Oz

On Thurs., 16 Jan., Kenny Cummings, proprietor of NYC Norton, and Maurice Candy, I.O.M.T.T veteran and builder of the fastest Classic racing singles in North America, and I, met at JFK to fly to Sydney, Australia, via LAX, to compete in the Island Classic at Phillip Island.  At LAX, we were joined by Don Lange, Kenny's old friend from making music in their youth in Seattle.  Don's now making a film about classic racing, having gotten intrigued with Kenny's hobby/business.

We arrived in Sydney at 7:20am Sat., the 18th after traveling about a day. Maurice's nephew met him at the airport and took him to his sister's who lives in a west Sydney suburb.  Budget gave us an upgrade on our rental car, and we were styling in a Holden SSV.  We drove to downtown looking for a Telstra outlet to get our phones working.  We ran into Mark and son Harry who had just been to NYC and they kindly led us to a Telstra store.  After getting phones, we drove to Deus Ex Mechina, builders of custom bikes and purveyors of lifestyle clothing.  We chatted chatted with Mikey, had lunch at their excellent  restaurant,  then took some photos with Saxon, one of the mechanics.  We took the  bus to Circular Quay, checked out boats in the harbour and walked to the southwest pylon Of the Sydney Harbour Bridge where there is a museum and observation deck with a view of the city.   After checking out the observation deck and museum, we walked back to the bus, but took the wrong one, so had to walk a bit out of our way to get to our car.  We drove to the south west Sydney suburb of Minto Heights to Geoff Clatworthy's.  Geoff is a fellow whose ES-2 Norton I raced in 1999 at Eastern Creek.  He gave us a complete tour of his workshop and ES2 and his wife, Caroline made us a fabulous dinner.

Sun. morning, Don went with Caroline to check on the bees she keeps at a club a short distance away.  Geoff's good friend Tony Henderson, a legendary race bike builder/tuner, came over to Geoff's house on his KTM Duke, and we had the honor of chatting with him for and hour or two before we set off for Eastern Creek and the Sydney Motorsports Park where a Fiat track day was happening.  This is a circuit where I had raced in 1998 & 1999, '99 on Clatworty's killer ES-2 Norton.  After watching the cars go around from a few different spots and chatting to a few people in the pits, we went to Blacktown and had some great kabobs.  We then picked up Maurice at his sister's house not far away.  Next stop was Katoomba, the site of Catalina Park, an abandoned race circuit used from about 1960 to 1970 and now a public park and area of special Aboriginal significance.  We walked the 1.3 mile lap.  It looked like a fun, narrow, dangerous circuit with lots of up and down and no run off.  We then drove on to the Mt. Panorama circuit at Bathurst, a purpose built, but public road circuit, and each of the four of us drove a lap (4 miles) in the rental car.  Again, a fabulous circuit and extremely dangerous with no run off, and bikes haven't raced then since around 2000.  We checked into the Knickerbocker and had dinner there.

Mon. morning, 20 Jan.,  we went to the Mt. Panorma Motor Museum, the highlight of which was the two Tony Henderson "Railway Special" Matchless G-50s.  Both were in modified Norton Featherbed chassis (correction; I'm told they were not Featherbed frames, but made from scratch).  The earlier of the two has a dustbin fairing and full streamlining.  The later bike has a four valve head that Tony created out of thin air.  This bike reputedly made over 70 hp (on methanol, at the crank)and weighed 220lbs and would blow off H1R Kawasakis on the straights. Tony worked for the railway and these bikes were built largely on the Railway's dime with the Railways material.  Tony's rider, RonToombs, held the lap record at the Mt. Panorama circuit for several years with this bike.  Ironically,Toombs was killed at Mt. Panorama later on a Kawasaki.

