Vittoria Postie Bike meet - 19 Mar. 2005 
[Brightside, Vittoria, NSW, Australia]

The Postie bikes v's The Fast 50's

The first ride day for 2005 was a beauty. Not too hot, not too cold but just right. Unfortunately Brightside had not received the rain that lots of NSW did in the preceding week but the track had been graded and a water pump and spay system was put into action for most of the day to keep the dust down to acceptable levels.

The fast fifties came in numbers to take on the posties and the home team was keen not to be upstaged. A rough count was 10 or so fast 50’s and 13 or so posties. It was interesting that although quite a number of regular postie racers could not make it a large number of first timers were on hand to taste and enjoy the days activities.

After some tune up and practice, racing was under way in earnest. The fast starting 50’s got the upper hand in the sprint racers with the faster posties starting back on the grid and 5 laps being insufficient time to work their way through the considerable traffic. New guys, team "mad as X 4" on their street legal bikes were making up for a lack of speed up the hill with some energetic cornering and braking. Both "team primate" #850 and# 08  bikes having been rebuilt, (after both blew gearboxes at the last meeting in 2004,) were running strongly along with the #28 bike of team photographer Rohan, team Familiar (two brothers) on a pair of CT90’s were pushing hard in their first outing, Blake on #15 was having a go and another newbie on the # 77 bike was feeling his way. Add the 9 or 10 fast 50’s and the track was pretty busy and the racing frantic!

The Blue # 2 Fast fifty blitzed the field , Parko on the #1 bike moved through to second in the end then another fifty # 34 third and Noel on the # 850 postie was the way of the combined races.  With the flying Jezza not in attendance Noel came home first in the postie only sprint race (having finally started on the front row of the grid) followed by Parko and Michael on the 08 methanol machine. While the "50’s only" race was again taken out buy the young gun on the Blue #2 modified 50 (nice power pipe)

The two hour race started at 3:17 PM with a large field, although not many of the starters had done a 2 hour before and were unaware of  what was about to unfold. The first hour was one of attrition. Team ‘mad as ‘ came to grief on the first lap pushing very hard in the traffic and tangling with each other and sidelining their bikes and the fifties were falling out at an alarming rate, flat tyre’s due to ripping their valves out being one of the causes,  but the racing at the front was tight with the first 4 bikes still within 1 lap of each other and trading places with pit stops and rider changes were the #2 fifty and the #850 postie, Parko #1 a lap down as the methanol bike took longer to refuel and the #34 fifty was the order with other bikes making sporadic appearances then retiring to the pits.

With 20minutes to go only three bikes were left, Noel was leading but only 2 corners behind was the #2 fifty and a lap back to the #1 postie suffering with a slipping clutch .The fifty boys then ran out of fuel and after refuelling discovered that their rear wheel bearing had collapsed and so retired leaving the posties to finish 1 and 2.

The fifties are off to fit rim locks to their rear wheels and have vowed to return... 

(Race report courtesy Noel, Pics by Rohan and Bob.)