Flat track Laverda

Casey Stoner was a Multiple Oz Flat track champ. Power sliding is so much fun. The first time I cracked it I just kept doing it till I just low-sided giggling my arse off, this was at the old Jullaby MX track, it's been a housing estate for 30 years.
 
chrisk said:
??? ......... looks like a Speedway outfit to me.
I never knew we had Flat Track, in Australia and NZ.
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Your right, but that's all we had to go with here in the 70's. However I designed this sidecar not with 1/4 mile circular speedway tracks in mind at all, but with long straights and very high speed corners as only a 1 mile or 1/2 mile long flat track can give you. There were some twin cylinder solo bikes entering in the flat track races back in the day, similar to the american flat trackers, but mainly JAP, Jawa, CCM with suitably modified frames to cope with the much higher longer flat track speeds. Admittedly, back then most of the bikes were modified speedway bikes, that's pretty much all there was around and it was called Flat Track racing on the longer tracks here.

Not to be confused with American Flat Track racing you were referring to, my apologies.🙂
 
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BlackJota said:
When I was a 2nd year Boilermaker apprentice in 1977 I completely designed and built a Kawasaki H1 Flat Track sidecar outfit. This was to compete in the junior class ( 500cc) mile and half mile flat tracks in South Australia. The "Morgan Mile" "Tailem Bend half mile" and "Port Pirie half mile" tracks. I designed the expansion chambers for a fairly narrow power band around peak rev limit. Once on song it was crazy fast, and handled pretty well considering it was my first attempt at making one of these sidecars. Raced those tracks for quite a few years, had 3 spare engines ready to go in those days, Then sadly work got in the way and I did not have the time to keep it going. Boring ? No way, one of the most exiting things I have done.
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Here’s Len Diggins grass H2 750 grass bike- I never rode it but was a scream!
 

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helicopterjim said:
You are comparing apples to aubergines. On a speedway track yes. It would be the other way around on a 1 mile dirt track.

Both types of racing are boring to watch on TV ..... for me anyways! Watching them in person is another experience altogether! Speedway has such amazing short range acceleration (I don't know what else to call it) and flat track has unbelievable corner speed.

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Are you sure ….
 
chrisk said:
... Different track lengths, with the Holy Grail being 1 milers.
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In Brisbane there is a one-mile track still in use today. It's called the Deagon Racecourse.
The motorcycle racing started back in 1921. Sadly, the bikes are long gone. :(
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At least the Brisbane Courier acknowledged at the time that America had started the idea.
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Although, if you were out at the Redcliffe Paceway, back in 2002, you would have seen the legendary Jay Springsteen racing the legendary XR-750 in the Long-Track series promoted by Ivan Mauger.
Jay Springsteen and the XR-750 were truly in a class of their own compared to the rest of the field. Mainly a bunch of hopeful locals on hot-rod pommie twins.
 
don't forget the UK flat track series guys!
just google DTRA (dirt track racing association) eight rounds per year all over the country, highly competitive and very often extremely close racing they have kids classes, rookies, thunderbike, pro, hooligan (sometimes) and vintage, which sees a lot of ex USA racers such as Triumphs and Harleys. Anyone looking at videos will get the chance to see my son (Tom) he is number 42 and was UK thunderbike champion in 2019. A title he held for two years as there was no racing in 2020, in 2021, due to his busy life he only did two rounds, Amman valley, S Wales, which he won and Peterborough which he came second. He say he will do "a couple" in 2022
CLEM
 
That was huge when it first started but I think Covid killed it. Everybody went including Jack Miller and all the oldies from my time watching racing.
 
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