The Sports Riders Club of Tasmania (SRCT) had a meeting this past weekend at Symmons Plains and yours truly went along to check out the action. A mixture of Production & GP bikes were in a attendance. I hung out at the unofficial GP 250 pit area which is completely made up of Honda NSF250Rs. I did notice some minor differences on a couple of bikes. Bike number 65 had its exhaust exiting the bike under the rear seat cowl.
The NSF250R riders were thrown in with the proddie bikes and each race went along the same routine with a few of the Production bikes jumping the 250's at the start but Taran Ocean and a few of his mates made their way to the front and Taran ended up winning all the races by differing gaps.
A sad moment was when a member died at a recent meeting at Baskerville Raceway. He complained of feeling unwell and went to lay down in his van for a rest from which he never returned. His best mate took his bike for a couple of memorial laps of the circuit at lunch time and he even wore his mate's leathers to make the moment even more respectful. It's a CB500 running Amal flatslides, total loss electrics and 4 into 4 exhausts without any baffles. It makes my drag bike sound quiet by comparison. I did mention to the rider that he'd be welcome at any nostalgia drag meeting on the mainland.
All in all, a good meeting that was well run and everyone got plenty of track time. There was one 2fiftycc of note and that was a GSXR250 Period 6 race bike. The 'team' had just bought the bike and were coming to grips with it. The rider was mightily impressed with its handling and his onboard monitor clocked him at 109mph on the back straight. It is running some aftermarket flatslides from Japan, so it should be quick when they sort it out.
