Barry Sheene Festival of Speed
http://www.barrysheene.com.au/default.aspx
Wow what weekend!!
For 2010, the PCRA had approached Warwick Nowland, twice winner of the World Endurance Championship, to see if he was interested in riding at the BSFoS, as a 'name' to attract a crowd to the meeting. Warwick was very happy to oblige, and Keith was asked if Warwick could ride one of the HHRacing P&M's. Of course!! No wukkin furries!
Warwick aboard HHRacing #2 Bike
An initial taster for Warwick was set up at the very last track day at Oran Park, and the #2 bike was made available. Warwick went out, with a little trepidation, and when he came back in, was pleasantly surprised how good the bike felt, it handled ok, changed direction without too much effort, had good ground clearance, pulled hard and stopped ok!! He wanted more!! In fact he just wanted to go out again each time the sessions ended. And he was clearly getting quicker as he got used to the bike. Keith happened to be out testing the #1 bike when Warwick came by, sliding the tyres beautifully, then two bends later, disaster! The front brake master cylinder decided with no warning, to stop working. With great consideration and presence of mind, Warwick waiting until he was in the gravel trap before laying down, clearly carrying far too much speed to get round the corner. Minimal damage was done, just embarrassment for Keith at the component failure. New seals had been fitted to the master cyl not too long before hand, and all seemed fine for 20+ laps. Then between two corners, it stopped pumping.
Anyway, that behind us, another track day was arranged in March at Eastern Creek. This went very smoothly, and Warwick was soon lapping in the low 1.41s, more than 1 sec under Robbie Phillis's fastest lap from 2009. He reckoned there was more to come. Amazing to see. Such smooth effortless riding.
And so, to the BSFoS itself.
Friday Practice
Friday was practice day, and Warwick had TV commitments in Melbourne, which was handy as it gave Keith a chance to concentrate on practice and his errant #1 bike. After 12 months of problems, coming in after the first session to find the outside of the engine all oil free was a SUCH a relief!! We had to check there WAS oil in the sump.......!! The bike had run ok on the dyno the previous week, bar some blow by coming out of the new breather. Then last minute advice from Graham Salter at Diptune, world authority on Kawasaki Z1000 air cooled race motors, was to remove the extra breather as it was not needed, which meant we were running an untried configuration. BUT, it worked. But there is another but......but but but......it felt flat as a witches tit. No real rush of power like it had previously. Hmmmm. Knowing the cam timing was right, we checked the ignition timing. Statically it looked ok, so we decided to try the strobe, connected it up, and that's funny, it was not working on #4 outer plug...hmmm strobe must be broken. Lets try #4 inner plug....oooh strobe flashing now!! Errrrr hold on...back on #4 outer plug...nothing. OK, so only 4 of the 8 plugs were firing, which meant a coil pack was not working. Sure enough, checking the resistance across the low tension side showed the circuit was open. That certainly would account for the deflated tit!
Luckily, Rob Cassar of Ballistic, the HH tuning parts supplied, was on his way to the creek, and had 3 spare coils, 2 of which were already allocated for HHRacing for the Harris. Slotting one of those on fixed the problem...strobe flashing on all 8 plugs now! And the bike sounded much happier. And for the first half a lap, it felt really strong again. But then went off....back to witches tit syndrome.
Back in the pits, after much head scratching, we found the main power supply plug from the battery to the dyna was only connected on the +ve terminal. Connecting that properly got it back to firing on all 8 again. But it was too late to test again, all the sessions were over.
Saturday Races
The forecast was for a few showers, but sunshine and 24 degs. Well, the rain never came, but just in case, a new set of michelin wets were acquired.
The day consisted of 10 mins Qualifying, followed by two 6 lap P5 unlimited races, and an 8 lap Barry Sheene Memorial race.
In qualifying, Keith was a little tentative, still worrying about the bike, unnecessarily as it turned out!! A rather limp 1.49 put him in 12th on the grid. Warwick meanwhile, straight off the plane from Melbourne, qualified 2nd a fraction behind Robbie...the contest was ON!
In the first P5 race, Warwick and Robbie locked horns and battle commenced. After several changes of lead and checking of each other's capabilities, Warwick came home winner. Keith got a crap start and battled through to 6th or 7th, starting to blow out the cobwebs and getting back to riding on his limit after several difficult meetings.