Other features of the museum included a Greg Hansford display with his 500 & 750 aircooled, and 750 watercooled triple, and tandem twin 350 Kawasakis, and a TR2 (?)Yamaha.  The  NSR 500 Honda with which Wayne Gardiner won the World Championship is there.  There are several typical Aussie specials like a 315cc Suzuki with it's cylinder reversed with the carb in the front and exhaust out the back.  Or, the 250 TSS Bultaco that someone grafted a rotary valve to.  There were at least a couple of BSA Bantam specials.  

They weren't all road racers either.  There was an incredible drag bike with a home made 90* 2 liter          V-twin, and a bunch of speedway/grass track bikes.  And, of course, a bunch of cars, but who cares about them.   

We drove from Bathurst several hundred kilometers through Canberra to Cooma, which is the gateway to the Snowy Mountains.  Leaving town Tues. morning, we spotted a memorial with a radial motor, and made the quick U-turn to check it out.

Apparently, a plane, an Avro X, was lost in the 1931 and wasn't found until 1958.

We drove on to Thredbo at the base of Mt. Kosciuszko, the highest point in Australia.  There, Kenny, Don and I took the chair lift up the mountain.  It didn't go all the way to the top, but it was a great view from there.  From Thredbo, we drove hours through the Snowy Mountains on beautiful winding, near empty roads.  With an area about the size of the U.S., but a population of only 22 million, there's lots of uninhabited territory in Australia.  We had one near miss with a Wallaby that jumped out in front of us.  Eventually, we came out near the coast at Bairsdale and pushed on to Sale where we spent the night.

Wed. morning we drove three hours along the coast road  straight to the circuit at Phillip Island.  There, a fork lift pulled our crates out of the container and we unloaded our bikes and got set up in garages reserved for us.  Everything seemed in good condition with no collapsed fork springs, corrosion, or flattened tires that some had worried about.

Wade Boyd, a IOM TT and Phillip Island vetern, and his sidecar passenger, Christine Blunck behind the H-D Sprint.

Maurice Candy thinks about what the coming racing will require while Kenny Cummings checks his phone behind his Minnovation Seeley G-50.

Tom Marquardt's 1975 492cc CB400F

We then drove the ten minutes into the town of Cowes and got the key to the house we had rented in the adjacent community of Silverleaves.  After a good lunch in the Silverleaves Cafe, we got set up in our house.  We got a call saying there was a opportunity of a track walk.  Tom Marquardt drove the 'ute' (utility vehicle, i.e. pickup truck) he had borrowed to Cowes and got Don and me.  There was some delay before we could get out on the track and we only got about a quarter way around the 2.76 mile track before they told us we had to get off, exiting at turn #4 (of 12).  Back to the house, we did a little grocery shopping, then had dinner in a decent Italian restaurant.

Thursday, there was an optional practice day that all of the Americans and many of the locals signed up for.  I was scheduled for the first group on my 350 H-D but it took us a while to locate and purchase race fuel, so I only got out for one lap,  but at least it gave me an idea where the track went.

Next, I went out on Tom's 1975 492cc Honda CB400F.  We had forgotten to back off the steering damper which Tom had tightened up for shipping purposes, and that made it awkward to ride, but I could tell it was geared too short.  Tom took two teeth off the back which seemed too much when I went out again, and we ended up putting one tooth back on.  Other than that, the bike was good, though Tom was a bit concerned with high oil temperature.

Tom fettles the Honda.

My 350, on the other hand, was geared too tall and I added a tooth to the rear sprocket.  It too seemed good, and I did three sessions on each bike and started to get comfortable with the track.  The track is very smooth and grippy and generally high speed, though it does have two hairpins ('Honda' & 'MG').  Turn #1 ('Doohan's')proved to be flat out on the Sprint, but on the close ratio six speed Honda, I would sit up and kick it down to 5th and get back on the gas hard without touching the brakes.  I found the most challenging corner was 'Lukey Heights', turn#9.  It's a climbing, blind, decreasing radius, and perhaps slightly off camber left turn that then dives into the right hand MG hairpin.  I'm sure I still have room for improvement there.

