The weekend was a good weekend even though I would have liked to come away 4^th overall as the battle for 4^th is nearly if not more competitive as the race win at the moment in my class. I was able to move from 7^th to 5^th in the championship after this round only one point off 4^th. Every track we go to I’m able to beat my old PB and be on the old lap record pace. The front runners are doing ridiculously fast lap times that are way faster than the previous lap record. We aren’t quite there yet but getting closer, and with a 4 month break we hope to have the speed to fight for the podium!

Can’t thank Dad, Jase, Glen Richards enough for putting in the work at the track and home and all the great sponsors below that got me to where I am today.

Penrite Oils

Barry Francis Motorcycles

Trident tyre centre

Nolan Helmets Australia

Suzuki Motorcycles Australia

Nitron Suspension Systems

Suspensions R Us

Plus Racing Gear

Baker Group

JC Performance

Fly’s Moving Colour

Neville Lush Racing

TMA Racing

Pirelli

SpeedAngle

MSA

SA Plasterboard

Superbike Accessories

Mick Harrison Signs

Stef’s Transport

MB Automotive

Gino’s Pizza and Pasta bar

Australian Technical Rubber

The Ken Blake Festival of Motorcycling

Dekker Motor Body Builder

K&S Fuels

The Grinning Dingo

South East Welding Services

Sew Unique

Tim English

Bannister & Son

Southern Air Ag

South East Property Sales and Management

Unitech

Alexandria Council

DECLAN CARBERRY RIPS THE BITUMEN TO SET A NEW RECORD FOR THE EASTER CUP AT MOUNT GAMBIER!

April 7, 2021 Filed Under: News, Road Racing, State Championship

DECLAN CARBERRY RIPS THE BITUMEN TO SET NEW RECORDS FOR THE EASTER CUP AT MOUNT GAMBIER!

Round 2 of the 2021 SA Championship, which also featured The Easter Cup

here is the race report from Declan Carberry, who set the track alight at Mount Gambier over Easter to become the youngest rider to have his name etched on The Easter Cup trophy. At 16 years of age, our 2018 MSA Rising Star is having a brilliant start to 2021, and a perfect 5 from 5 was the culmination of the hard work he has put into his racing so far!

Here’s what he had to say about the weekend at Mac Park, where the Mount Gambier Club once again ran yet another high quality meeting, with some great racing as the SA Road Race Championship battles hot up!

Here’s what DJ220 had to say;

What an amazing weekend.

Friday was practice I ran the same Tyers I used for the whole 3 hour they had 70+ laps before I started the weekend. Dad changed the set up a little on the bike at home that week. Friday was the day to get used to the bike and changes made.

Everything was working well with the setup.

SATURDAY

Qualifying and race 1

In the first qualifying I went out to scrub in a new front and a 6 lap old rear tyre. I managed to set a lap of 1.11.3. This put me 1st for the 600cc’s and 1st for The Easter Cup. This made me the quickest bike for the first qualifying of all classes.

In qualifying 2 of Superbikes Jamie Banks did a 1.11.2 on his GSX-R1000 and another rider did 1.11.2 so this placed me 3rd for The Easter Cup.

I then went out for my 2nd qualifying to do 4 to 5 laps and see if I couldn’t do a quicker time than them. I pushed as hard as I could and did an 1.10.9 on my 4th lap. This was a new PB for me and it put me back on pole for The Easter Cup.

Race 1 was a 6 lap race. I got a ok start and got thought turn 1 in 1st position, then pushed for 4 laps till I got a big enough lead that I could maintain my gap to 2nd place. I took the chequered flag to take my first 600cc Supersport win.

SUNDAY

Races 2, 3 & 4 PLUS, The Easter Cup.

Races 2, 3 and 4 had great starts and tried to do the same as race 1 coming away with 3 more wins.

This giving me 4 from 4 wins in the 600cc Supersport.

By the time The Easter Cup race came around, I was getting nervous about it as I was the youngest person to put it on pole.

The 2nd quickest 600cc was in 12th.

On the start I was nervous as I had Jamie Banks next to me. The lights went out and him and I both had a great start. Jamie just had more legs to get in to turn 1 quicker Jamie had the inside line, I was right on him for the first 2 laps.