In the second P5 race, Warwick again came home in front, and Keith improved his lap times down to a more respectable 1.47.
Warwick and Robbie at the start
So to the first leg of the BS Memorial Race. Top 40 pre 1980 machines from all classes. A great start saw Warwick and Robbie away, with Keith, Laurie Fyffe, Rex Wolfenden, Richard Easton, Craig Morris, Paul Dobbs and Rob Young all bashing handlebars for the next few places. It frantic stuff, but it must have been entertaining to watch. After about 5 laps, when in 5th, Keith's bike cut out on the start finish straight, then cut in, then out, it was doing the bloody hokie cokie!! It made it to turn 2, then cut out again, so Keith pulled off. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!
Meanwhile, Warwick and Robbie were hard at it. And there was little to chose between them. In the end, Warwick came home first and in doing so, lowered the P5 Unlimited lap record to 1.39.9......unbelievable !!!!!!!
Warwick leads Robbie round Turn 8
Back in the pits, the #2 bike had come in with the brake lever coming back to the bars, so that needed some fresh fluid. The #1 bike had a fuel leak from one tap, and we knew we had gone out with the battery not fully charged (not made it to the green light on the charger as there was little time between the 2nd P5 race and the BS leg). Nothing else could be uncovered, so the fuel leak was fixed and the battery put on charge, and the beers was opened!!!
Sunday Races
Race 1 on Sunday was a P5 Unlimited heat, to be followed by leg 2 of the feature Barry Sheene Memorial Race. Finally, one last heat of the P5 Unlimited was scheduled for the afternoon.
For Race 1, we were all set. Battery on #1 was fully charged, brakes on #2 were bled. There were no warm up laps so it was straight out to race complete with sleep in the eyes. The out lap was a bit of a wake up call, but not as much as the first couple of laps!! Warwick was away in the lead and Keith got a good start, was in the top 5 but while still asleep, lost a couple of places to Rex and Laurie. Over the next few laps, Keith finally arose from his slumbers, the bike was running good and strong, and he got back past both Rex and Laurie and had a good little tussle with Rob Young on the big Ducati.
Arriving back in the garage after the race, happiness with the #1 bike working fine was soon overcome as there was a serious problem with #2. Warwick had limped it home with lots of oil over the top of the engine and some ominous noises from the top end. Having removed the rocker cover, the problem was clear. The jockey wheel that sits between the cams had failed, was split half and the cam chain had pushed it up into the top of the rocker cover, grinding itself a small hole and hence the oil leak. The needle roller bearing had disappeared too. It was a minor miracle that the engine had managed to keep running. On closer examination, the damage appeared to be limited to the rocker cover and the jockey wheel. We had a spare jockey wheel, and Roger's Moriwaki had a rocker cover that would fit......so with due haste, these were bolted into place and everything seemed ok. The bike fired up and sounded good. Phew.
We can fix it.......
Not long after, we headed out for leg 2 of the Barry Sheene Memorial race. On the out lap, all seemed ok, then Warwick pulled alongside Keith and clearly something was up. #2 bike was not working as it should. A hasty decision was made, we would swap bikes!! We knew it would not fit with the rules, but the spectators had paid to see Warwick race against Robbie, and the only way that was now going to happen was if he rode Keith's #1 bike. We pulled over into pitlane entrance...all the other bikes were heading down to the grid and we hastily swapped transponders, and away went Warwick. He had not ridden the #1 bike ever before, and although it looks the same, it rides differently. The engine is much smoother, it has a close ratio box and a slipper clutch. The brakes feel different courtesy of an AP master cylinder, and the Maxton rear shock feels different too. So it was no surprise to see Warwick down in 5th place on lap 1 and Robbie streaking away at the front. What was a surprise was to see him gradually work his way forward, picking off Rex, Laurie, Leo Cash and then hunt down Robbie!! Then, he took Robbie and gradually pulled away and eventually took the chequered flag to win!!! Fantastic and what an achievement! Sadly Robbie's battery failed towards the end of the race, and on the run to the line Laurie Fyffe pipped him for second after a huge battle with Leo Cash.