Thurs. night it started to rain, so official practice Fri. started wet.  The forecast was for clearing in the afternoon and fine for Sat. & Sun., so there was really no reason to practice in the rain, but I was curious, so I did one session on each bike in the wet.  Again, the traction was excellent.  In the afternoon, we had the first of our two qualifying sessions.  The Sprint ran in 350 Classic, which ran with Pre-war( of which there were only two or three), 125 All Eras (up to 1990) and the 250 Classic.  I. Got in five laps and ended up 11th overall and 5th in class behind an incredibly quick CB77 Honda ridden by the young and talented Levi Day, two 350 Manx Nortons, and a 270cc Bultaco TSS replica.

On the Honda, I was riding in 500 Forgotten Era (up to'82) which was out with the 500 Post Classic(up to 1972).  On the first lap, entering the very fast last turn, I looked down at the tach, and when I looked up, I was on the grass with the gravel trap fast approaching.  I thought this was going to be ugly, but kept some throttle on and the bike tracked straight through and I was able to re-enter the track further down the front straight.  Despite this messing up my first and second laps, I was able to get in two more decent laps and ended up 4th, in class and overall, behind a couple of TZ Yamahas and a remarkable 500 Ducati Pwere very pleased with this provisional qualifying as we didn't really expect to be that competitive.

Sat. was cool and windy, but dry.  In the 2nd and final qualifying session on the Sprint,  I was 4th in class but 13th overall with a slower time than Fri.  But, I remained 5th in class and 11th overall with the combined times.  On the Honda, I went almost 1 3/4 sec.s faster(?) than Fri. and was third in class, but still 4th overall, with a very quick Post Classic Paton twin leading the session.  This left me 4th in class and 5th overall on the grid for the races.

My first race (of four per class), was on the 350 Sat. afternoon.  The first two or three cleared off and I was dicing with the next three or or four when the race was red flagged for a crash after two laps.  I was surprised that they decided to do a complete restart, as it was only a four lap race.  On the first lap of the restart, I must have got on the gas too early exiting MG and spun the Sprint out.  It was a very gentle low side and I was completely unhurt.  The bike wasn't bad either and I just had to get the shift lever welded and remove the broken windscreen.

After my spin out, a garf on the fairing and no windscreen.

Because of various delays in the morning, the 4 lap races were reduced to three, making the starts very important.  In my first race on the Honda, after some initial swaping back and forth, we spread out a bit and I ended up 4th overall & 3rd in class behind the Paton, the Pantah, and the TZ 350F, with a Seeley G-50 less than a second and a half behind.

In the 2nd race on the Sprint I was in a gaggle with a bunch of RS125 Hondas, Rod Tingate on a 350 Manx Norton and Paul Paton on the Bultaco TSS replica.  I could get by a few of them by holding it on longer in turn #1 and into #2 and out braking into #4 and #9, but would get out motored from #10 to #1.  The Bultaco and I were particularly close and he ended up timing the draft to the finish line perfectly and beat me by 0.005 sec.s for 3rd in class and 9th overall.  Great fun.

Because of the delays, they weren't able to complete 4 or 5 of Saturday's races, and they had to be run Sunday with reduced laps.

Saturday evening there was a big dinner at the track and John McGuiness, the second most winningest rider in the history of the IOM TT, was the featured guest.  McGuiness has long been a hero of mine, but after his interview by Allan Cathcart, he's now a super hero in my mind.  He was incredibly funny and managed to get in digs of the Aussies, the Kiwis, Guy Martin, Michael Dunlop, football, cricket, the World Supersport Paddock, and himself.  He was reverential of Joey Dunlop.  He was self deprecating without any false modesty.  Surprizingly, he gave his employer, Honda, at best a back handed compliment.  He seemed remarkably free of the weirdness/other worldliness of many of the racers at the very pinnicle of their sport.  I left there thinking that he's the type of person I'd like to have as a friend and hang out with.  Maybe that makes him less of a hero and more human.