Turn 1 lap 3 I put it up the inside of Jamie and I didn’t believe I was in 1st. For the next 12 laps I pushed like crazy.

Jamie pushed me so hard I stayed in 1st but he kept the gap small. The biggest it got was 3 seconds when we got caught up in lapped traffic.

I came across the line and couldn’t believe I was now the youngest winner, and a 600cc, to have won The Easter Cup.

An awesome weekend where I was lucky enough to have won 5 from 5 races!

Thanks for your support.

#DJ220

Photo credits Pit Lane Studio – with thanks!

And thanks to these awesome sponsors for their continued support;

@Auldana Foundation

Underground Designs

Webb Plastics

Nightmare Designs

South Coast Small Engines

On Track Rider Training

Pit Lane Studio

@mcleads accessories

Personalised Home Designs

Greg Johnson Insurance

Vh Repco

Victor Motorcycles *

Neville Lush

@Pirelli Tyres

DECLAN CARBERRY REPORTS ON ROUND 1 OF THE 2021 SA ROAD RACE CHAMPS & THE LEGENDARY 3 HOUR RACE!

March 19, 2021 Filed Under: News, Road Racing, State Championship

Here’s a wrap up of 2018 MSA Rising Star, Declan Carberry’s weekend at Mallala for round 1 of the 2021 South Australian Road Race Championships, as well as the iconic 3 Hour Race – read on ….

Saturday was qualifying and round 1 of the 2021 South Australian Road Race Championships.

In the first qualifying I was sitting in 3rd. Second qualifying I punched harder and got 2nd with a 1.10.4

I was sitting next to Ty Lynch on the grid.

Race 1, I got a terrible start it wheeled twice but I didn’t drop 2nd I sat in 2nd the whole race.

It was an awesome race had lots of fun and learnt lots.

Race 2 had a great start and was right on ty the whole race but wasn’t quite close enough to make a move finished the SA races with 2nd.

At the end of the day I raced in the Steve Martin / Tim Inkster 12 lap race with 1000’s. There was only 2 600s in it and finished in 4th. I was the top 600.

Sunday was the 3 Hour and I was in a team with John Hunt.

We had qualifying first up in the morning, we where running 1st and 2nd.

A little later we had the second qualifying and we qualified 3rd and 4th so we started in 3rd.

John started, he got a great start. He drop to 3rd and we had a couple of faster boys in front of us.

John did 40 laps for his first stint then he came in to the pits for our first changeover.

I went out and pushed for as many laps as my bike could do with the amount of fuel I had in the tank.

I was on my 38th lap and my fuel light came on.

On our changeover we were in 3rd and the gap was quite big to first and to second it was 40 seconds. John came in and I went out with 40 minutes to go. In my last stint I closed the gap up to 26 seconds to second place I kept seeing the minutes left to go and then the last lap board came out so I pushed as hard as I could for the last lap.

John and I finished the 3hour in 3rd and did 147 laps.

I had an awesome weekend of racing.

DALLAS SKEER REPORTS ON THE WINTON ROUND OF THE 2021 ASBK!

March 18, 2021 Filed Under: News, Road Racing

Racing is back for 2021 with the opening round at Winton in Victoria for the first time back at the Australian Superbike Championship in 13 months, due to obvious Covid reasons. We had been at Mac Park practising last year on the Suzuki GSXR600 where I was riding the quickest I had been so far. Feeling really good on the bike we had confidence to be at the pointy end of the field at Winton.

It started off with a warm Friday practise which saw the track at the warmest it would be all weekend with 30 degree air temperature for all three practise sessions. The Pirelli SC0 lasted well with plenty of grip even with a little bit of tearing I felt comfortable to push. I was under my previous PB all day with a best of 1min.23.868 and finishing the day 8^th overall. With only minimal changes to the bike setup from what we had after a two day test we attended two weeks prior to the round. I was happy with my lap times as compared to last time I raced there I was already over a second quicker, knew there was work to be done in qualifying to get a good grid position.

