gunnedah speedway 04

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Gunnedah Speed Week 2004

Gunnedah on the 13^th March saw a few Slopes & Plains A M C members lobbing in for Speed Week, the drag races and our A M C chapter meeting. It should be explained that a number of Wildcats are members of other clubs, the A M C being one of them, so it was a case of wearing two hats on the day for some of us.

Meeting up with Hooky, Carmel, Chris and Rossco at the Railway Hotel, where incidentally, they serve a feed that is so good and cheap that you would be mad to miss it if you get a chance, it was decided that Saturday night at the Speedway was in order for Hooky, Carmel and myself and that throwing the swag alongside Country’s “Hill Billy” shop across the road from the pub for the night seemed to be a good call.

An enjoyable afternoon in the pub, chatting to people getting their bikes scrutineered by Country and a mini pub crawl into town for a few games of pool then ensued, followed by an evening ride out to the Bluevale Speedway to watch the cars really getting stuck into each other on the track and some exceptional clouds of smoke by the local lads on the burnout pad. No pics from the speedway as my telephoto lens finally packed it in, 200,000 klms on a motorbike will do that to them apparently. Back to the pub afterwards for a nightcap and then rolling out the swag for a good nights sleep rounded off the day and got us ready for Sunday and the Drag Races.

Rain hitting the swags and threatening to put a damper on the day woke us up early Sunday morning, however by the time we had packed up and headed off to Macca’s for breakfast it had stopped, and, although very overcast looked as if it would turn out ok.

Arriving at the drag-strip which was set up on one of the runways at the airport, Hooky, after being asked by a number of people if he was racing decided to give it a go and filled out the paper-work for a day license, seeing as I had a few tools in the panniers I signed in as his mechanic and Carmel as his pit-crew. Carmel, now given the stage name of the ‘Lovely Doreen’ was to look absolutely gorgeous and wiggle her bum as she pushed him back to the line after pre race burnouts, hold the umbrella over him as he waited for the start, and if the opposition looked like being too good, to perhaps do a quick flash of her bosom as the starting lights went off, in order to distract the other rider and give Hooky a bit of an advantage.

After checking out the opposition which included the Bolam Family racing team who had brought a very nice selection of bikes down from Queensland in the Morgan & Wacker truck, and a number of HOG members who were racing their own bikes, we figured with our game plan that they didn’t stand a chance. So it was with the ‘Lovely Doreen’ wiggling her bum and putting the opposition off as they did their fine tuning on the bikes that Hooky and I started taking off the panniers and various other removable parts. Our professionalism at stacking the heap of parts and the ‘Lovely Doreen’s’ cavorting must have really rattled the opposition because they conspired to fool Hooky and drew him against one of the kitted out Buells first up, this didn’t faze Hooky one little bit, as with him being a real biker and needing to gain a couple of extra horsepower, he merely removed the sheepskin seat cover to compensate for their old trick.

So with all the gamesmanship finished it was down to the serious side of it and I can tell you when Hooky rode back into the pit area after winning the first heat the oppositions dismay was so palpable they couldn’t cut it with a knife. So I reckon they did the next best thing and put a cut in his belt, cause bugger me as Hooky was in the lead and going for another gear in the next heat, there was a loud bang and this long black snake appeared on the drag-strip behind his bike, it was at that precise moment that I figured wearing two hats [as mentioned at the beginning of this report] was a good idea, so as Hooky rolled away into the distance on the runway I promptly resigned as his mechanic and became the teams photographer instead, changing belts on a Roadking is a bastard of a job, changing the film in a camera is a bloody sight easier [talk about fair weather friends].

The broken belt aside I thought Hooky’s debut in drag racing was a bloody good effort and it certainly made the day that much more interesting than just sitting in the stands watching. Incidentally the ‘Lovely Doreen’ is available for all expenses paid guest appearances at exotic race locations worldwide, call 1800-DRAG-‘CAR-MEL’ for further details.

Thanks to the Tamworth Raceway Club for organising the race day and a big thanks also to all the contestants who’s dedication to their sport made for a very interesting weekend.

Ride safe, ride hard.

- Crusty