So, I was out on the Honda first Sunday, and a similar pattern developed with me able to get by some in the fast #1/2 section and on the brakes, and them getting by me at #11 & 12 and on the straight.  

I finished 6th overall, but still 3rd in class with two more of the Post Classic bikes getting by me.   One of them was a very nice 16 or 17 year old lad, Tommy Bramich, who was competing on the classics for the first time and very much enjoying it.  But, his lack of experience with drum brakes showed in the next two races when he 'out braked' himself at the hairpins and ran off the track.  He'll soon figure it out and I predict a bright future for him.  Another Post Classic bike that got by me was Bob Marriner on a '72 CB500 Honda

In my third race on the Sprint, I again diced with the Bultaco and some RS125 Hondas.  This time I ended up 7th overall and 3rd in class with the Bultaco coming up 0.003 seconds short in his effort to draft by me at the flag, this despite me having a bit of misfire.  I cleaned the points and drained the float bowl, but didn't fine anything obvious.

In my third race on the Honda, I ended up 4th overall and 3rd in class, finishing 0.041 seconds ahead of the Marriner CB500 that had beat me in the previous race.

My Sprint was very hard to start for it's last race and didn't seem completely happy on the warm up lap.  When the lights went out fo r the start, the revs wouldn't pick up and the whole grid passed me and finally the motored died.  I pushed the bike to the side and watched the race from behind the wall. I finally remembered that I had never charged the battery Sat. night.  A voltmeter showed about three volts ( rather than the 7 or so of my fully charged 6 V battery).  A bit disappointing as I was looking forward to another dice with my new friend and arch nemisis on the Bultaco.  But, a dead battery is a lot better than crash or conrod through the case.

That just left the last race on the Honda, another four lapper.  The rear tire was by this time pretty shagged, but I though it better to be careful and smooth than introduce the unknown of a different brand of time with no opportunity to test it.  I finished 5th overall, but third in class again with David Woosley pulling along side on the run to the flag, then dropping back slighty as he was pushing his own air and finishing 0.018  seconds behind and a TZ 350 in my class just over half a second behind him.  So, I was again 3rd in class, which made me third in the class standings for the weekend, a result far better than Tom or I were expecting.  Tom has turned a fairly modest street bike into a fine race bike.

Kenny and I got our bikes crated up Sun., after the races, so we could get an early start Mon. morn for the eleven hour drive to Sydney.  This took us through the center of Melbourne which looked like a dynamic city with art and dramatic buildings and cranes everywhere with new buildings going up left and right.  We did carve out 20/30 minutes to stop at Winton Raceway, where I had raced in 1985,  and watched some cars go around.  Again, we stayed with Geoff and Caroline Clatworthy in Minto Heights.  Geoff had had a disappointing weekend with the Nikasil plating pealing off his cyl. barrel, prevent them from racing.

We has an absolutely fabulous time with great scenery, weather, racetrack, competition, and companionship, and I hope we'll be able to do it again next year.  Now, it's back to reality and the long, dark, cold, cruel, lonely winter.  It just not fair.

Pit lane and the start/finish straight.

An unusual, but quite quick Guzzi V-twin side car outfit

One of the many TZ Yamahas

The Matchless G-45 of Ken Lucas.

A Norton gearbox in the 1928 Douglas of Ken Lucas.

Kawasaki steering dampers supplementing the friction dampers on the girder fork on the Douglas.

The exposed valve gear and outside flywheel of the Douglas.

A MZ powered by a Hu two stroke single. 

Apparently, the 'AFRICA' in Team Africa stands for: Another F**king Race I Can't Afford

A three cylinder Yamaha made by grafting an extra cylinder on a TR3.  There were at least four similar bikes at the meeting, three air cooled, one 560 water cooled.

This three cylinder Suzuki came from the factory that way, but this looked to be a works racer, not a converted street bike.