Saturday saw two 20min qualifying sessions where the pace and lap times from the top 10 really showed how strong the field was. With rain threating Saturday afternoon I made sure to get a good lap put down in the morning session in case the second qualifying was wet. With a few slower riders upsetting my rhythm I was still able to post a 1min.23.492 getting me provisional 5^th. Only 0.07sec behind the next rider and 0.005sec infront of the next, this shows just how close and fast the pace was as I was only 0.1sec slower than the previous lap record.

With the rain holding off I was using the same used tyres for the second qualifying so I knew it would be hard to go any faster. We chose to keep the same tyres in as we are only allowed a certain amount of tyres over the weekend and this way I could run new front and rears in both of Sunday’s races. We made a gearing change to just see if that would give us a little more pull where it was needed to help with one sector of the track where I was losing a lot of time. It wasn’t the right way to go as I ended up having to make more gear changes and was just too busy coming into corners having to change down an extra gear. There was a red flag in the middle of the session so the team worked hard to change back to old gearing but it wasn’t enough to get a faster lap, and unfortunately dropped two positions on the last minute of the session as two other riders went quicker. So we would be starting from 7^th with the time from the first qualifying and also the first non-Yamaha.

A 5 minute warm up on Sunday not much we could work with so I just went out and had a ride around not pushing too hard as the track was cold at 9am.

There was two 14 lap races and race one saw me get a good launch off the line moving to 5^th, but unfortunately missing my braking maker and running wide at turn one on the first lap meant I dropped back to 11^th. I knew straight away I had blown my chances of running at the front in this race so I moved through the field to 8^th by lap 3 then 7^th on lap 6 where there was a big gap to the next rider so I just put my head down to see what I could do. I was lapping quicker than I did in qualifying with low 1.23 lap times and consistently matching the pace of the front runners. Coming away with 7^th for race one wasn’t ideal as I had the speed to be on the podium if I didn’t stuff up turn one.

For race 2 I made sure to get my braking marker correct and not try to make up any positions until after turn one. Getting another good launch off the line saw me in 5^th again and soon moving to 4^th at turn three and right on the back of the front three. In the position I wanted to be I started to close in on 3^rd place but just didn’t quite have the straight line speed compared to the Yamahas and even with slightly quicker corner speed I couldn’t maintain the gap. Sitting in 4^th for the rest of the race with focus being on the two riders behind me and keeping a gap to them for the rest of the race. I was able to maintain a 2sec gap until the second last lap where I saw it was down to 1.5sec. So I put my head down and put in a new PB lap and beating the old race lap record of 1min.22.801 with two laps to go and able to come home in 4^th. This is my best result yet in the Supersport championship and a nice lap time to go with it so we were happy with that.

With race 1 being the biggest disappointment of the weekend I ended up finishing 6^th overall, not exactly where I wanted to be but we will take that and work from there. A massive thanks to Glen Richards for coming on board this weekend to set my Suzuki up to be able to compete with the Yamaha dominated field and give me confidence to push and go quicker every session. Our three man crew of Dad, Glen and mechanic Jase is definitely a good team as I beat my previous PB at Winton from 2019 by 2.1 seconds on the same bike. Riding the best I ever had I look forward to hitting the podium at Wakefield Park next month on the 16-18^th April.

Huge shout out to my sponsors that make it all possible:

Penrite Oils

Barry Francis Motorcycles

Trident Tyre Centre

Nolan Helmets Australia

Suzuki Motorcycles Australia

Nitron Suspension Systems

Suspensions R Us

Plus Racing Gear

Baker Group

West Sliders

Fly’s Moving Colour

Neville Lush Racing

TMA Racing

Pirelli

SpeedAngle

Motorcycling SA

SA Plasterboard

Superbike Accessories

Mick Harrison Signs

Stef’s Transport

MB Automotive

Gino’s Pizza and Pasta bar

Australian Technical Rubber

The Ken Blake Festival of Motorcycling

Dekker Motor Body Builder

K&S Fuels

The Grinning Dingo

South East Welding Services

Sew Unique

Bannister & Son

Southern Air Ag

South East Property Sales and Management

Unitech

Alexandria Council

SELLICKS 2021 IS FAST APPROACHING!

