Bikes I raced before early 90's Retros

I started racing after having a hotted up roadbike - a cb750 with 900 carbs, exhaust, GPZ750 fairing, 900 antidive forks with the bigger brakes etc - and hearing of a rider training day at Oran Park. This must have been about 1991. So I took my roadbike and had a ball - taking instruction on racelines, braking and launch control etc.

Turned out Wayne Gardner was there overlooking our progress. half the bikes were racebikes - mostly 250s and 600s. I heard that there was a move to allow CBs etc to race seperately under the Forgotten era title, so I decided to build a seperate bike: a CB900 was built. This was raced for years with good results and many friends were made. I went through probably about 4 versions of these bikes in various specs and moved from 900cc to 1100cc engines. I also built a 1220cc version with sponsorship from Caltex-Havoline Oils by Metropolitan Fuels Sydney. I met my now wife vanessa at a trophy presentation, went to phillip Island, then New Zealand for the 1996 TT (6-2-1 finishes=second overall), raced at Bathurst in 2000, in the Formula Extreme nakedbike series, as well as the Post Classic NSW series.

After a 6 year absence from racing, I decided to move to a newer class: try my hand on the awesome YZF750 we used to fear! Having said that, we are going to rebuild a CB for forgotten era racing from all my spares - sometime...

Early days of CB racing: me on #6 with my 'flying wings' goof, with Roger on Wayne Fox's #52 Cb900.

That's me -relaxing- in the pits. Not sleeping!


This poster was a promo poster when being sponsored by Caltex as well as the other businesses mentioned, including my own pest Control business.

Some of the best races were dicing with Tim Lilley on his NRC Ducati



At Wakefield Park in 99.



The above bike is roger Quinlan's Ex-graeme Crosby's Moriwaki Z1100. I had the privilage of punting this around Eastern Creek, now in retrospec finding the handling amazingly like my yzf750's - smooth and balanced - not the same on the brakes, but this was allowed fro by the huge horsepower over a 750. thanks rog


At the Formula Extreme Nakedbike rounds - we even got TV coverage!



I'm at the front middle grid position at Eastern Creek here: had an awesome day with consistent 2nd positions to Tony Marsden on his very hot GSX1100.

Fallen rider rescued

What a Saturday! After lunch about to turn last corner into my street, I see a horse walking down the road coming out of the bush - with no rider on the saddle! I figure that's not good as the rider must be hurt somewhere! So I pull over, go sweet-talk the heavily sweating huge beast, lead it back to my place, tie it to the front tree, Vanessa calls the cops, I fuel up 6YO daughter's 70cc zuma, ignore the half flat rear tyre, and no front brake lever assy - off to get replaced - and ride around the corner to the foot of the watagan mountains looking for the rider, presumably injured. Turned out choosing the minibike was perfect, as there were washouts I had to cross where the horse had come down that I would not have made on my bigger bike.

Following horse hoof trails into the mountain, sorting old from new and up from down, I finally get the one of the trails at the top and find a bloke looking for the horse who says the rider is up top of the mountain. So more flat-tyre no clearance firetrail riding later, I find her up the track on her belly with a back injury. Basic first aid check later, figuring she's not spinal injured, but maybe done some discs and muscles? Ambos have been called. Waiting, talking, waiting....

Ambo's walking up hill a bit later carrying lots of stuff by hand and puffed out as their ambo won't do 4wd stuff. 5 minutes later the Westpac Rescue helicopter's dropping surgeon and paramedic in through trees 50m away from us, with 4wd ambo coming up to get her to take her to the empty paddocks next to our block for a pick, to fly to john hunter hospital...

Horse was huge and was moved into our backyard, after I left, in case the chopper spooked it. Turned out another rider, the guy I met at the bottom, was riding his horse and her horse got spooked and bolted from under her when it noticed the other riders... Sienna had a ball playing with the horse, feeding it grass and carrots and walking it around the backyard, saying 'there is enough room, can we have one?' ...She's a real natural with horse. Later we went over to a friend's who has just got a new horse after it was neglected by the previous owner. It initially would not let them come within 10m, and now they can only get within 1m of it most days. Sienna was rubbing it's shoulder in 10 minutes with the horse later coming right up to her to walk past next to her. i hope she grows up to be just as confident with horsepower!