Warwick on the #1 Bike catches Robbie
Back in the pit garage, the elation was short lived. The illegal bike swap had been noticed and a protest had been made. We were called before the clerk of the course and told off. What naughty boys we were and how we should know better. In fact, we explained the position and the officials understood, but of course they had to stand by the rule book, mainly because the $5k prize money means there was more than a plastic trophy riding on the result. The outcome was predictable, officially Warwick was excluded from race 2 so his win was not recorded. The final result was a win for Laurie Fyffe, second Robbie Phillis and third went to Leo Cash. But that was the official result. The REAL result was a WIN for WARWICK NOWLAND! He crossed the line first in both races and deservedly so.
In all the mayhem and confusion, no one remembered to prepare the #1 bike for the final race. Warwick was keen to ride the #1 bike again, this time with the blessing of the officials. The battery was put on charge, but with only minutes to go, it was not going to get too many electrons energised! Roger Quinlan offered his Z1R to Keith, so that was hastily prepared too. Off we both went to the start. On the out lap the Z1R made it to turn 4 and the engine died, and despite frantic pushing and bump starting efforts, the old girl would not fire. In our haste we had forgotten to turn the friggin fuel on!! D'oh.
Warwick meanwhile was away at the front, getting the feel for the #1 bike. He set a new lap record of 1.39.4 before the battery started to run short of power. He somehow nursed the bike home in last place, which proved to be enough to get him the overall P5 Unlimited first place trophy.
So an eventful, fun packed controversial weekend was had by HHRacing.....
It is great to see the full potential of both HHRacing P&M's extracted by a world class rider, and that is what Warwick did. He understood the limitations of the suspension, adapted his riding accordingly, and got the best out the bikes. He beat Robbie fair and square and broke a lap record that had stood for many years. This is on bikes he had ridden for a matter of minutes, rather than years. A true professional and is has been a total pleasure to have him in the team.
Roll on next year......!!! Possibly more of the same!
See Warwick's own write up on http://www.warwicknowland.com.au/
Warwick on Julians LC....this was the only outing on it! Robbie Phillis on the Mick Hone GSX
Leo Cash ahead of Laurie Fyffe, both GSX1100s Warick on HHracing #1 after the illegal bike swap
Eventual Barry Sheene Winner Laurie Fyffe Leo has a brown trouser moment
Warwick heads Rob Young on the big Duke Warwick on the HHRacing #2 bike
FOOTNOTE
It is now weds night and on examination of the #2 bike engine, it is clear that the damage is more extensive and significant that predicted. The illegal bike swap is now looking like a godsend!! Had the bike been run for a full race in anger the damage may have been terminal. The 22 needle rollers in the failed jockey wheel bearing were on the loose inside the head and the rest of the engine. So far, 18 have been found and some damage to the exhaust can lobe on #2 cylinder is evident. One roller was embedded in the head near #3 exhaust bucket. Also, the cam chain adjuster jockey wheel assembly has elongated and expanded the slot in which it sits in the mayhem that was going on inside the engine. That is going to need to be fixed somehow before the engine can be used again.
More news....two bent valves to top it all off....!!
http://www.postclassicracing.com.au/pages/home
Round 1 - Wakefield Park 27/28th Feb 2010
This clashed with WSBK, so HHRacing went to PI instead.
Arch rival Paddo won all three races on his newly acquired GSX1100 to take a sneaky lead in the PCRA championship!!
Round 2 - Wakefield Park 16th May 2010
HHRacing, with BigBoy Evan Pitkin, and Higgsy took to the track to do battle with Paddo and Eastoe!! Normal service resumed......
Higgsy and the HHRacing team, namely Evan (#2 Bike), Dina and Flapper (spanners) headed off to Wakefield for PCRA round 2.
Also present in the garage was bad boy Levi Nupponen, keen as mustard, at his first race meeting.........Levi is well known amongst his mates for being a tad excitable, and to put it mildly, he was excited about the racing!
The #2 bike had been repaired after the BSFoS which had left it with some engine problems. Two bent valves and a destroyed cam chain tensioning mechanism!! Peter MacMillan fixed the barrels and put new needle roller bearings in the cam chain jockey wheels, and sorted the valves too. Higgsy had stripped engine to search for the missing needle rollers, but only 18 or the 22 could be found. A replacement camchain was fitted, along with some brand new selector forks in the gearbox.
Also, to accommodate the Pitkin bulk, the original White Power shock that was on #1 when it was first purchased was fitted as this has a much stronger spring!!