Another works racer, a 500 four cyl. two stroke Yamaha GP bike.

Is that the Garry McCoy WMC livery?

Friends of Tom brought a Honda CBX 6 cylinder.

Unfortunately, the CBX broke before it could race.

Perhaps the best of the exotic road bikes seen at the meeting, a road going 500cc Velocette KTT.

It has a double sided 4LS brake and a beautiful cast primary cover.

A poor photo of a Norvin.

A daily driver RE5 Suzuki rotary.

My post yesterday about the '08 Moto Giro generated a photo and a comment, so I thought I would elaborate.  Dick Hollingsworth sent me this photo:

I believe that's Chris Sidlah in the middle and it's Rob Diepenbroek on the right.  I don't know who took the photo, but I suspect it was Tod Rafferty, the maker of the video.

Tod refers to this incident in the video.  Unbeknownst to me, the oil return pipe from the exhaust rocker box to the crankcase fractured, spewing oil out while I rode along oblivious on fast, straight roads on the last day returning to Monterey, inland.  I came over a rise and found everyone stopped.  A rancher was moving cattle from one field to another and the road was blocked.  It was then that I noticed the oil everywhere.  We were able to preform a decent roadside repair making a splint with a split piece of hose safety wired over the broken pipe, then covered with a quick set epoxy.  David Edwards, then editor of Cycle World magazine, gave me a qt. of oil that he had extra, and I was back in business.  If the rancher hadn't blocked the road, I might well have seized the motor as, not long after this, we ran into heavy headwinds and I did a lot of running full throttle in 3rd gear.
BTW, Rob Diepenbroek is the builder and rider of the 900 bevel drive Ducati featured at the beginning of the video.  He's a fabulous metal worker and made all the body work on his Duke.
Tod points out in his comment that it's 'Barry Porter' not 'Barry Gordon' who I'm joking with at the agility test in Paso Robles (5:48-6:02).  Barry had a number one or two below me, so we did lots of riding together.  He had a very nice Bultaco Metralla and is an excellent rider.  But, he would generally let me go by in the twisties then, when we got out on the open, fast roads, I would tuck in behind him and suck the draft.  We had great fun tag teaming our way through central Ca.
In the video, Tod refers to Steve Flack's bike as a Honda 160, but I believe it's actually a CL 175 sloper.  A few of the purist seemed miffed that lowly 'Jap crap' scored the overall win, but it was mostly popular as Steve is such a great guy and impressive Giro competitor.
Tod has a couple of references and shots of Harley Welch's scooter.  It's worth pointing out that it's a Heinkel 150 with the perfect wicker basket on the back and I was very impressed with it's performance.

My friend Stu Carter just sent me a link to a video of the 2008 Moto Giro America which took place in Central California, starting and ending in Monterey and based three days in Paso Robles.  Seeing the video brought back lots of good memories, as it was a fabulous event.  There was a great bunch of riders on some superb bikes and excellent roads, route sheets, accommodations and food.  The USCRA Moto Giro crew did the timing and scoring.  I initially roomed with Frank Scurria, a legendary racer from the '60s.  He had a very serious accident on the second day and was airlifted out, but has since recovered completlely.  Unfortunately, the event was a money loser and so never happened again.
http://vimeo.com/66865312