I don't have photos from up the mountain...

There's a saturday you don't have everyday!

z

Oran Park on-bike video

Helmetcam video of me going out behind Yogi's 2006?Zx10r. Move forward to the 1m20 mark for trackentry. The little Yzf750s good value for money despite being blown off down the straight... of note is james Spence's crash behind me around the 7m mark...you'll hear it on the audio... I thought i was gonna get Tboned...you can see them on the next lap off the track...

Oran Park Rideday photos

Hi again. There are about 40 odd photos from this day at: http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x116/zoltanp1967/?albumview=slideshow

Vanessa wasn't there to take photos of everyone, just our gang, but managed to get some pics of a fair other numbers. If you wish, feel free to download a copy and even email her at vanessa@hourglassphotography.com.au if you wish to get some large format pics printed off in pro finish. Butler, we're charging you double ...

enjoy.
Zoltan

Rideday, Oran park, Jan 9th 2010

I'll update more later, but for now: Awesome day, hot as hell, had bro-in law Glenn and mate Rick (ex-FZ750-not-going-yet) also riding my Yzf in different groups. Thanks to Steve Butler we stuck some almost new Bridgie slicks on and the bike behaved very well and held up to many modern machines, other than the main straight at times... we'll work on that this year hopefully with more powere one way or another.

Thanks to James n Vinne, Mark N Tony and all other flagging on such a hot day ...

James actually crashed right behind me when his modern radial front Brembo master cylinder failed... broke the 6 hour 3-rd place getter bike's frame. ouch. no one got rushed to hospital that day, which was awesome, especially as i was also involved in being on medical assist stand-by in the morning...

There were some other retro bikes, like 2 x fzr400s, one with a 600 engine. It's of interest that after 17 years of riding at Oran, I was still improving my lines a little. To no benefit, seeing this was the last rideday there for me ...

6-Hour Support races, ORAN PARK RACEWAY

Thanks to Hourglass Photography and Campbelltown Motorcycles 2009 was celebrated by entering the Retro support races to the BELRAY Oils 6 HOUR, in which perseverence paid off with a 3rd place trophy.

PICTURES: click here to see them.
click here for results of the 6 Hour Races.
Heat results:HEAT 1: 1st-Steven Green zxr750, 2nd-Steve Butler FZR1000, 3rd-Ivan Hoey Bikewreck YZF750,
HEAT 2: 1st-Ivan Hoey Bikewreck YZF750, 2nd-Steven Green zxr750, 3rd-John Tween Bikewreck YZF750,
HEAT 3: 1st- David Gilyeat ZXR750, 2nd- John Tween Bikewreck YZF750, 3rd Steve Butler FZR1000

A no-start from Steve in one race + a dual-crash ahead of me in race 3 left me in the points! As the old folk always say, you've gotta be in it to win it! All crashers were OK too.

Friday's practice was extreme: the hottest day on record for ages, with temepratures of 45C, an extreme afternoon storm with me only on the track. Even the marshals were hiding! The old lighting tower got blown down even! This was actually the highlight of the weekend for me really, as I have never been in weather so severe! I was totally charged riding at walking pace through horizontal wind and gusting rain. I probably should have pulled in under the bridge, but it became a man-vs-wild thing! It was really something out of stormchasers on TV!

Saturday saw me overestimate some tyres which started sliding around at the back quite badly. I just couldn't get drive out of corners, resulting in 5ths, but a 3rd trophy as mentioned previously. It was a lot of fun though, sliding in the dry as if it was in the wet, and getting the nod and claps from lots of marshals. Yogi-Darren-Bear was quite excited to see sliding entries and exits under the bridge ...

