Heres emls race report, he can talk but he's a little computer stupid,
After not seeing sidecar cross for over 20yrs. the small town of Dalby, about 3 hours west of Brisbane, showed plenty of excitement towards the teams when they put on a static display in the local Big W shopping plaza during saturdays peak shopping hours.
Flyers where handed out and the three sidecars on display were the centre on attention as both young and old were keen to find out when they might get to see them in action.
With the local track just 2ks out of town it was a small but keen crowd that showed sunday morning to fine and warn conditions, a slight breeze trying to keep the temerature with-in the 'comfortable' range. Plenty of overnight watering had turned the almost Waarnambool style circuit into something of a bog for practise with 3 of the 5 chairs tipping over as they struggled to get to grips with the surface. It was not unlike a Europrean sand track with long ruts forming on the straights and after the jumps which made line selection quite critical at speed
As the day progressed so the temp guage rose and by lunch the heat was getting past that comfortable range and into the extreme zone.
Popeye and I didn't have it all our own way after fluffing the starts on two of the three races and also having the ignition cut out twice whilst leading. We did however manage to win all three races with Nick Higgs/Wayne Hollaway next best and Robin Ricketts/Ash Palmer rounding out the top three. The TT500 Yamaha /Wasp of Brett Johnson/Tanya Brittain had plenty of trouble negotiating the ruts and boggy bits and at times were left stranded trackside until more hands could lift them to dry track.
The circuit did dry out considerable as the day progressed and the long track with tabletop jumps and a good selection of turns displayed the sidecars well as the locals took in this 'new' spectacle.
Much thanks must go to EML owner and Dalby local Ron Ash who it must be said is a true fan of this sport as it was with his strong commitment that this event was held. He even went to the trouble of inviting the local mayor to a reception held on the saturday night and then had him come along to flag off the first race on sunday.
More thanks also to Dalby mcc and also to Ockert Theron for his track preparation in the weeks before the event.
