Well done Frankie - I didn't realise you were that heavily into the actual event running.

I just looked at some of my old journals from the early 90's. I had my description of the Stockman's Enduro track conditions listed as "Fairly open - good loamy soil, but muddy in spots. Fast long hills with a relaxed pace. 15 degrees and overcast"

Guess I know who to accredit those track conditions to now!

Some memorable rides I miss are the many 2 day rides that AMTRA used to do. They were usually pretty tough with Peter Ellard and Don Britt doing stay overs at Woods Point and Craig Dawson and Big Al staying over at Licola. They were good fun with Saturday night always being big.

On a slightly different tack I had a memorable 2 days on my DT1 at the old, now gone, Hume Weir race track.

I had cartwheeled the Honda 450 on melting tarmac at Siberia corner on Phillip Island in my 3rd race meeting. As I repaired the expensive damage to the Honda i decided not to race it again. The road licence was on holiday for a while but I needed to ride, the only other bike in the shed was the DT1. Hmmmmm

I purchased a second hand GYT kit from Geoff Taylor Frankston. This kit was to help turn the bike into a scrambler. The GYT kit, head, barrel, piston, carb and expansion chamber was fitted and jetted to run without an air cleaner and to bump start with 3 push steps. The front brake had green linings and an air scoop fitted. Fork oil was changed to Castrol XL to stiffen the action up especially under brakes. Everything not needed was removed to save weight and Dunlop racing tyres were fitted.

Considering a new bike at a new circuit Saturdays practice went really well. On Sunday I was very busy with heats and finals in 250, 350 and unlimited, C and B grade races and was very pleased to come away with 5 wins, a second and a third.

I had put a few noses out of joint and word came back it was beginners luck and I would not do any good at the next meeting at Calder because you need horse power there. I didn't care a shyte really, all I wanted to do was ride fast.

Got to Calder and was pulled to one side in scrutineering. Sorry Ken but you are a C grader no more, welcome to being a B grader which meant I was automaticaly entered in the A grade races as well, Oh dear - on a DT1.

I got the race face on and managed to win the 250 B grade heat and final and fell off on the first lap of the 250 A final while in 4th place after my usual rocket start. I was hooked on road racing and the search began for a more suitable bike.

Oh, Kenny

You WERE a handsome devil (cue porn star music)

And look at you go, posting pics!  3 in one post!  

Hmmm, I only tried road racing on a dirt bike once - it didn't end well, but at least I got to test out my leathers!

Glo-weave corner at Calder:

Good one Flipper - The Stig in black 

Remind me - was Glo-weave coming onto the front straight?

Ken R wrote:
Yep, that's the one.

Hume Weir, I've watched a few races there when I lived in Wangaratta, I rode there on my Trumpy Tiger 110 with a few locals, I was only 16 at that time, no licence  hey Ken, I heard that the track is still there but hasn't been used for many years, did I hear right ?

I didn't get a reply from you Ken, so I thought I'd look it up, yes you are right, the track is long gone for racing, but the track is still there.

www.speedwayandroadracehistory.com/albur...me-weir-circuit.html

Frankieboy wrote:
Norm used to put on quite a few AMTRA rides. Norm was an AMTRA member. I rode with him quite a lot.  Not a fast rider but really consistent and went the same speed everywhere. I used to be able to keep up with him if I followed his exact line however once I made a mistake and he got away a bit I could never catch up again.

Ian Robinson wrote:
Was he, I never knew that Ian, I never thought he would have had the time to be involved in our club.

Yes Norm was known for being very fast in the single tracks & not so fast in the open tracks, I don't know how many km of single tracks he has cut in by hand, there would be a lot, when my 2 brothers & I was thinking of having a go at enduro's, we heard that Norm was putting on a school at the Newry football ground, we went along to that, the talk he gave was very interesting, then it was time to go for a ride, it started of really good, nice flowing open tracks, my bike broke down after we had done around 25 km, some body must have been looking out for me , because not long after I broke down the ride went into a single track that he had just finished cutting in by hand, when my brothers told me all about that single track, I was glad I broke down, it had big rock step up's & drop off's tight turns between trees & rock ledges, brother Tony was so exhausted that when he ran out of clutch he never though of adjusting it & John stopped his bike sat next too the track stripped down to his jocks   No joke, he really did, it was a really hot day as well, while he was sitting there resting, Mike ( speed) Barrows  came past & said to my brother, what are you doing there, get on ya bike & keep going  that was one of the things Norm said, no matter how exhausted you get, don't stop, you can sit there all day & not feel any better, just keep going even if you can only manage to roll along, you will come good  the funny thing was though, where John stopped, it was only a short distance to go to a control  my brothers still talk about that ride when ever Norm's name is mentioned,

After we finished the school, my brothers said, we are not sure what Norm was trying to do, trying to discourage people to take up enduro's or only want the good riders to do it.  

Part 3.
After setting up the next Stockmans Enduro, we didn't put up many danger signs, we got there again on Friday morning like we did on e the first one, so we had plenty of time to set things up & finish off some arrows that we didn't put up on the road bits the week before, late arvo it started to rain a bit, that bit turned in to a lot, it rained all night & all the next day, it started to ease off on Saturday night, Sunday morning, race day, the whole Stockmans Reward was under water, well most of it, nothing we could about it, we just had to make the best of it, the event went quite well considering the wet conditions, the only bad comments that I heard was that some competitors wasn't happy about so many trees to get over, that was on my loop, the forestry people had dropped a lot of trees across the 15 mile road during the week, that roed was part of my loop, when I saw that when I was doing the pre ride I thought it was good, it would help to keep the speed down, I didn't have any other chose, there wasn't any other way around it, some blokes were saying bloody trees, if there's any more trees I'm going home

The following year we moved the starting point to big river,      where the rally starts from nowadays.
No real dramas on this one, everybody had a bit more experience now, I think we did one more there before John moved to Portland, my Daughter was playing netball, my Son was playing football & basketball, then he showed interest in Mini bike racing, with that going on it was time to let the other members take over running the Stockmans enduro  

With all that was going on in my life at that time I dropped out of the club, I spent 7 years with my Son every weekend with his mini bike racing & practice, the only time I rode was at Xmas time at Paddy Lee's crossing, then when the marriage folded up, I was on my own, lost interest in dirt bike riding & took up road riding, I did that for 15 years. after that time away from the dirt,

I got an invite to come out for a dirt bike ride, yeah I was hooked again  I joined my old club again & the first trail ride i went on with them almost killed me, I should have known better, they are racers & ride at race speeds even when they go out just for a trail ride  so I then joined Dirt bike world & slowly got back into  riding the dirt again, one of our rides was leaving big river to Woods point, when I noticed a lot of single tracks in the Stockmans area I thought, you blokes from MCRCV are going to loose this area to run your enduro.

I was talking to a old member from the MCRCV & he told me that the club has lost the area where the Stockmans was run, they are lucky that they are allowed to run the Stockmans Rally in the area they use now, he also told me that the fellas that took over from you blokes used to put in a bill for traveling expenses every time they went up there, that pissed my brothers & me off a bit, we did all the ground work, traveling up there for 12 months & never asked the club to pay for petrol, we did it out of our own pockets, Yes nobody made us do it we wanted to do it, the way we looked at it was, other people are putting them selves out so we can enjoy riding in the enduro's they put on, so it's only fair that we can do the same for them .

The End..............