February 26, 2021 Filed Under: News, Road Racing, SA Women in Motorcycling

It’s almost time for the bi-annual trek down to the iconic sands of Sellicks, for the bi-annual 2 days of fantastic racing on SA’s most unique historic ‘road racing’ circuit!

Two Days of Racing

More than 150 Solos and Sidecars, all built before 1963, battling it out over two days of highly competitive racing on South Australia’s iconic Sellicks Beach.

Over the two days 62 races will run and you can expect to see bikes carry the logos of Adler, AJS, Arial, BSA, Bultaco, DKW, Douglas, Dyson VAG, ESO, Excelsior, Greeves, Harley Davidson, Honda, Indian, JAP, Jawa, Matchless, New Imperial, Norton, OEC, Rickman, Triariel, Triton, Triumph, Tribsa, Velocette, Vincent, and, Yamaha.

There will be plenty of opportunities to get up close to the bikes and talk with the riders during meet and greet sessions on the beach on Saturday and Sunday morning, as well as through a new pit viewing area.

There will also be a range of catering vans on site, including the Original Pancake Kitchen, the local Lifesaving Club is running the bar and there is brand new merchandise that will be available on the day or you can order online and pick it up at the event.

Check out the merch, download a Program of Events and Map of the course and buy your tickets at the Levis MCC website: www.levismcc.asn.au/racing.

It’s going to be two fantastic days of racing…Bring the Family and have a ball… DON’T MISS IT.

1930 OEC JAP TWIN is Racing

OEC (The Osborn Engineering Company) built motorcycles from 1922 until 1954. They built many innovative models over the years and the marque held the Land Speed Record several times through the 1920s-30s.

Brenton Matters brought his 1930 OEC to Sellicks Beach in 2017, but lack of bike prep time saw the bike fail to reach its potential.

Over the past four years he has given it a lot of love and attention and it is almost ready to take to the beach. Brenton kicked it over recently and it sounds awesome.

Still a bit to do, but Brenton is confident the bike will be ready on the day. He was asked him how fast he will go? “I don’t know,” he said, “in 1930 an OEC with a supercharged 1000cc Prestwich engine was the first to pass 150 mph…I might get 80-85 or so.”

The unique thing about the OEC is its’ Duplex Steering system, developed by Frederick Wood in the late 20s.

Motoring writer Greg Williams says about the OEC, “theoretically, the system offered outstanding high-speed stability and adjust-ability. In practice, it was better suited for use on a speed-record machine going in a straight line than on a road motorcycle”.

It’s going to be fun to see this wicked machine strut its’ stuff on Sellicks Beach!

The 1930 OEC JAP (above left) and the 1950 Vincent Rapide (above right) that will attack the sands of Sellicks in a few short weeks time!

Vincent Rapide To Race at Sellicks

The Series C Vincent Rapide is one of the most famous motorcycles ever built and if you were a motorcycle fan or speed freak in the late ’40s and early ’50s, the Vincent motorcycles were some of the most desirable vehicles on the planet.

Vincent produced motorcycles from 1932–55, when it went bankrupt, the company made around 11,000 motorcycles, of which 6852 were the famous 1000cc twin-cylinder models.

By the standards of 1950, the Vincent was an exceptional machine. Costing £128 ($256) new, the 998cc, 50-degree V-twin put out between 45 and 55 horsepower, depending on the state of tune (Rapide or Black Shadow). It was easily capable of exceeding the then-magical 100mph mark.

David Whitehead managed to get his hands on his Vincent in 2017.

“I had lusted after this 1950 Vincent Series C Rapide for many years. My friend bought it in 1985 in Brisbane. He had a accident on it in around 2000 and after it was repaired it was ridden again but had engine troubles and it had been off the road ever since.”

David rebuilt the engine, replacing whatever was required, and undertook other mechanical and electrical repairs, but he kept its original patina as much as possible. The Vincent is now running like a dream and David is looking forward to letting it loose on Sellicks Beach.

“I believe bikes of this calibre deserve to be seen in action rather than put on a mantle piece. I’m excited and feel honoured and privileged to bring this bike down from Qld and be part of this historic event.”