Is everyone at the WSB but me?

**** it is quiet in here.

Kev

 

GREAT to see Fabrizio is up for it this year!

As for Max, once again more dissapointment and more B/S excuses.

Gut feeling has the fastest and best bike in the field, just NFI how
to set it up or ride it correctly.

Need to get sucess or they wont enter MotoGP which is what we want

Wonder if Aprilia could be interested in Bayliss?

 

And I am here to keep an eye on Gerry

 

Ssshhhh...!

 

we didn't invite anyone...

mh

 

Tits. They're quite nice.

 

more a breast man myself.

 

more a breast man myself.

*****************

Can't really do much with a breast,
but, get to the nipple.
Now, that is an experience to behold

 

we didn't invite anyone...

mh

*****************

So, that is why no-one is talking to you

 

you are..

mh

 

you are..

mh

**************

Damn, does that mean that I am your friend?

 

I only took 3 photos at the WSBK. None of the actual race!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11418025@N00/sets/72157623445285335/

plus a video of a postie bike in the burnout pit, which is a bit sad.
The 3-way with a Ducati Monster can't be processed, but imagine
darkness, headlights in the tyre smoke, revving, squealing, and
cheering and whistling. Nothing ever comes out on video.

 

ahh bring back the good ol days of Easter Bathurst 1987 or
thereabouts

 

I was there in 82, and again in 85.Memorable times, and watching the
TV vehicle go up in flames.

Theo

 

The Supers followed by the TS Safari to Tasmania. My first time at the
Supers:
I watched from a Super Tent with a Super Screen in front. There was a
Super Bike race and a Super Sport race. There was a Super Pole too.
The local cafe sold Super Subs.
All in all, a Super Weekend.

Some observations from the Supers:
Those Big Bangers make a great sound. The Kwakas are too loud though -
you can't hold mobile phone conversations over the noise <waves> Hi
Betty
Sore losing motorcycle racers are even more whiney than sore losing
footballers

What Sucks:
Taking the battery out of the camera to charge it, then forgetting to
put it back in before leaving home, then buying an el cheapo camera
for the trip, then losing it the day before leaving Tasmania for home.

What doesn't suck:
Tasmania! There was some agreement that the Sidling is a better ride
than the Oxley.

Timber trucks and Gunns are excluded from the "Doesn't Suck" list

 

The Sidling is great as long as they have maintained it. Try it when
trucks have ripped dirt into every corner and it is less than amusing,
especially on a bike. I've done it several times in Targa Tasmania in
a car and it easier to get away with the shit ripped in the corners,
but it is a bit of road that can catch you out quickly.

I actually prefer Weldborough Pass which is about half an hour further
along towards the East Coast run. Less traffic to pull shit onto the
road and some magic scenery.

But back to the Sidling, I would drive up there at night from
Launceston when I first got my driver's licence in 1977 just to go for
a fang.

Here's another nostalgia trip. A guy called Ross Ambrose has a history
of motorsport in Tasmania and also was an entrepreneur who ran a hotel
that put bands on that I played in. I didn't know him all that well,
but we were on speaking terms. I left Tas, but when I came back there
was this thing called Targa Tasmania starting up. I was asked to make
a documentary about it. The Targa officials knew I had an interest in
motorsport but didn't know I had a past of rally driving and racing
sports sedans.

Initially we were doing the course survey to make a promotional video
to get sponsors on board. Sir Jack Brabham was supposed to be with us,
but had to pull out at the last minute. We had former touring car
champ Max Stahl with us and had three cars loaned by the head of
Honda Australia (Honda NSX, which had only just been released), a
Porsche 944 Cabrio loaned by the head of the Porsche dealership in Tas
and a Ford Falcon S donated from Jackson Ford in Launceston.

