Moose Racing Moto Services

Moose Racing Three Wheel Come Back

After sitting out the last few seasons, the lure of the race track has dragged me back once again, but this time on three wheels!

The Story:
A chance meeting with an old freind at Brands Hatch in March led to a mutual mention that Sidecars looked like fun, and I though no more about it. Six days later the phone rang: Kev its Rosco, I've bought a Sidecar so get your ACU licence out..... Two weeks after that we were at Snetterton, Driver Rosco (aka Graeme Rothwell) having never driven before and me as passenger never been within 10 yards of a Sidecar before.

The Machine:
A 1992 Formula1 Baker tubular chassis fitted with a 1998 Yamaha R1 Engine.

The Sidecar was bought by Rosco as a ready to race machine, and since neither of us knew anything about machine set-up thats exactly what we did. Since our first meeting we've climbed a very steep learning curve, picking up technicals tips along the way and making massive jumps in performance, but not without our fair share of mechanical disasters (3 blown engines in 3 meetings!).

The Crashes:
As the saying goes, "No Pain No Gain" and there has been a bit of pain along the way. As the passenger its my job to keep the wheels on the ground by throwing myself from side to side according the direction of the course (left for lefthand bends & right for righthand bends), Rosco also has his fair share of bruises from being pushed from side to side in the bodywork from the G- force of cornering.

At Snetterton in August we spun off at Riches (turn1) and turned the Sidecar over for the first time, although I was able to right the machine with Rosco still at the controls and we completed the race without finishing last ! Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit, the Mecca of racing in the UK promised so much but quickly turned bad.

Sunshine, a full grid of Sidecars and confident after a test session on the Indy circuit, it looked good for a fantastic end of season bash. Qualifiying and race 1 on Saturday went well, all be it with an engine that sounded very rough.

Race 2, we got a good start and headed off down Paddock Hill, picking up places on the brakes into Druids, lifting the Sidecar wheel through the lefthand Graham Hill Bend and Sirtees, tucked in and barreling down Pilgrims Drop the motor went sick, we were mid pack through Hawthorns I raised my hand to warn following teams of our slowing machine, as we approached Westfields the motor locked solid at about the same time as we were hit from behind by a Sidecar on full throttle.

The resulting carnage was spread for a good 100 meters with bits of Sidecars and people everywhere, the machine that hit us split into two and flipped over and slid for 100m with the driver still trapped inside the bodywork, the passenger was catapulted into the air and landed on a passing Sidecar before falling out onto the track, I remember jumping up and running to the marshals post and looking at my right arm and thinking thats not right. Miraculously out of the wreckage I was the only casualty needing medical attention, a broken right radius.

So thats the end of our short season, there have been highs and low as always with racing, but the bug has bitten.

What we need now is a lightweight LCR monocoque chassis with a late GSXR1000 engine to really show what we can do. Watch this space..........

PS, For Sale : Yamaha R1 Baker Formula 1 Sidecar, ideal starter machine ready to race £4000 ono.