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| 17 04 2005 - Spring Shake Up! | |
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TEAM SHOULDER CHECK's Pat Boyd (#48) and Alan Burns (#113) dusted the cobwebs off their racing gear and trailered their bikes to beautiful Shannonville Motorsports Park on an unusually sunny Riding on the Shannonville Nelson circuit, named after famed the original track owner John Nelson who recently passed away, the two amateur racers found the practise was necessary. Pat Boyd, having spent the winter recovering from a terrible crash at the end of last season, was circulating at a pace much slower than normal but was pleased just to be able to ride the bike properly. "The weather is great, the bike feels good but I'm not interested in pushing things right now. The thoughts of spending months in aquatic physiotherapy last winter are still fresh in my mind." |
| Click on image for large version | |
Alan Burns was feeling comfortable on his Honda almost immediately and by the afternoon his Middleweight Sportsman bike was dicing it up nicely with the modern Amateur 600 racers. Burns is preparing for the first regional on the Nelson track in two weeks time but was puzzled by a few items today. "My shift pattern was erroneously reversed which cut my first session to only one lap. With that corrected, things went better but I need to burn off the rest of last year's gas to get a more crisp power delivery. Also, my leathers seem to have shrunk over the winter." Stay tuned for more updates as TEAM SHOUDLER CHECK reports from their racing school experience on April 28/05. |
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| 14 04 2005 - Spring is here! |
Spring has arrived and the team is getting ready for the 2005 season. Word on the street is that Alan has been out burning up his racing budget with supplies to do some oil changes. I don’t know why, I never changed the oil when I owned the bike. Why should he? Rich’s commitment level is still undetermined; he has just purchased a house and realized he has nothing. Maybe the racing budget could be better used on home furnishings? Oh yah and he has that job that paid for the racing budget, and it will have him out of town for the majority of the summer. Pat once said that you should be able to toss everything you bring to the racetrack in the garbage and not worry about the financial loss! By wrecking everything he owned in the Labour Day race he accomplished this. Luckily there is still one race bike left in the Boyd arsenal, sadly there is a need for new leathers, and a helmet. As always sponsorship opportunities exist. We have not yet heard what Mr. Fong will be doing this year, but it will likely revolve around how much he is required to carry his pager. Dan has been conspicuous in his silence, but rumor has him heading off to Bora Bora to take the position of “House Boy” at the OTEMANU, Hotel Bora Bora Lagoon Resort. That just leaves the old man. John Dunlop will be on a Team shoulder Check sabbatical for the 2005 season. |