SIDECAR RACING AN INCURABLE DISEASE

For us it was caught during a Sidecar ride for Women in Motorsport organised by the FSRA around Oulton Park on a friends Outfit.............

We eventually ended up with a TZ350 Shelbourne allegedly one that had been set on fire in the IOM TT. Initially it was an achievement to finish a race without it breaking down and even finishing on the same lap as the winner was a milestone! It was a hard bike to start it took two years to find that out and on the advice of Dave Holden telling us that the carburettors were worn out but new ones soon solved the issue. That poor starting really traumatised John McEntee and on one occasion when we lined up at Anglesey for the downhill push start then as it all fell silent I said to Anne give it your best shot please she replied "I'll push it you make sure you F**king start it" everyone heard. John every time he saw me after that he told me, don't upset Anne you know what she's like!!

The TZ was modified by Joe Shelbourne with a more modern 600 style front end this allowed relatively easy multiple engine swaps during its development I eventually found that the outfit had 30mm toe in we altered it to 8mm two things happened .....
As we usually parked in the same place at Anglesey we set up camp unloaded the bike and put the bacon butties on. After lunch I went outside and found the Outfit had gone it was 150 yards away down towards the scrutineering bay the lack of toe in making it much freer and able to roll away, later in practice we nearly ran into the back of another on an uphill section outfit I bet the bike was 10mph faster!!

Later in our third year we bought a Windle Thundercat from the Rispin's a great Outfit a little more refined than the TZ. Again that year we bought a Suzuki 600 second generation Fi engine and fitted it into the Shelbourne from the first race it was absolutely fabulous we nearley managed a win a race first time out at Tonfanau only losing out avoiding a coming together of the leader and the second placed rider I believe that this was the first Fi engined outfit in the UK it ran superbly well no matter what the conditions were.

With tinkering being the first love of racing I bought an ADM 500 engine and fitted that into the Shelbourne from the 90 hp TZ and the 115 hp Suzuki the ADM with 150 hp was found it a bit daunting for my riding skills so we went back to using the 600Fi and the 350 you could change any of the engines in a couple of hours ..... After selling the 350 we bought a more modern Shelbourne with a R1 engine this was swapped for the Suzuki 600 Fi engine and proved to be a great outfit. The majority of our bikes they were eventually sold to riders from France we then decided to move to Shropshire in 2017 and to relieve the winter boredom we bought a Baker 600 as a restoration project. Returning to Cheshire 2018 we swapped the Baker for a Windle TZ to be restored this turned to be a winter Covid project however exactly a week later we bought the GHR 350 which restored for a friend to ride at the revival at Cadwell in 2019. Unfortunately we no longer have the enthusiasm and ability to race sidecars so the Windle TZ was sold and now the GHR 350 is awaiting its new owner.

Without doubt the 30 years involvement in Sidecar racing we have seen the best of times, it's to the credit of Terry Windle Joe Shelbourne Tony Baker and George Hardwick and many others that we were able to take part in this fabulous hobby, they are not the only ones but for us we have owned and used their creations.

You could really go on for pages with anecdotes from our racing over the years some tales not even printable these days !! We have met so many good friends over the years but some sadly no longer with us but will never be forgotten.

These were all our Outfits all shown in some form in the Gallery.

First: Shelbourne TZ350 3 engine bike.
Second: Windle Thundercat.
Third: Shelbourne TTZ350.
Fourth: Shelbourne R1 Suzuki 600Fi.
Fifth: Baker Honda CBR.
Sixth: Windle TTZ350.
Seventh: GHR TZ350 V Twin.

August 2022