national hillclimb association/curborough twisty sprint
a wet and windy sunday, post breakfast and after being glued to the box watching the last three hours coverage of the suzuka eight hour endurance racing on eurosport I wimped out, chucked the camping stove, mashing kit and wet weather gear in the back of the trusty transporter and headed down to curborough for the nhca meeting.
truly grass roots racing at its finest with approachable people only too happy to tell you about their home-brewed concoction’s of highly improbable race machinery and for me that’s what makes it all the more appealing. the vast majority of machines are ktm motocross derived bikes with 17” supermoto wheels and tyres, nothing wrong with that, cheap, light and devastatingly fast, crash well and very competitive, but for me, it’s the odd-ball stuff that gets my attention, now, for the life of me, what is the ‘zrf’ machine? I would think a yamaha szr single frame/swing arm? definitely a honda 250 racer seat unit, [used one of these on my mz racer’ engine? mx derived big single? the ariel arrow was just lovely, the greeves too, [but you know I’m a sucker for a ‘stroker] and then, there’s the dkw rotary, I mean, like basement jacks said, ‘where’s your head at?’ just brilliant that someone has the balls to race such a diverse machine, hats off to you sir!
as the rain gets heavier the intrepid competitors continue to try and better their times, I feel very humble, there is probably a hundred racers and marshalls and I reckon around eight spectators, racing for the love of racing, massive respect due...........
This reminds me of what racing was like when I was growing up. Grass roots racing is the best. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteThanks OMD, todays corporate racer’s do bug me a little, all that holding up their helmets to thank the sponsors and pr interviews leaves me cold. I prefer the Michael Dunlop’s of the world, a man of few words who lets his racing speak for him......
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments about my DKW rotary. It's still alive and kicking. The Ariel Arrow is one of our enterprises as well.
ReplyDeleteHerr Wankel. Thank you for taking the time to comment and more importantly keeping it real by racing stuff that most people wouldn’t even consider. You sir, are a gentleman! Respect due, regards, Tim
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