The latest motorcycle book I've read is 'On Motorcycles, the Best of Backmarker' by Mark Gardiner.  Mark has been writing his 'Backmarker' column for many years.  At one time it was in Motorcyclist Magazine, then in Road Racer X until that folded, and currently online at  http://www.motorcycle-usa.com and at his personal blog  http://backmarker-bikewriter.blogspot.com/.  This book is a collection of what he considers his best columns.  There are 76 'columns' which average less than 6 pages each.  This means that it's a book that one can pick up, read a bit, and put it down without having to worry about losing continuity.  However, I found that I pretty much plowed straight through it because I found it that compelling.
I've know Mark for a while and have had great respect for him after reading his book 'Riding Man'.  This is the story of him quitting his job and selling virtually everything he owned to move to the Isle of Man, learn the circuit and race there.  I didn't know, until I read it in 'Best of Backmarker' that he was suffering from debilitating rheumatoid  at the time.
While he covers a lot of racing topics, the book is not primarily about racing.  Mark is a real investigative journalist.  When he's  intrigued  by a topic, he does the footwork to get to the bottom of it.  Perhaps the best example of this is the lead column in the book: 'Searching for Spadino'.  Spadino was the nickname of the motorcyclist who rode his bike repeatedly into  the Mont Blanc tunnel while it was blocked and burning from a tanker truck accident, saving many people, then succumbing to the fire.  Mark wondered what kind of person would do this.  So, he went to Italy and France and interviewed as many people as he could who knew Spadino.  The result is a terrifically moving portrait.
Or the Hollister 'riot' that was the inspiration for the film 'The Wild Ones'.  Mark went to Hollister more than once to interview people who were there and remembered.  A picture emerges that is nothing like the movie.
Mark organized an expedition with Patrick Bodden and Bob Hansen to go to Paris and check out a bike claimed to be the CR750 Honda that Dick Mann won the '70 Daytona 200.  Bodden is a Honda race bike expert and Hansen hired Mann and ran the team.
While Gardiner's main interest is probably road racing, his columns run the gamut including the 5-5-5 tour (cross country ride on bikes costing less than $500, less than 500cc and pre-1975), the Cannonball run (cross country ride on pre 1916 bikes), Bonneville speed week, and Black Bike Week in Daytona, and the Catalina GP.
There are profiles of several characters including Rob North (frame builder), Udo Gietl (tuner and team manager), Anthony Gobert (road racer), Big Sid Biberman (Vincent expert), and Mike Goodwin (serving a life sentence for murdering Mickey Thompson and his wife, but did he?)
And, much, much more.  Fascinating stuff and highly readable.  Available at : http://thebestofbackmarker.blogspot.com/

The Horex lives!  Today I started it for the first time.  And, remarkably, in less than a year from when  I first got it.  With the first kick I gave it, the headlight fell out, which amused my brother and sister-in-law no end.

It took a few kicks and a couple of pushes and at first it didn't want to run down low.

 But, after I noticed that the carb was loose and tightened the nuts securing it to the head, it actually idled.  No bad noises, almost no smoke and no big oil leaks.

 I ran the bike up and down their road, up to third gear and it seemed to pull well.  The brakes, however, weren't too impressive.
This is very encouraging, but there is still plenty to do to get it road worthy.  The fuel tank needs to be cleaned of all the rust inside.  The mufflers need to be mounted better.  The fork stops have to be increased.  A side stand has to be welded on, as the center stand is a two person affair.  And, the wiring has to be straightened out to get the lights and horn working.

Sat. we continued our ancient family Thanksgiving tradition of putting the bike in the basement.  For the four strokes, this involved taking them for a ride to warm them up to drain the oil.  Unlike last year when I took long rides in balmy conditions, this year it was around freezing, so the rides were short.  Amy had ridden he R65 BMW Fri., and that was already lowered in the basement.   I took out her CL350, which has been converted to low pipe and disc front brake.  That disc brake seemed to be dragging and the clutch slipped initially, but after I got it warmed up, the brake freed off and the clutch stopped slipping.  It's a great running bike and quite agile, but the brakes aren't too impressive.

Next up was Doug's '77 850 Moto Guzzi LeMans, that he's owned since new.  And, actually it's 950cc.  It's a bike that really easy to go fast on, maybe too easy, but I got away with it this day.

 Being a 90 degree V-twin, it's really smooth and he's put a comfy seat on it.  He's also put handle bars that are wider than my taste.  I missed the 2nd to 3rd shift several times; you have to be quite deliberate.  I was thinking the front brake wasn't too impressive, then realize it has linked brakes and front brake lever only works one side and you have to use the pedal to get the second front brake.  And, the switch gear is terrible.  But, fast, long legged, stable, comfortable and with a great sound.

