Saturday, April 1, 2017

2017 International Festival of Speed

Last weekend we went out to Sydney Motorsport Park for the International Festival of Speed. Formally known as the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed. The event has undergone a name change and is going from strength to strength. This years event was bigger than last years with quite a number of merchandise stands as well as all of those fabulous race bikes.

Our two good friends that we spent racing riding around New Zealand with Stu and Rick were out racing today so we dropped by to see how they were doing.

Stu's GSXR AMA Special




The Festival of Speed is a fantastic event put on by the NSW Post classic racing association. They have a group of international ex road racers riding and talking to the public. This year they had legends such as Giacomo Agostini, Cameron Donald, Troy Bayliss, Kevin Magee, Pierfrancesco Chili, Steve Parish, Graeme Crosby, Maria Costello as well as a host of GP bikes.



Right: Cameron Donald - Aussie Isle of Man TT racer
Troy Bayliss 2 Seater



Above & Below: Pierfrancesco Chili's GSXR 750 World Superbike






Agostini took to the track on the 500cc GP bike. The crowd parted like moses parting the sea. Everyone had gathered around to see and hear the legend and the bike. The bike was so loud.



Troy Bayliss poses with the Road to Nowhere crew

We got to meet Troy Bayliss one of my all time favourite racing hero's. What a top bloke he is and still giving back to the racing community.


Below: Agostini chats whilst showing off all those lovely 350 & 500cc MV Augusta race bikes.


Ricks Z1000 Race bike

Pierfrancesco Chili

Steve Parrish

Dr Kwok



We were watching the top 25 race from the pit roof when it suddenly got read flagged. Looking around I noticed Stu didn't come past. Looking over to turn 9 we saw a bike down and some ambulances. It seems that Stu thought the racing was a bit boring and decided on doing a triple somersault with half twist and pike through the front screen of his bike whilst doing 80kmh, which resulted in him meeting some nice ambulance officers. Mate Tinder sounds like an easier way to meet women.

Stu's little off








After waiting for about 20 minutes outside the Medical centre he emerged. The end result some badly scuffed leathers with and S and a X missing from his name, and a broken collarbone. Besides this bit of bad luck we still had a good day out at the races.



11 comments:

  1. Sounds like 3 out of the 4 musketeers had a good day. Hope that Stu and the bike heal up nicely!

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    1. 3 out of 4 is pretty good. The bike isn't too badly damaged and Stu has already had his collarbone operated on.

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  2. Looks like a good day out.
    I hope Stu is ok. He has got to stop busting collarbones!

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  3. Great to see all you guys and the bikes that Stu and Rick race. So sorry to red about the tumble though - wish him all the best from me. Clearly, NZ roads didn't race-prep him. Too much running alongside the Triumph than actually riding it :-)

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    1. He raced a week before we came to NZ at Wakefield park, the weekend was based on him not crashing and ruining the NZ trip, then at NZ it was based around not crashing and ruining the race meeting at the Festival of speed, but then from that point there was no game plan. Always have a game plan! It might save your bacon.

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  4. Doh! Glad that didn't end worse for Stu. Hope he is healing nicely.

    Otherwise it looks like a great day out.

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    1. We had a good time, beers, bikes and racing what else could you want.

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  5. correct....and those canadian clubs went down well too !

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  6. Some big names and some great bikes there Steve. Despite all the banter, sorry to see that Stu ended up injured! It looks like a great event.

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    1. Meeting with some of the racing legends is fantastic Jules, for someone like myself a nobody to meet them chat with them is a real treat. Last year I met kevin schwantz at the BSFOS and the racing was great then too. I can't wait till next years event.

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