Motorsport: Blown engine robs Ramsays in sidecar championships

Derek and Matthew Ramsay leading at the Gillman Track in Australia.

A blown engine at the world sidecar championships at Gillman, Australia recently cost father and son sidecar combination Derek and Matthew Ramsay a podium placing against 16 of the fastest riders from around the world.

The sidecars have no brakes, which makes it exciting for spectators to watch, with the swinger influencing 50 per cent of the control of the machine.

The pair left New Zealand as holders of NZ1 after winning the New Zealand sidecar championships held at Whanganui. They were rolled and the combination flipped right over. The race was red flagged, the bike uprighted and they won the race and the championship.

"This may have caused damage to the engine," said Derek.

Travelling straight away to Australia for the Worlds on April 8, the pair got to ride the day before in practice with the engine that had been rolled. It had 26 more horsepower than the engine they used at the worlds last year in their first attempt.

"All the other riders had more power than us but we managed a sixth placing then," said Derek. "But this year the new engine we put in threw a conrod the day before the world championships. We left the track at 8pm and worked till 1am in the morning.

The next day the racing started at 2pm and we just completed swapping back the old engine by 1pm."

That engine had completed four seasons untouched - a GSXR1000 Suzuki putting out 120hp.

The Ramsays' haul of sashes and trophies won over the Speedway season.

They managed three seconds at Gillman, a third and a win to qualify for the B final. The three best on points went straight through to the A final but the rest had to contend for the B final.

They were sandwiched at the start of the race and were spat out the back of the field off the start line. This gave them seventh overall placing.

"That's racing, but I wanted to do better than last year," said Derek. "We would have had a a great chance to be in the top four if it wasn't for the blown engine."

On a positive note,the pair are entered in the New Zealand Speedway Awards for top sidecar this month. Matthew has had a knee operation and will be taking it easy for the next nine to 12 months.

Brownell Contracting and Goodmans have helped out the Ramsays in their world attempt.