Finally, my Moto Guzzi, from 24 years earlier, the 250 Airone Sport.  It's also comfy and has a great sound, but slow and mediocre brakes.  It doesn't  have a terrible turn signal switch because it doesn't have turn signals.  Remarkably little oil came out of the tank and sump, because most of it was on the outside of the bike.  But, I still love it.

All photo by Amy Roper

We saved Doug's '66 250 Benelli for Sun. which was forecast to be warmer.  In the morning, the internet told me it was 38 degrees, but don't believe everything you read on the internet.  I had intended to ride it to the British Iron Assoc. breakfast in Colchester, but a fuel tap leak cause me to go to plan B and ride in the cage with Doug and Amy.  Good thing as we were spinning up in the car and saw a couple of accidents on the way.  A couple of guys arrived late because Rt.66 was closed in Hebron because of the black ice.  But, by the time we got back it had warmed up enough that the ice was gone. We changed the fuel tap and I took it for a 10 mile loop.  The motor ran great and was much smoother than the last time I rode it as Doug had changed the crankshaft.  He got it with a 260 crank and it vibrated badly.  With the proper 250 crank it was quite pleasant and went well.  He's put a 2LS Bridgestone backing plate in the Benelli front hub and it now stops very well.  I found the shift lever quite awkward, the bars at a odd angle and the seat quite hard.  And the exhaust is pretty loud, but a great running and stopping bike.
Another motorcycling Thanksgiving.

I just finished my annual compilation of the season racing results.  For 2013 I participated in 15 road race events, the most I've done since 2006.  This was at 15 different venues, again the most since '06.  Three of these I had never been to before: NOLA (New Orleans), The Ridge (Shelton, Wa.), and NJMP (Millville, N.J.).  Talladega (Alabama) and Sears Point (Ca.) were substantially altered since the last time I was there.  I entered 60 individual races and started 57 of them, the most since 2005.  I did this on 13 different bikes, the most since 2010, owned by 11 different people.  I got 33 firsts, 11 seconds, 5 thirds, and 4 DNFs.  One of those DNFs was a crash and one of the DNSs was a crash (on the warmup lap), and I had two practice crashes, one of which I'd call 'not my fault/being in the wrong place at the wrong time'.  Four crashes in a season is considerably above the 2.5 crash/season I've had over the last 12 years, but fortunately I didn't get hurt in any of them and raced the same or next day after all of them.
In addition to these races, I did the Parades at the Classic TT(Manx GP), a couple of Tiddler Tours, the Fall Giro, and the Pewter run.  2013 has been a busy, successful and satisfying year.

My friend and occasional sponsor, Tom Marquardt, forwarded me some photos that were sent to him of me racing a Team Obsolete G-50/7R.

