With the many stories we all have, maybe we should have a thread for them?


There was a certain rider who had a puncture in his Commer postie van and didn't have a spare, which would have been OK normally but he was on his way to Cadwell and it was 1am. Using his proddie bike, he scoured the area for similar vehicles in the hope of buying one by knocking on the house doors. Having no luck, he came a across a Post Office compound in the middle of nowhere complete with van. After returning to fetch his jack, the van was left a wheel short. On climbing over the fence he then lost the keys to the bike. Walking 4 miles back to the van wasn't good and driving it on the rim wasn't much better. Getting to the compound, he changed wheels, threw the bike back in and drove 30 miles home for the spare bike keys, arriving a Cadwell with practice nearly over and no sleep. He was so pissed off he went back for the other wheels on the way home and left his bald ones on their van.

Now that's a clubracers ingenuity for you!

David

Oh jeez, I love that story.
Then there was the famous one of Sheenie burning down the bogs in Magny Cours. They really were diabolical and deserved what they got.

He burned them in Imatra IIRC. He did the same in Magny Cours ?

I recall rocking up at Lydden and seeing something I had never seen before: two guys squaring up to each other over alleged misdeeds out on the track; it was reminiscent of Sydney Showground Speedway!

Well, someone burned them down and I could have sworn it was Bazza nd Johnny C. Well that´s how I understood it anyway.

One time when we were racing at Donnington, we were woken to the sound of the PA announcer stating, that if all of the various national flags (about 20!) that were flown along the pit straight were not returned, then warm up and racing would not start. Apparently, someone had pinched them overnight! I assume that they were handed in, as proceedings got underway eventually

When my dad was racing at Silverstone, in the early 80s, we were setting up in the evening before. Just as the light was fading, there was a huge bang, and the headlights from a van were shining upwards for a short while. We went to find out what had happened, to find that Dave Hill had decided to drive under the pedestrian bridge, adjacent to the pit lane fence, the roof of his hi-top Transit striking the under side of the bridge at a reasonable speed. The result of this was that the Transits roof was peeled back about a third of the way! Luckily no one was hurt!!

I remember reading about a meeting at Mallory I think, when the paddock PA announcer asked for 'Ray Swann to come to the race office immediately' The next thing was that 40 or so riders from 'race one' besieged the secretary's office, much to her bewilderment!!

After this, he was always referred to as 'Raymond Swann'

Was that when Dave was riding that Coombs BMW like a nutter? Beating RG's -- Honest!!! Sounds just like him.


David

No this was when he used to ride a 350 TZ still, just after he stopped spannering for Brendan McEnna.
I remember him riding the K100 flying brick, he used to scare the cr#* out of everyone on it!

Nigel was it red/yellow? If so I remember him at a meeting at Mallory, 90 or 91.

That would have been really funny I bet! Paddock announcements definitely weren't always clear, I missed a few race calls through not hearing them. My 'pit crew' were either sunbathing, fishing in the Mallory Lake or in the bar at Cadwell. Apart from the time there were 8 blokes at Wellesbourne and seven were called Dave!


David

Not sure about the colour, but I thought it was white , mind you it was about 200 years ago!!

White could have been the replacement fairing, if it's the same guy and I don't remember any more K100's around, he was a bit frantic!!

I was reading through the list of Brit sidecar champions on the George O´Dell thread, when I saw the name of Derek Jones.
Dear me, what a character.
I was walking past the scrutineering bay at the German TT at the Nurburgring one year, when I spied Jonsey talking to an official who was obviously unhappy about some detail on his sidecar. Of course, the German fellow couldn´t speak English, and Derek's German was non existent, but they were nevertheless still arguing the point, with Derek's voice rising with each shake of the official´s head.
Anyone who has met Derek will understand why the scene was reaching epic comic proportions with each passing minute. He was a lovely bloke, but had rather unusual looks, being tall and gangly, very bald, although, let me add, what he did have left he wore long, and with very thick lensed spectacles.
With him unwilling to alter whatever it was that was being objected to, the scrutineer dismissed him with a wave of his hand and called the next rider forward.
Derek stood rooted to the ground, his face a mask of frustration and anger.
I could see he was planning his next move.
Suddenly, he swiveled on his heel, shot his hand out in a stiff arm Nazi salute, and proceeded to goose step up and down the scrutineering bay, shouting, Sieg f**king Heil, all the while looking in the direction of the bemused official.
Needless to say, they were not very amused.

Yes the John Cleese impression would have been hilarious, I can picture it . We had a despatch rider who looked like him working at Fedex B'Ham who used to dry his soaked smelly wellies by gaffa taping them on the hand dryer. Wasn't Derek Jones known as 'Crazy Horse' too?

David

Hi Guys

Just remembered one from the early 70's where a continental GP rider found a 6 speed gearset from a 125 works Yamaha which had been discarded.

He proceeded to have an exact copy made at great expense, in Germany I think, as the 125 customer bikes (AS1/AS3?) only had a 5 speed box.

It turned out that he was the first person ever to have a brand new unused gearbox that was completely knackered!