Danny in Oz

We arrived at PI after a road trip from Sydney, the bike was crated in Nov and arrived at PI the week before, my supporters for this event are the owner of the TZ750 (Arnie Fletcher and Mechanic Dave Arch) both have worked on the bike since 1977/8 and their bike that i am riding has won the British Championship in 1978 and the North West 200 in 1981 with Keith Huewen on board.
 
Thursday Practice.
 
After unloading my new Scott leathers from the crate it was soon 1st practice, i had spent the last month you-tubing and playstationing the PI racetrack so on my opening laps the circuit felt strangely familiar, the corners that were difficult were Honda and NG both tight 1st gear corners and turns 11 &12 took some deciphering leading onto the start and finish straight.  I quickly got into a rhythm and was lucky Rob Phillis (EX WSB KAWASAKI RIDER) drifted past and taught me a bit, also because it was free practice a ZX6R (Bryce) came past and i latched on and he towed my round for a lap. Everyone in the team said that going under a 1min 50 was pretty good but the leaders will be getting down the 1min 41's. In my last session i got into the swing a bit more and recorded a low 1min 49 which was o.k., bike was working good so we were in good shape for qual on Friday.
 
Friday Qual 
 
In the morning we again had free practice and i was down to race in the Unlimited and Historic Challenge races, 3 countries (OZ, UK and NZ) had brought a team of 15 riders to compete against each other, our riders were mainly classic and post classic riders who compete in the ICGP and Post Classic championships in the UK whilst the OZ team had the current World Endurance Champion Steve Martin and Sometime BSB rider Dave Johnson on their team, Lea Gourley was the UK's star rider riding a very nice Suzuki XR69 and the Kiwi's seemed a little short of good machinery.
Practice went well again and i recorded a mid 47 which put me in good stead, but when i went to Qualify in both races the bike started to miss fire, Unlimited was fine and i recorded another mid 47 but in the Challenge race the bike lost top revs and i recorded only a 50 flat which put me in about 12th position.
 
Dave and Arnie got to work on the bike and it transpired that the ignition had lost an earth sending the timing out, Unlimited Qual was good as in both sessions i was in 6th and 7th respectively. 
 
Sat Qual 2 / Races
 
After fixing the ignition i missed Unlimited qualifying but got out in the Challenge 2nd qual and recorded a mid 47 again this placed me in 10th position which i also where i ended up in the Unlimited.
Dave and Arnie changed the plugs and we put new boots on for the races.
There was a bit of faffing around and in the 1st Unlimited race we missed the warm up lap and started from pit lane, after beating the medical car into the 2nd corner i was stone cold last but pushed thru to finish 12th recording the 5th fastest lap a high 46 in this 4 lap dash. We completed this race as a shakedown but decided to concentrate on the Challenge races from here on in.
 
Historic Challenge Race 1.
 
I lined up on the 3rd row with Rob Philis directly in front of me, Lea had done a great job in qualifying 2nd so i needed to raise my game a bit to help the UK points, on the 4th row Dave Woolhams (UK) lined up and he was gonna try to push the P&M Kawasaki into top 10 as well so we could really push the Aussies this year.
I got a fair start (Thanks Stan for your advice) and was in about 8th position into turn 2, the top 6 pushed away and i quickly overtook Michael Dibbs on  his CBX 6 Cylinder Honda. My pit board showed me that i was pushing away and in the leading pack 2 Oz riders went down elevating me to 5th position. In this 6 lap race my riding was a Little untidy and turn 4 (Honda) was difficult, i kept overshooting a bit but managed to haul round the TZ to finish 5th.  Lea had finished 3rd so between us we scored great points, Dave came in 12th and the UK filled in the mid pack very well.
After a quick debrief we left the bike alone and fuelled it for the 8 lap race later on that day. Weather was hot (about 26 degrees) and track conditions perfect.
 
Race 2.
We felt good for this one, and when the light went green i got a great start power wheeling off the line into about 6th position into turn 2, the race was quickly red flagged after a start line incident , 4 riders were involved (2 Brits a Kiwi and an Ozzy) unfortunately a petrol tank had split open so racing was cancelled for the day. Steve Maney and Phil Davenport where involved in the accident , Phil was generally o.k. but Steve had to be choppered off to Melbourne Hospital with broken bones but is making a good recovery.
 
Race 2 Re-start (Sunday)
I did not get the start i wanted and had to fight may way through again, Mal Campbell came passed after a bit of a braking war with me into Honda but soon broke down, Michael Dibbs on the Honda again gated well but on lap 4 i draughted past and pulled away. Lap times went into the 45's for this race and the bike was really strong and fast, if a bit of animal thru the turns, i was now evaluating the bike , we had good power but suspension was a bit crude and not enough rear tyre grip from the 18inch Dunlop Alpha rear.
I finished in 6th position for this race , Lea was 2nd and Dave fought thru just to miss out on a top 10. The good news was that because of thew UK's mid pack all finishing we beat the Australians in the race overall and were only 50 points shy overall.
 
Race 3.
Again we fuelled the bike and left everything alone, i did take a pound out of each tyre as it was warming up a bit but that's all, again the start was o.k. but the Australians came out fighting, on lap 2 i was in 9th place closing on Michael Dibbs and Larry Fyffe on big 4 strokes, on lap 4 the bike started to miss fire a bit and lost a bit of staightline speed but i still hung on, on the last lap i had Dibbsy and Fyffe within striking distance and lunged and Dibbsy into Honda, unfortunately i did not manage to get the bike into 1st and could not hold him on the exit, Larry escaped a bit but into Siberia i had another go at Michael and whilst passing a back marker i crept in front into Lukey Heights, i tapped on the power but the bike spat sideways and Dibbsy came passed into NG but he could not stop and went wide so i overtook back and clutched it thru the miss fire to get 8th at the line. On the slowdown lap i looked behind me to see the smoking out of 1 pipe so all was not good.
 
Race 4 
In race 3 i recorded another 45.7 and and the Guy's got to work on the bike, they found that a seal had gone near the piston and replaced this , they fired up the bike and all seemed well. On the sighting lap the bike lost a cylinder again so i brought it back into the pits and unfortunately could not start. Lea finished 4th but we missed an opportunity of another top 10 finish, ho hum shit happens.
 
Review
Well it was a great meeting and a great Holiday. The bike went as well as we expected and we were easily the most competitive TZ out there. I would like to thank firstly Arnie Fletcher and his wife Eunice for coming out and supporting us with a bike , Dave Arch for his mechanical skills, Kellie (wife) for the holiday and her new found lap timing skills, Sally and Graham Salter for the organization, the guy's at Philip Island, Dave Woolhams and Karen for making us laugh and Stan Woods "what more can i say"
 
Would i come back next year, well a years a long time but if we can we will, also a call to Ollie Linsdell and Jamie Cooper, you better be there as well, we can beat the Ozzy's just need another 2 fast guy's

More Pics...

TZ750

Please find attached 2 photos of the TZ750 (78) that i am racing in Oz in Jan
we tested at Rockingham last Sat