Anyway, as Brabham had pulled out at the last minute, John Large (the
president of CAMS at the time) held up a set of keys and said "who
wants to drive the Posrche?" I grabbed the fucking things that quick
that no-one had a chance. We head to the first stage (keep in mind
that Targa hadn't run at this stage, we were setting it up) and they
tell me to head off first in the Porsche. I think they were expecting
Max to catch me in the NSX. He didn't. At the end of the stage they
said they were worried as they got to the end of the stage as they
though I might have gone off the road somewhere and not been visible.
Nah I was just having fun in a car that has a really nice chassis,
although could do with more hp.

OK, so off to next stage. They send me off again. Still couldn't catch
me in the NSX. Conversation. "OK, if we are going to spend a week
doing this and making the video, how about we do the initial stage
timing as well? We'll swap you and Max between the NSX and Porsche?'
Sweet. Bring it on. So we spent a week being total (and illegal)
nutters around Tassie working out what the initial stage times for
Targa Tasmania should be set to. Fucking fun, and got paid to do it.

Anyway, back to the Sidling and Ross Ambrose story. The following year
we decided to set up a practice stage to train marshalls and the like
before the event, and to test out new timing systems and the Sidling
was the obvious choice as somewhere that could be closed for a couple
of hours to general traffic. I went along and took my 5.8 V8 Fairmont
Ghia ESP. Worked up thing that went well in a straight line but was a
handful on corners and brakes, but fun nevertheless. I didn't have any
official duties that day, so lined up for the hill climb into the
Sidling. I'm up behind this 16 year old kid who is in a Nissan GTR
Godzilla! Fucking hell, what is going on here? We are being sent off
at 30 second intervals and I think even in an all wheel drive Godzilla
versus an older Ford clunker I should be able to catch the Nissan.
Nope. Not a hope in hell.

The kids name? Marcos Ambrose. I hadn't seen Ross there and didn't
know he owned a Godzilla at the time. And I didn't recognise Marcos as
I had just moved back to Tassie and had been living down south, and
when I left Tas he would have only been about 5 years old anyway.

But yeah, he really punted that car up the Sidling rather well.

An addendum to that story was that I was first on the scene a couple
of years later when Brabham managed to run his BMW M3 off the road
rather badly up the NW coast. I was being paid to drive the camera
cars through the closed stages. Fun Thankfully both Brabham and
his navigator weren't hurt. The Bimmer was well and truly fucked
though.

Kev

 

On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:32:04 GMT, Kevin Gleeson wrote:

[...]

[...]

There were no problems this time around. We were warned about gravelly
corners, but there were none. We did the whole east coast run from
Hobart to Launceston - impressive.
About halfway up, I heard a call over the CB enquiring if anyone was
on the road up. Thinking it might have been a timber truck or maybe
even a large house or something I responded that I was on a motorbike
coming up. Turned out to be a tourist driving a small 4wd towing an
even smaller caravan. Ah well, at least he was impressed with the size
of his load.
The first day was a real bastard. Devenport to Strahan with summer
trousers and ambient just above freezing. Brrrr...

 

It's a great run. A guy who used to post in here (Mark? GS will recall
his surname) hired a bike in Tas and I took him up the East coast from
Hobart to Lonny while Siobhan and Cat (RIP) drove a car up the
midlands. We got to Swansea and he got off the bike, tore his gloves
off and shook my hand and said something like "that was fucking
awesome mate". My reply was "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

It was awesome weather and little traffic and we had a ball. We did
get in trouble from the girls for being late as initially our plan was
to cut across Lake Leake Rd but I thought he really needed to go
through Elephant Pass. I phoned Kerry and told her that I'd be going
to Launceston and staying that night (I'd originally intended turning
back to Hobart after Lake Leake), but Mark neglected to ring Siobhan
and tell her that. Bad move. We arrived late into Launceston with
grins on our faces but a couple of angry females to face . . .

Kev

 

I don't think it had TIME to smell the redline Nev; it sailed past it too
fast!!
From memory (or is that nightmare?) it was an XJR1200 Yammie. (About the
only XJ I WOULDN'T buy!)

 

Almost correct except that it was an XJR1200 (the noisy bugger on the
bandit was Johno and in his case it was snoring and not engine noise!).

Understandable mistake... they both drink VB after all.


G-S