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Dobsy Racing

Author: Dobsy Racing
Posted on: Wednesday, Jun 25 2008



We had the luxury of arriving at this one-day meeting fully rested after sleeping in a real bed at Ange and Johnny T's 10 minutes' drive away. Thank you both for your hospitality.

It had rained overnight but by morning it had cleared to a cold and very windy day making parts of the track more exciting than normal. It was really good to catch up with some good friends and exchange stories. Even our tenants and old next-door-neighbours turned out for a watch.

Roger had the Scott looking superb and we had high hopes for the new parts he had made. It had looked very good on the dyno. As we all know (and keep being reminded) there is no substitute for real track miles. In the first practice she nipped up on the run out of the sweeper and we had to have a re-think.

Mike had brought the long stroke Aermacchi as we want to save the short stroke for the Manx GP. It isn’t as fast or as stable but in the strong winds even the best handling bikes were struggling. Practice on the ‘Macchi went more to plan. Mike had the gearing spot on and we only needed to make a small jetting change to be ready.

We missed the first and second races on the Scott as Roger worked flat out and made the changes necessary to stop her nipping up again.

In the third race it was obvious we had made her safe but slow and we ended second to Ian Bain – but a long way back.

In the last race she was going better but then a handling problem reared its head coming out of the sweeper - the old death weave was back. We had lowered the seat and moved weight back causing her to revert to her old scary ways. These old rigid bikes are so critical to set-up changes. We ended fourth behind Ian and a 750 Triumph twin and a very well ridden Vincent Comet.

The Aermacchi was another story. Apart from being blown off the track on the start-finish straight she never missed a beat, winning both her races and setting a new lap record 4.5sec under the existing one.

For the Champion of Champions race (a handicap race for the fastest three bikes in each class) we decided to ride the Aermacchi. This meant a 2 lap handicap along with a couple of other riders. This is a new handicapping system the Vintage club is rolling out and I had no idea who I needed to pass and how many times. It turned out I was in good company – the commentator was lost too. I just went for broke and we set another fastest lap and ended up third.

As usual it was a great meeting. Thanks to the Vintage club, Roger and Mike for a very enjoyable if somewhat busy weekend.


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