64 MOTORCYCLE TRADER
‘WCPGW?’
Following our 2018 effort, 2019 was a
success, which meant we’d developed an
ability to go from one failure to another
without loss of enthusiasm. The day was
saved by the brave, if flirtatious, efforts
of Brian Rix as team manager, starter
assistant and fetching umbrella girl.
Race day started well. Then
Spannerman showed up and drank all the
beer. It was, he argued, after breakfast.
He’d got the monkey off his back but that
didn’t mean the circus had left town.
On the first timed run, a tank-slapper
over the rough section was explained by
a snapped steering damper shaft. Stacey
Heaney later told her dad, Des Heaney, on
a Suzuki 500 (2nd, 500 class) about that
section: “Holding it on is where those
seconds are at.” Well, yes, that is correct.
But there remains the sobering prospect
of holding it on, followed by a fast leap
off the side of a steep mountain!
Gary did a quick run to his shop
and returned with an up-spec steeringdamper. Added to some tweaking of the
suspension, but with a badly slipping
clutch, Team Lemmings/Motorcycle
Trader managed a 55.3.
Some people who follow me around out
of a morbid sense of curiosity came to
watch the last run so, for their benefit, I
gassed it off the line. Showing off, for me,
rarely ends well. Rather than go forward,
the bike went sideways.
The previous run achieved third in
Unlimited Post-Classic – every child gets
a prize. “If at first you don’t succeed,” I
thought to myself, “then failure may be
your style.”
Te a m Lemmings/Motorcycle Trader
will be back next year. We will by
then have found a four-year old to fix
the clutch and our sights will be set
on a 50-second run! On this, I remain
an optimist, which means I’ve now
mastered the twin attributes of self-
deception and denial.
What,as they say, could possibly go
wrong?If at first
you don’t
succeed
... then
failure
m ay be
your styleMount
TarrengowerHillclimb