The 2013 Season

Bill-Hodgkins-Sidecar-Racing-2012The season started early in March at Brands Hatch.  Unfortunately due to snow the whole race meeting was abandoned!

We then went to Croix en Ternois in France, in April.  Another disastrous meeting and we were not able to finish the first race and did not even start the 2nd race. This turned out to be an oil problem.

The next meeting was at Oulton Park with the Camathias Cup.  It was a solo race meeting organised by the BEMSEE club.  This is the first time I have raced there since the 70’s and it is a really good circuit apart from 1 stupid chicane.  Bert Vloemans could not passenger for me at this meeting so luckily Phil Biggs agreed to be my passenger.  I had stripped the engine after Croix and I thought I had found the oil problem by fitting a new pump.  However, the problem continued.  So unfortunately the engine filled up with oil and we had to stop.

After Oulton Park I stripped the engine and it was established that the new barrels did not line up with the crankcases and head so I bored the barrel out. This cured the problem.

Then in July we were invited to take part at the ‘Bikers’ Classics’ at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, which is part of the annual Bikers Classic meeting. It was a very relaxed weekend of parading, with lots of ex sidecar & solo GP and world champion riders and teams.

Then also in July we went up to Assen in Holland for the Camathias Cup meeting there. This was the start of the mysterious problems that carried on for most of the season.

The next meeting was at Chimay also in July.  We finished 3rd in class in the 1st race.  In the 2nd race another competitor blocked passed us going into the first chicane causing the carburettor cover to break.  We had to pull in and did not finish the race.

Then we went to Gedinne in August.  We had a much better weekend of racing.  In the first race we finished 2nd and then in the 2nd race we won!  We put up the fastest lap in each race.

The final race of the year was at Snetterton in September.  We won our class in the first 3 races.  Unfortunately we were in the warming up area waiting to go out for the ‘Race of the Year’ and a Marshall noticed that petrol was dripping out of the petrol tank so we had to pull out.

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