Sadly, BigBoy Pitkin was in trouble. He had the flu, and although he turned up on Sunday morning to race, it was against the advice of his good lady Lucy, and he was clearly worried about what was going to happen when he got home! He did not feel comfortable on the bike in practice and only did race 1 before calling it a day. Still waiting for the photos of the bruises from the sound thrashing he got!!
Higgsy had no such problems. The only problems with #1 bike at the BSFoS were associated with batteries having insufficient charge. Seems the dyna 4000 demands lots of volts and amps to make it work. A larger capacity battery had been acquired and a bigger charger too, to ensure that the bike went out with a fully charged battery every time.
Saturday night was cold. And I mean COLD!! -3 cold....just like being back home! Sunday morning we looked out of the cabin over the track, and could only see fog!!! So we chipped the ice off the car and went down to the track to unload and get set up. It was seriously cold and foggy. Racing was delayed until about 10 when the fog finally cleared enough for the Clerk of the Course to see the entire track. Practice was taken very slowly with track temperature akin to the arctic!! When I say practice was taken slowly, I mean slowly by most people.....this was Levi's first ever race meeting, he went out on his VFR400 and lapped faster in practice than he did later in the races!!!
Jason Patterson and Richard Easton were also there, and there was anticipation of some good close racing between us.
Sure enough, Race 1 saw so good action. Higgsy was on row 2 and Paddo was on pole. Eastoe was next to Higgsy. BigBoy pitkin had asked to start from the back of the grid as he had mislaid his gonads somewhere on the trip across from Coota. The lights went off and Paddo and ??? pm a Ducati sped away, pursued by by Higgsy and Eastoe. There was no doubt that Paddo's GSX had plenty of power! Higgsy was soon past the duke, and chasing down Paddo. His bike may have had lots of power, but it soon became clear he was having all sorts of problems stopping it!! After nearly rear ending him at the end of the start finish straight, Higgsy slipped past o the brakes before the hairpin on lap 2 and despite seeing him come alongside on the straight, once we were into the braking zone Paddo was left behind braking early while Higgsy was still accelerating! Eastoe was not far behind either and slipped past Paddo on lap 5......then came the red flags. As we all approached turn 8, the left hand hairpin, there was a pile of bikes and riders in the track and an 'lack of adhesion' flag was being waved. Eastoe came flying by, and missed the flag, and promptly found himself sliding up the track on his arse!!! It turned out Roger Quinlan's Moriwaki had lost a blanking plug from his oil cooler and ALL the content of his sump was now between turn 7 and 8.
There was a long delay before racing restarted. After only a few races, and several more incidents at the same place, it was clear the track was far from fit for racing on. The Clerk of the Course called all the riders together, and off we all went to inspect it! It was decided to continue racing with a yellow flag at that point for the rest of the day. A slow tight approach was needed to stay off the oily bit of track.
Eastoe had to go home as his bike could not be fixed. BigBoy also decided to call it a day whilst he went in search of his missing courage and talent! So it was down to Paddo and Higgsy. Race 2 was similar to race 1, with Paddo away very fast and his bike was a weapon on the straight but he was struggling to get it stopped. Higgsy managed to get by quickly and disappeared. Roger got carried away and crashed his Moriwaki having clipped a large kerb and lifted the front end. Luckily the tank was undamaged as it has the Crosby signature on it!!!
Between race 2 and 3, Paddo changed master cylinder, which improved things lots. We were down to 4 lap dashes now. Race 3 was more exciting! After his usual lightening start, Paddo was much more difficult to pass now, but Higgsy managed on lap 3 and once past, pulled away.
So 3 wins out of 3 for Higgsy. But even if he manages to win all the rest of the races at the other meetings, Paddo will take the championship if he can continue to finish 2nd or 3rd, as his haul of points from the first round is too much to overcome!
But we will try............!!!
Levi had a ball. His race was New Era F3. There were 40 bikes on the grid which were either New Era (up to 31/12/1989) or Pre Modern (up to 31/12/1995). He started in 39th place. He worked his way up to 8th outright by passing people on the inside, outside, on the grass, on the rumble strip, on the brakes, on the straight, you name it....he did it!!!
In his 2nd and 3rd races, he was dicing for 4th/5th/6th place overall, which was 2nd in New Era class. He came away from his first meeting with the biggest smile ever, and a trophy for 2nd. And the only problem now is keeping his enthusiasm at bay until he can race again!!
