Spirit 9 - Bonneville Special
Pics from Dirt Quake
Grant has done a great piece for Derestricted - check out;
http://blog.derestricted.com/racing/sideburns-dirt-quake-by-grant-robinson/
Dirt Quake
We had a ball at Dirt Quake. I’m still recovering.. and it’s my 40th today so I’ll leave it to Tim Neave to eloquently describe the day, from his perspective at least.
Hi Tim,
I know you were there, But anyway, if you want it for your blog…..
On Saturday, round 3 of the Grand National Championship took place at Coventry Speedway Stadium.
After heavy rain in the morning, I opted out of the Club races during the day time (I didn’t feel it was worth riding in those conditions, the track was 2 inches deep in sludge, I wouldn’t gain anything in those conditions!). But the rain stopped around lunch time, and the track therefore began to gradually improve.
So when the GNC night event came, the track was brilliant, really grippy and fun to ride!
After a bad start to the meeting, finishing 4th and 5th in my first 2 heats, I made some changes to the bike, which definitely helped me as I went onto finish 1st in my third heat race, which gave me a front row for the Semi. I made a poor start and finished 4th in this race, meaning I qualified for third pick on the second row for the 15 lap final.
I made a cracking start and went straight into 4th place, behind Team mate Pete Boast. On lap 12 of 15, I eventually passed him into 3rd position, and pulled a comfortable lead for the remaining 3 laps.
I also competed in the Thunderbike class on board the Roeder Racing Honda CR500 framer, winning all my heats, except one in which I finished 2nd (the exhaust interior fell out!), I also won the final.
So I am currently in 3rd in the Pro Grand National Championship (Suzuki RMZ450), and 1st in the Thunderbikes (Honda CR500).
I have attached an image of me chasing down Team mate Pete Boast for 3rd position. I’ll send you some better ones once I get some.
I’m leaving for America on Thursday, I’m looking forward to competing in my first Mile event, and will keep you posted on how I’m getting on!
Kev has collected the solid MDF pattern of the tail unit for the Ducati GT 1000. Obviously the finished item will sit lower but it gives a good idea of the finished look. It now needs tidying before being used to create the mould.
There’s paint, and there’s paint. Graham at Revolution had a real challenge with S9, the Bonneville Special but as always he’s delivered. The gold leaf was his suggestion and it lends itself perfectly to the Salt Flat ‘rod’ style that is the inspiration behind the design.
There’s less than a week to go until Dirt Quake. I’m riding in the Street Scrambler class on the SR500.
My archnemisis, sorry, team mate and snapper extraordinaire, Grant (grantrobinson.com) left me a lovely message on my number board. Bless him. Yes, I did have to change the letters before taking the photo. He’s riding the Taymar Racing prepared RD. Personally I think Grant should be made to carry 40 bags of sugar on his back as he obviously has a weight advantage - he’s got the whole Pedrosa thing going on. Cheatin’ Canadian.
We were laughing this on the phone morning about next week, neither of has a clue what we’re doing but it’s going to be fun.
I fired my bike up yesterday. It runs. It leaks petrol. It still gives me electric shocks. Damn I love that bike.
Kev picked up S9’s bodywork from Graham at Revolution. I can’t wait to see it in the flesh but it looks like he’s nailed it, again. I’ll get some pics of it all on Martin’s Bonnie in the week.
