The 2017 Season

Bill made the big decision to switch engines to a Triumph Triple!

All the rounds are Camathias Cup meetings.

2017-triumph-tripleApril 2017 Croix en Ternois, France

They had 2 good races which they won both, from start to finish. Young Marvin Vermeulen and Jouk Hahn started the season well with two good second places behind them with Eddy Wright & Sebastien Bar 3rd in both races. However, although they had 2 good wins there was a problem with the front-end wobbling at low speed. So, a decision was taken to go down to Mike Richards in Limoges straight from Croix. We got there on the Monday morning. Mike made a few alterations to the chassis.

May 17 – Hengelo, Holland

Another good meeting with another 2 good wins. Barry Phethean & Ron Hardy were 2nd in both races, Jürgen Couvreur & Peter Deneire were 3rd in the 1st race and Robert Schoonderbeek & Marja Van Den Bor were 3rd in the 2nd race. This is a very good meeting at Hengelo and the organisers really seem to like the Camathias Cup taking part there and treat us very well.

June 17 – East Fortune, Scotland

After 3 years a return visit to the Bob Mac meeting at East Fortune, a circuit that both Bill & Bert enjoy racing at. They won both races again, with Barry & Ron 2nd in both races and Juan Christian & Kerry Charlesworth 3rd in the 1st race and Marvin & Jouk 3rd in the 2nd race.

2017-2July 17 – Chimay, Belgium

Unfortunately, the winning streak came to an end at Chimay. They were entered to take part in 2 Camathias Cup races and 1 Belgian Classic race. In the 1st Camathias Cup race on the Saturday they finished 3rd behind Eddy & Sebastien and Ian Ashley and Roy Cunningham. In the Belgian Classic race on the Sunday they were 2nd in their class behind Ian & Roy and 7th overall. They decided not to take part in the 2nd Camathias Cup race on the Sunday afternoon because they were having problems with the gearbox as one of the gears tightened up on the shaft and they thought it would be too dangerous to continue racing that weekend.

July 17 – Oschersleben, Germany

We had the long drive to Oschersleben in the former East Germany. They have raced there before a few years ago and both Bill & Bert like the circuit so they decided it was worth the long drive to race on a proper racing circuit. Unfortunately, the majority of the Camathias Cup crews did not turn up and there was only 7 sidecar crews there, which was a great shame for Robert Schoonderbeek that organised the meeting for the Camathias Cup. But the winning streak was back and we won our class in both races!

Gedinne-2017-1August 17 – Gedinne, Belgium

We got there a week early again as we do each year to help set up the circuit, which we enjoy doing. The Gedinne organisers are very good to us and make us very welcome. For working the week, they feed us and supply the booze too! We had a couple of really good races beating Eddy & Sebastien into 2nd place and Kerry & Jennifer Williams into 3rd place in both races. The highlight was setting a new lap record of 2.39.745! Bill & Bert were both very pleased with that. The Triple was flying and did not miss a beat!

September 17 – Zandvoort, Holland

Another long trek up to Zandvoort, but worth the long journey. It was actually a Classic car meeting, but Anja Brass luckily was able to get the Camathias Cup included. Unfortunately, the organisers cut the practice down from 2 sessions to 1 which is not enough time to learn the circuit. In actual fact it wasn’t races but more like time trials or as they call it in Holland and Germany ‘Regulation Races’ where each bike is timed, and you are placed on your overall time. For the first race, (oops) time trial they finished 3rd overall and won their class. The organisers cut the 1st race time down from 20 to 12 minutes, so Bill & Bert were caught hopping as they did not expect the chequered flag to be put out so soon. For the 2nd race the Camathias Cup teams got together and decided that they would treat it as a race and the starting grid would be based on the times of the first race. They all had a slow 1st lap, keeping to their grid positions until the end of the 1st lap and then everyone could let rip and race! They almost won the race overhall but got pipped at the post by Henk Jonker on his big Moto Guzzi, but they won their class! It was a very social meeting as the Organisers invited all the Camathias Cup Crews to their posh Cocktail party on the Friday night and then the Camathias Cup had our own social event on the Saturday evening after racing. We all had to take food from our own Country. They were both very pleasant evenings.

Gedinne-2017-2October 17 – Brands Hatch, Kent

They were entered into to doing 3 races, 2 Camathias Cup races and a CRMC race. Unfortunately, a lady solo rider Fran Fletcher crashed and died on the Saturday, so all racing was cancelled for the rest of the day. They then had a Camathias Cup race on the Sunday morning. They were 4th overall and won their class. Then there was quite a few more accidents and because it led to a situation where the was not any medical staff at the circuit they had to abandon the meeting. So, they only had 1 race.

On the Saturday evening the Camathias Cup teams got together and we had a BBQ. Andy Nourish very kindly supplied all the meat and not only that he was the main chef, with Juan & Bill assisting. It was a very pleasant get together.

2017 Championships

Well after a much better season they managed to win the 750cc Camathias Cup Championship, and were overall winners of both classes with the most points for the season .

They also won the Belgian Championship. They were very lucky to be able to attend the Presentation Ceremony in Orp, Belgium on 9th of December 2017.

Thanks to everyone that has helped again this year. To Mick Gillott yet again and to Jos & Henny of WILLEMS BALING EQUIPMENT BV for their continuing support paying our boat fares again.

Well the move to the Triple seems to have been a good move……!

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