back

Club Racer 2018

International Island Classic

In Friday qualifying Stacey did a fastest lap of 2:11.361 on lap 3 of 5. When I spoke to Ivan he told me there was a strong head wind down the main straight which caused most of the competitors to drop about 10 kph off their last years speeds. A few very minor things to sort out which were mainly adjustment issues and we should be good for some improvement on Saturday. Stacey finished qualifying in 29^th place in the 39 bike field in Unlimited Post Classic class. In race 1 on Friday Stacey did a best time of 2:04.708 and ended up 25^th in the field and 12^th place in Unlimited Post Classic.

Saturday with some problems sorted Stacey hit the track for race 2 and managed to do a quick lap of 2:00.720 and a speed of 194 kph on lap 5, not bad for an old XS650 hey! She finished in 20^th place in the field and 7^th place in UPC.
This was faster than Ivan’s best time of 2016 so Stacey is officially the fastest XS650 in Victoria.

Race 3 and the second race on Saturday saw Stacey do a 2.01.763 with a top speed of 184kph on lap 4 and finish in 19^th place in the field and still maintaining 7^th place in UPC

Stacey on Facebook - New personal lap best of 2:00.720 The XS was handling like a dream after the club members Ivan Hoey and John Chambers chased the carby gremlins away with pitch forks. Nick McGinn's build work on the bike has it flying!! 



Day three and hot weather was forecast and everything is going great for Stacey and the club racer.
Race 4 and according to the timing sheets its 37°C and Stacey does a 2:03.241 at 190 kph on lap 3 and she’s in 8^th place in the Unlimited Post Classic class. Stacey managed to get 50 points and 7^th place in Unlimited Post Classic class on our Yamaha XS650 club racer.
Well done Stacey on your efforts this weekend. The racer will be on display at the Gearhead Sunday event at Toora in VIC on the 25^th of Feb. Check the Calendar page on our website at http://www.xs650.org.au/Calendar/Calendar.html for details.
 
Due to a lack of funds and a work schedule that is tight Stacey has had to withdraw from the IFOS in March.
Steve Hobbs will now be riding the club racer at the International Festival of Speed in March so go along and support him, should be a great event.

International Festival of Speed 2018

In preparation for the festival of speed the club racer was transported to Holbrook in N.S.W. by Nick McGinn where he met with Ivan Hoey to take it the rest of the way to Sydney to hand over the bike for Steve Hobbs to ride in the upcoming international festival of speed.

The bike was then handed over to Steve Hobbs so he can get it ready to race.

Steve will need to get a few things ready to suit himself like the gear shifter will have to be altered as Stacey likes a reversed shifter and Steve likes the stock arrangement. Foot pegs and handle bars will also need adjustment to suit the rider. Tacho has still to be mounted and the tyre warmers have also yet to be sent to Sydney for the meeting.

Stacey couldn’t be there for the festival so the call went out for another rider to take on the job and Steve Hobbs raised his hand as he had previously ridden the bike there and wanted the chance to have another go.

Upon its arrival in Sydney for the FOS it was noticed the racer was blowing a bit too much smoke so it was decided to pull the motor down to see just what the problem was before it was presented to the track for racing.

The barrels pistons and rings checked out ok, although a bit glazed, but that can be fixed quite easily with a light hone. The head was sent to RAM Heads to see if there was a problem with valve stem seals or a cracked valve guide.
Clutch basket was also checked as there was some movement in the cush drive area which Ivan will check out and rebuild if necessary to rectify the problem there.

Also needed were some repairs to the seat and fairing which had some cracks from previous incidents and normal wear and tear over the last season of racing.

These have now been repaired and the bike will also be fitted with the new tacho and the drop sump pictured here with the repaired fibreglass items thanks to the great work done by Ivan Hoey and Steve Hobbs.

Since I started to write this the tacho has now been fitted and the head has been repaired by Rams Heads, it needed four new valves and four new valve guides but is now ready to be fitted to the motor.

Ivan has also rebuilt the clutch and primary drive gear cush drive. Ivan has removed the Vesconite buffer blocks and installed six stronger springs as per the stock arrangement like his own racer. These are now available from Geoff's XS.

With the motor almost ready to drop back into the frame it was discovered the oil pump was in need of some repair and a new one was fitted. A decision was made to go back to Castrol 4T for future oil changes.
Extended sump has now also been fitted; this lowers the oil level in the sump which aids oil feed to the motor as the pick-up is at the bottom of the sump plate and also reduces windage losses at the crankshaft.

We finally got it all together and here’s Hobbsy out on track after all his hard work getting the bike ready.
Thanks to Geoff’s XS for the parts needed to get the bike ready to race, without his help and the parts he supplied we would not have made it to the FOS so thanks mate.

Ivan had some problems of his own with an intermittent ignition problem with sidelined him on more than one occasion over the weekend.

Steve finished in 5^th place in P4 750 and thanks Mark Peatman, Mark Azzopardi, Bill Wallis, Ivan Hoey and Geoff Bamford for all their help.

Steve's report to follow.

Race Report from Stacey on Vic Titles 2018

Hi XS club just a report from the VIC titles for the newsletter.  

The Victorian championship was run over 7th and 8th at the Broadford circuit which I had entered p4 unlimited (club bike), p3 unlimited (650cc royal Enfield/ Triumph) and p5 250cc (Yamaha RDLC). Bright and sunny weekend meant fast lap times and good racing.  

Qualifying 1 went well with lap times equalling that of end of weekend times I have done in the past. 
Qualifying 2 the bike suddenly lost power "oh crap" after a quick inspection and over the phone trouble shoot with Ivan Hoey, it was found that the wire linking the kill switch to the warning light was shorting out. 

Qualifying result was 15th on the grid, bring it on!

Race one the bike ran like a trooper coming in 2nd with a few good dices with the p5 unlimited boys. 

Race two the bike came in 3rd after a few false neutrals making some fun moments into turn one as I was looking for that gear I needed. Quick inspection of bike and the gear shifter had rattled loose. Easy fix. 

Day two class is picking up speed; bike is slightly over geared but still workable around the circuit. 

Overall for the weekend the XS club Australia bike come in 3rd place in a tuff class. Amazing weekend with all 3 bikes raced over the weekend finishing in one piece barely needing a bolt tightened. (I’m buying a lotto ticket what are the chances) 

Big thank you to the Club, club sponsors and club members who dropped in and gave us a hand over the weekend. 

Stacey Heaney #162

Australian Historic Road Race Titles Broadford Victoria 2018