Round 3 - Eastern Creek June 27 2010
For this round, my biggest PCRA rival, part time team mate and general nutter, Jason Patterson was all fired up, he had his bike sorted, and had been psyching himself up for this weekend for a while. The weather was cold, very cold, and practice was early and the track wsa definitely not warm!! Higgsy and Evan were being cautious...Paddo was flying and looking confident.
Race 1 saw Paddo on pole, due to him being at the top of the championship table. Higgsy was off the front row with Troy on the Ducati in between, and Blair Briggs on the big Laverda up there too. Paddo lept away with Higgsy right up his chuff through turn 1, turn 2 and then both riders fired the bikes into turn 3......and then it all started to go wrong for Paddo. As he powered the bike out, the back end came round, gripped and chucked him over the high side. Higgsy had a grandstand seat....although with hindsight a back row seat would have been preferable. With Paddos bike spinning in the middle of the track and Paddo in orbit, Higgsy sat up and tried to ride round the bike. Trouble was Paddo came down right in front of him, landed on his head, and with no option, Higgsy ran over his lower legs.......somehow he stayed on board and continued round the lap in a frantic state of mind. The red flag came out very quickly and everyone pulled into the pits. The ambulances went out, and the minutes passed. Up on the roof of the pits, Higgsy and Roger watched anxiously. In the distance more sirens could be heard....and another ambulance turned up....more minutes passed. It was clear there was lots of activity up at T3 but it was all down behind the armco. More minutes passed....it was now 20 mins since red flag, another ambulance arrived, then a police car, then another police car......OMG.
about 10 seconds before lift off
After about 30 minutes, with lots of long faces around, word came back that he was alive and breathing....PHEW....Paddo's wife Jen and his kids, his mum and step dad were all there. Paddo's mum was with him, and more info filtered back saying he was basically ok. Huge sighs of relief was all round....it took another 25 minutes, and the arrival of another cop car or two, before the ambulance came back from the track and headed to the medical centre. The cops arrived because the air ambulance had been called out, even though in the end it was not used.
It seems when Paddo landed, his neck had gone into some sort of spasm and had stopped him breathing. When the paramedics got to him, his heart beat was very weak and he was not breathing....and obviously there was concern for his neck and back. At that point they did not know his legs had had 250kg of bike and rider go over them. He was carted off to hospital and spent the rest of the day there having tests and XRays etc.
After all that, the racing seemed pretty unimportant. Higgsy went out and won all three P5 races, but not really being in the mood! Evan was struggling with a bike set up for an 85 Kg rider when he weighs in at 50% more......
That evening Higgsy rang Paddo. He was on his way home from hospital with Jen, and was talking well and wanted to know what happened. The story was told.....
A few days later, Higgsy went up to visit Paddo. By now he had a diagnosed broken ankle which was in plaster. He could remember nothing of the conversation on the Saturday evening, but was keen to know what had happened.....the story was told...again....several times during the visit. That knock on the head has dislodged one of the active brain cells and he was clearly not quite all there.
A few days later, Higgsy rang Paddo again....same thing.....very little recollection of visit and 'what happened'????? The story was told, again !!!!
Anyway, good news, Paddo is now 100% recovered, all brain cells working in harmony (ish), ankle now getting physio and recovering well, bike is in the process of getting fixed too.
A meeting to best forget.
The result - surprisingly undamaged - landed on its nose, then tail!!
Higgsy on #1 doing battle with TZ350
Round 4 - Broadford Oct 2/3 2010
The PCRA had never run a race meeting at Broadford down in Victoria before, but with the closure of Oran Park it meant only 2 tracks in NSW and they were of course now overbooked. So the committee took the decision to run a 2 day meeting at Broadford, which is owned and run by MVIC, and it is specifically for bikes. It is cheap to hire but a 9 hour drive from Sydney.
The weather forecast was good, there was an open track day for practice on Friday which Team HHRacing was unable to take advantage of due to work commitments. Big Evan was unable to get away for this weekend, so Higgsy was running solo. Not even any helpers!!
Higgsy got to the track late afternoon on Friday and found the car port that had been allocated....,mmmm bit small and already full of Rick Kwok and Matt Hanna stuff. Never mind, room was made available. On opening the trailer, it was found the bike had fallen over in transit - luckily there was no real damage other than the screen and a dent in the silencer. Damn ratchet tie down had somehow let go.....
