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Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
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Captain Pete survives another harrowing experience of Piloting Petulant Pommie Poo and Pens Purple Prose for the Penultimate (well, maybe) Narrogin run.
Club Captain declares Narrogin to be the spiritual site for VMX Australia!
After a very cold start to the morning and a visible lack of volunteers to push start my BSA B50MX into life, I started my pre race spiel at about 8.50am. Must be the earliest Riders meet on record!
It was good to see four new riders among the cosy 45 riders present. After declaring Narrogin a spiritual site (with the Dahli Lamas blessing!) and sounding off how good we have it in the West compared to our Eastern States cousins I reminded riders the importance of the yellow flags during practice and racing (NO OVERTAKING). Also a new ruling from our beloved MA stating that no bare feet or Japanese work boots to be worn in the pits they will ban toupees next!
A near perfect track awaited riders, perfectly prepared by Frank Barron with ample watering. Nick Maxfield was commentator and starter for the day with a few riders sussing out when he was about to raise the green flag!
He would release his hand and then raise the flag quite simple really. Three rounds were easily fitted in before lunch and two after with riders already turning up to start before each race had finished. Great to see, as this way we all get a fair amount of riding under our kidney belts for the day. ‘A’ grade saw Syd Swepstone still trying to come to grips with his newly acquired Bully, the agricultural gearbox a far cry from the precise oriental offerings. Brook (without an E), whom I promised not to pick on was the hole shot king for the day, Syd and Hoppy hung on to his coattails for most of the racing but age prevailed.
‘B’ grade was simply stunning to watch a bunch of about five riders vying for first spot with about half a wheel gap between them. Noticeable riders were Andy ‘Malingering’ Hyland, Mike ‘Lever’ Gordon, Honest Mick and Andrew ‘where did he come from’ Irving.
Sarah Dillon raced hard all day and better watch out for the ‘A’ card next time. I won’t mention that man on the HONTACO but it wasn’t a good idea to let him into ‘B’ grade, it’s certainly dented a few egos.
‘C’ grade saw riders Darren Masters and Richard Hill get very physical all day. Peter Berryman put in a sterling performance and was hard to catch. The effervescent Over 55’s saw Bill Copely, Graham ‘Swave’ Taylor and Frank ‘Caretaker’ Barron fight it out at the pointy end.
The ‘Best of British’ feature race saw 8 riders participate. Shane Corney handled his BSA with precision. Ken Melvin pulled the pin early on his superbly presented BSA and that bounder Steve Povee managed to sneak his Yamaha 650 into the class (disguised as a 650 Bonneville I think) but he still couldn’t out pace Robert Dillion.
Brilliant weather, brilliant track, great bunch of riders. I certainly left with a warm and fuzzy feeling.
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