OVERALL RESULTS: Congrats to John Tween for winning overall on his Bikewreck YZF750, to Ashley Whitehead on his 900 Fireblade for 2nd, with me on my yzf750 taking home the 3rd place.

Rideday and Race, Oran Park Sep 28

Thanks to:
Hourglass Photography (my wife Vanessa )
Campbelltown Motorcycles for helping.
nick nakedtwin at NSW RATs for lending stands and warmers.

I replaced the leaky shock from last round with a 2006 zx6r rear shock: it worked well, put in shorter dogbones to raise rideheight 10mm and increase leverage ratios. worked well.

Lucky for me though, a rats member, Tony, found a fzr1000 fully adjustable shock in the cupboard so I bought it off him! we'll see how that goes for next event. It's inn steve's fzr1000 at the moment to see how it sits.

Saturday: I gave a friend of mine a rideday ride on my yzf. Rick loved it - first time on a track, first time on a 4 cylinder bike, first time on a bike with good brakes n suspension... he's hooked. Rideday Virgin no more!

I also got shown some lines by Murray, ex superbike A grader: found out I was a tourist going up onto the bridge: just cause the track goes wide, and yes normally one uses all of the track, it doesn't mean you need to use all of a wide track: apex later and cut straight up the bridge: ignore the excess. Ta Murray.

Sunday: yep, had an interesting day. Started from 8th position. I did put fuel in in the morning, looked into the tank and saw good depth. Didn't realise that I was looking into the petrol pump pit and the actual tank shape was not real full. So it ran out of fuel with 2 laps to go, and chugged along at half pace. Oh well, i didn't get cranky, though I was disappointed, seeing I was running 4th at that time : of course this put me back for the rest of the day. I knew I had to get used to this bike and will know better next time.

Steve's bike hesitated with all electrics dying intermittently in practice: electrical problem seemed to maybe be the ignition switch: he sprayed cleaner into it and away she went. time for some rewiring mate!

My bike was handling quite well, giving good feedback from slides coming out of corners, nothing like 'I wanna kill you Zoltan!' like the Cb1100R was. I like these Michelin Pilots. The usual suspects were out front on yzfs and T models and zx7rs too, but they were sure pedalling fast... Murray was doing 1m16.9s!

Next race: geez I need an extra 20 horses for the starts! these Ts and Rs and fzr1000s blow the little yzf into the weeds! time for a tune and R1 carbs methinks? Nearly run up Paul's rear on top of the bridge, and got on the back brake and stepped sideways - yeeha? all good though.

I didn't run off on turn 2. it was the 240kph turn 1! I ducked under Harley (cbr400rrrrr RB series bike) just at the end of the straight after he shoulder bumped me going up onto the bridge, me being a tourist and all - not too hard, it was ok - and I jumped on the brakes and dived into turn 1 under him and let the brakes off for the bumpy bit, only to find myself 1 foot too far to the right! I should have hung on to the back brake more! I knew it was gonna be close, but hey, it was fun doing 200 kph across corrugated dirt mounds with slicks on! harley said he didn't think I was gonna make it so he looked the other way! I didn't crash! finished 23rd. Yukk.

Last race started from 23rd of course, finishing in 12th. that was fun! Good lesson in racecraft and forward planning. Took most on the brakes, some by being on their rear on apex and exiting under them. This yzf can take any line, it's my brain that can't! Also, i have stopped fighting with the bike and am riding it more relaxed. It's easier to ride when you're not fighting it! One finger braking, easy on the handlebars. Good feedback.

Steve did real well, good starts and even got 4th in the last race!

One bloke went off to hospital with ribs and collarbone and suspected back injury: in a chopper. Will try to get some info soon. (He's not bad, broken shoulder and ribs only - 6 Oct 08)

I got down to 1m21.4! - 2.5 seconds off my last best. Hope to do another race this year, not the 1 hour though? apparently St George let you enter both the pre96 and moderns if you qualify. Good way to spend an extra $50

will keep updated.

Race results at http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?28/09/2008.RRT

Zoltan