I don’t like to make the podcast channel too much about me, as much as I know people value knowing who I am and what my ties to sidecars are.

But after a weekend in Warwick attending The Big Chill which is hosted by the Queensland Early Motorcycle Sports Club I am going to take a moment to share some personal reflections, and a massive amount of gratitude to supporters of Aussie Sidecar Stories.

When getting organised for our annual Queensland trip, I was trying to work out what I should do for podcast content while there.

I very quickly knew recording a full episode at the track would not be the go. There is too much going on for anyone who is racing, myself included, and I don’t want to be rushed or interrupted while recording as things can be missed. We also do this race meeting as a family, with my husband, kids, mum and a family friend along this year, and I also don’t want to complety abandon them or force alternate plans when they are already running to our racing schedule (not that they would mind, sidecars are a shared passion in this fam!)

I still packed some gear, thinking I might be able to do some trackside grabs, catching up with people between sessions and put together some highlight reels.

But, racing has a way of showing us what we need to see.

During setup on Friday I caught up with friends old and new around the track. Touching base with a few people reminding them I am keen to get them on, all that kind of thing. When talking about how great a grid of 18 sidecars was a passing comment was made that Aussie Sidecar Stories was a contributing factor in the awesome numbers entered. I laughed it off, but thanked them for their kind words.

Saturday morning, session one… we made a quarter of a lap and the outfit died, so we watched from the sidelines as everyone else set their quali times. I also went for a run when an outfit came past without its passenger trying to spot him, possibly a bit of residual trauma from my own incidents. Will had made his way back in but still took a ride to hospital from some checks, that thankfully came up clear for breaks or visible tears.

When we got towed back into the pits Ian and dad were onto changing the fuel pump that dad suspected to be the cause of our issue. While that was happening a call came along the pit garages for help cleaning up an oil spill, I grabbed a hat and broom and was off. 

Returning from that job it was into finding a monkey to jump on and keep our healthy grid on track. Michelle put her hand up, but she didn’t have her gear – off to the van! I carry a full second set of gear that fit well enough to get her out for the first race of the day.

By this time it was lunch, so Ian, Violet and I went for a walk to see some of the other teams we haven’t met yet.

This is where I have to extend a very heartfelt thank you to so many of my community. My sidecar family.

Walking around and introducing myself to people and having you guys say how much you have loved the podcast, how much you appreciate what I am doing, asking for stickers and even shirts, it means so bloody much. And again I had a couple more people say they believed that Aussie Sidecar Stories is helping inspire people to get back out on track, it was starting to make me think a bit now about how much of a reach and impact the podcast is having.

When the call up for the first race of the day came dad and I lined up at the back of the grid. This was the biggest grid I have been a part of, and passing is still pretty intimidating especially when our Period 3 outfit is lined up against higher powered and different handling Period 4, and 6 outfits.

Off the start we powered past a few outfits and kept chipping away as the four laps counted down. I was holding on just a little tighter each lap when we came past the point where in September at the Queensland Historic Titles I came off and broke my hand, but was having fun.
We managed to move from 18^th to 7^th when the chequered flag fell…. But then the outfit lost power. By the time we got around turn one and halfway up the hill to two she had all but shut down and as we crested the hill, we were coasting. Checking it was clear to cross we rolled to the cut though and waved as everyone went past. As we started pushing the outfit back towards the pits dad was still looking at what could be wrong, when with absolute confusion he said “The bloody carby’s have fallen off!!”. We got back to the pits after quiet the cardio workout. I hope someone got a photo of dad in Captain Jack Sparrow mode standing on the bed as I powered us towards our destination.

Carby’s were reattached, but then the call was made that due to delays that was the end of racing for Saturday. More chatting, tucking the outfits in and we wrapped up for the day.

Come Sunday morning we had lost a few outfits through mechanical misfortune, as is unfortunately the case with these older machines, but we gridded up and were ready to go.

There is a pretty decent run from the starting grid to turn one at Morgan Park, so I was starting on the bed and ready to shift to the right when we hit my marker. We passed a few guys again from the back and were in the thick of it, but as I moved over to the right I felt dad start to steer the bike from side to side. ‘Oh shit’ I thought, but I stayed in position as I know me moving can make things worse. I could see tar next to us getting narrower and the grass approaching. I held on but as soon as we had the bike wheels on the grass I was calculating my options and when the sidecar wheel came over too, my knees hit the bed and I bunkered down in the middle to let dad steer us out of trouble.

We were still carrying a lot of speed, as it turns out the brake cable had sheared off and dad had to pick lines to not cause a catastrophic incident. We were left watching again, and unfortunately as Murphy’s Law dictates, it is always the spare you didn’t bring that is what you need.

Pushing the outfit back to the pits again felt horrible, but it is part of racing. We couldn’t find a suitable replacement and that cable is what brough an end to our weekend. But in looking at the positives, at least at turn one there is a lot of open grass that goes uphill that helped us stop. If it had happened anywhere else around the circuit I can’t help but feel it would have been a lot worse of an outcome for us.

With the outfit packed up we watched the sidecars race again and then hit the road home. We had a seven-hour drive ahead of us and as anyone who travels with kids knows you need to add at least an hour in stops to that, so an early mark was not going to be a bad thing.

As we drove home I was reflecting on the conversations I had over the weekend, the genuine support for an idea I had that ‘might’ be ok, that ‘could’ be fun and interesting. Looking at the numbers of listens and views is all well and good, but having people be so openly supportive in person has made me really sit back and think about what Aussie Sidecar Stories has the potential to do.

Is it just a coincidence that there were 18 outfits on the grid, and people were hearing about this event for the first time this year and stopping by to check it out? Maybe.
But, it is also possible that listening to the stories of sidecar racers across Australia and having a central place trying to share as much information about what is going on for sidecar racers has inspired a few people to take the leap and buy, build or dust off their outfits and get back out on track.

Aussie Sidecar Stories is a community project, as I would not have content to release without the support of an amazing sidecar community.

By talking about and sharing sidecar stories across all disciplines we are making an impact.

Thank you everyone for your support in bringing this idea to life, and I look forward to sharing whatever the future has in store for us moving forward.

Jem

Some shots from Saturday by Alan McIntosh Sports Photography