After practice finished, and bike scrutineered, a walk around the track was needed. It was nice!! Up and down, changes of camber, blind crests!! ANd clockwise...just like a UK track!! In fact it was a bit of Brands, a bit of Lydden, a bit of Cadwell....excellent!!!!! Local expert Denis Brown talked us through his lines. Roger Quinlan, with input from the legendary Steve Cutting had some alternative ideas too!! One corner seemed to concern everyone. Aptly named 'crash' corner, it has a blind entry over a crest at the end of the back straight......
Next day, practice soon revealed how tricky the track was. That said, Higgsy felt at home and was instantly lapping at a reasonable pace and qualified with a 1.07 after just a few laps and not pushing nor trying too hard. Crash corner was fine so long as you didnt peel in late!! The weather was glorious. The lack of helpers was being over come with help at hand in the pit from Rick and Matt and Kym (thanks guys!!).
THe Pre Moderns went out for their practice, but the red flag soon came out......in came the riders.....where's Matt? Oh dear, Crash corner! And it was not good, he was brought back in significant pain, and rushed off to hospital. More broken bones, this time the left shoulder.
Higgsy's races were more against the clock as not too many people had turned up to ride. Each time he went out the lap times dropped. By the end of the weekend, a 1.04 dead was had. Not bad considering there was no one to dice with.
One particular matter had caught everyone's eye though. A chap called Alan Kempster. He was riding a 400 Kawasaki. The reason he caught everyone's eye was because he is an amputee. He has NO right leg NOR right arm. And he was out there racing. RESPECT.
Alan Kempster....HERO
In 2010, the historics were once again the main attraction at Motogp, with modern stuff providing support races including a few well known kids, Rossi, Stoner and the like.
The main events were on Friday, with qualifying at 8.15 am and two races late afternoon. That was to be followed by another race late Saturday afternoon, and the racers then given Sunday off to watch the support races.
Well we arrived in glorious sunshine on thursday....unloaded, and got everything ready. That night it started raining....and it didn't stop all Friday!! The qualifying was horrifying! Very cold, very wet and VERY windy. Higgsy qualified a disappointing 12th and Evan 22nd on #2...... subsequent inspection of the wet front on the #2 bike showed it was somewhat historic, hard as wood and cracked!! More inspection showed all the fast boys were on Dunlop wets. Higgsy michelins, and Evan had the knackered Michelin front and a Bridgestone rear. A new dunlop front was acquired and the historic wet on the front of #2 consigned to the bin.
After our qualifying, the ASBK guys went out.......and nearly all of them crashed. Bloody P platers. When they had scraped up all the Wuperbikes, then the Aussie Supersport boys went out...and same thing, there was more gravel in the scrutineering bay than on Beachy Head. All racing was immediately abandoned until conditions improved.
Well conditions didn't really improve, not much anyway, for hours. By then, the main event races had dropped off the schedule at the end of the day. So we went back to the motel and hit the bar!! However, first we had to get the car out of what was once a car park and was now a quagmire! WHere the car was standing was ok, but the exit was BAD.......Higgsy fired up the V8 and slid it round, picked up some speed and used momentum and luck to get through the bog!!
Saturday dawned brighter, slightly. Had to park miles from the track but at least the field was not waterlogged. Our race was late afternoon again.....but the sun was out, we were hopeful. The atmosphere was good, the bikes were on display and the sponsor banners were out. Then, 60 mins before our race the black clouds reappeared and down it all came again!!!!! And sure enough, the race was held in foul wet cold and windy conditions. Higgsy got an ok start and was going OK. A HUGE moment was had at the hayshed on about lap 2 when the rear end tried to overtake the front end.....ooops, the michelins really dont grip as well as they should....then the bike started doing some odd gearbox dances.....jumping out of 4th on the start finish straight was not fun. So caution was taken and speed backed off. In the end Higgsy finished 7th and Evan a credible 8th.
Another weekend to forget!!!
This whole meeting was overshadowed with the very sad news that Keith's dad passes away while Keith was out on the track for practice on Friday morning. Needless to say, Keith found it hard to concentrate to race and simply was not in the mood to be screeming around a race track. He did go out and race, and had some good battles with Roger 'Smokin' Gunn.
Keith would like to thank all the people there who provided fantastic support at a difficult time, especially Robbie Phillis and his team, Dibbsy, Eastoe, ET and Gunny.