Me racing a Team Obsolete G-50/7R, but where and when?  photo by Gordon Kerr

 I didn't recognize the venue, but thought it had to be over seas because the number four on the bike is not one I've used in the states, to my recollection.  When Tom told me the fellow who sent him the photos, Gordon Brown, was Scottish, I wondered if it could be Knockhill.  I raced at this great little circuit in sight of the Firth of the Forth Bridge on 4-5 July, 1987, and remember having some great races with a bloke on Greeves Oulton while I raced a AJS 7R.  We had just come from Assen where they had a classic race as a preliminary to the Dutch TT.  I was to race Matchless G-50 1709, the ex-Al Gunter bike with which we had won the IOM TT in '84.  But, in the last practice at Assen, the crank pin broke.  We had a freshly rebuilt 7R motor with us.  (A G-50 is 500cc and a 7R is 350cc, but the motors are virtually identical except for the bore.)  This 7R motor had last run at Daytona earlier that year when it holed a piston on the cool off lap after I had just won the 350GP race.  We rebuilt the motor, put it in a box, and put it in a big Iveco truck along with a bunch of bikes and spares, and shipped it to Europe.  So, at Assen, I petitioned the organizers to let me change classes from 500 to 350.  They said OK, but that I would have to start from the back of the grid, as I had not qualified on that motor.  We set about swapping motors, which should have been quite straight forward, but this particular motor had never been in this chassis before and seemed to fight us the whole way.  While we were doing this, my mother and brother arrived.  They were on a holiday and had just come from Belgium.  My mother had never seen me race, in fact, had never been to a race.  They enjoyed the banter as Bard Donovan, Steve Griffiths, Alf Montford and I struggled with this motor swap.  As we finished up, my mother and brother went to the stands for the European Championship race that immediately preceded the Classic race so my brother could explain to my mother what was going on.
I started the 7R and tried to ride it around the paddock to get as much running time as possible on this freshly rebuilt motor.  The rings weren't seated and it was oiling and 8 stroking like crazy and then fouled a plug.  We put in a new plug, but it was still 8 stroking and smoking and running terribly.  And, It looked like rain was coming.  I thought that I had dragged my mother to Holland to watch me NOT start the race, in the rain.  Time to go and the motor is running poorly on the sighting lap and, when I come to the grid, the motor just about dies, but I managed to keep it running a little longer until we have to kill the motors for the push start.  They flag off the 500's in the first wave, then the 350's.  I pushed as hard and fast as I could and the motor a goes putt.........putt..........putt.......putt....All the other bikes are gone and the Safety Car passes me to follow the pack on the first lap, and I'm still going putt......putt........putt.......putt.  The motor finally picks up and I take off.  I've got a clear track and I find that when I'm beating on it hard, the motor runs great.  I start catching people.  I start catching a lot of people.  On the last lap, I pass the leader of the 350 class, and turn the fastest lap of the race, 500's included.  There was the traditional podium scene with the champagne (Alan Cathcart won the 500 class on his Paton) and later that evening there was a prize giving at a fancy venue downtown.  It turned out to be the perfect event for my mother to come to.
So, we load up and drive to Scotland for the Bob McIntyre Memorial Classic races at Knockhill, picking up Dick Mann, who's going to race a pre-'65 motocross race at the same meeting, on the way.
There were three races for each class each day.  The Greeves Oulton would get the lighting start while the 7R would be all oiled up and take a while to clear.  As each race went on, the Greeves would slow a bit as it got hot and the 7R would get faster.  Sometimes I caught the Greeves; sometimes I didn't.
But, I was troubled, because the bike in the photo had a 230mm Ceriani 4LS front brake and 1709 had a 210mm Fontana 4LS front brake.  When I checked our records at Team Obsolete, I found that I had totally forgotten that I had also raced another G-50 (4825) in the 500 class and this chassis did have a 230 Ceriani.  We had a lot of trouble with this bike because of what ultimately turned out to be a faulty magneto.  Saturday, I got a 5th, a DNF, and a DNS.  Sunday, a DNF, a 1st when we ran the bike without the fairing lowers, and a DNS.

Racing at Knockhill 5 July, 1987 with no fairing lowers trying to diagnose a running problem.  Gordon Kerr photo

When I related all this to Gordon Brown, he replied that he still sees the pilot of that
Greeves Oulton, Joey Mulholand, and he sent me a photo of him and Joey racing.

One can't see much, but that's Joey Mulholand on his Greeves Oulton, this time racing Gordon Brown.  Gordon Kerr photo

Also a pit scene of the AJS 7R3 with Dick Mann in the background.

A pit scene from Knockhill: the Team Obsolete '54 AJS 7R3 and behind it, from left to right, Dick Mann, Steve Griffiths, me, and Bard Donovan.  To the right is Dick's pre-'65 MX bike  in front of the Iveco van that we brought everything in.  Gordon Brown photo