Welcome

7 - 5 - 08 - We have just returned from an excellent weekends racing at Rowrah. This was the first meeting under the new management of FABracing, and comprised practice and qualifying sessions on Saturday and followed by a total of eleven 20 and 30 minute sprint races over Sunday and Monday. For this meeting the team comprised of Sideshow and ApeRacing veteran Tham Evans who was an active rider/crasher until 2000 when he moved to start a university course in Denmark We were racing in "Group B", against RD50's, AR50's, MBX50's and RS50 and Derbi Liquid cooled machines (although the LCs were actually in a different class). We has a great weekends racing we were still able to hussle the 32 year old chassis ahead of many modern machines - Our best result was Sideshows almost 2nd behind an awesome AR50, when, at the end of the main straight (on the last lap it turned out) the gearchange lever detached from the shaft! after some speedy trackside kicking Ben was able to claw back to come in 5th overall and still 2nd in class. Tham returned some very clean results (and some dirty crashes..), and was clearly re-getting to grips with the Bike towards the end of the weekend. He is keen for another try in June! As per normal, the trip home comprised drafting a long "For Next Time" list. Still, being only 4 weeks till our next race at Llandow, we'll have to do what we can.

12 - 07 - 07 - This season has been a bit of a quiet one so far due to other distractions but the work still goes on.... an opportunity to develop some ideas that've been brewing for a while, and time for Sideshow to get all his old unwanted AP50 spares together to sell with his original AP50, which after being owned for an impressive 13.5 years has sadly got to go to make some space for other projects.

24 - 06 - 07 - Just getting everything together to reassemble the number one race engine incorporating a new main bearing arrangement which will hopefully to eliminate a reoccuring problem where the bearing spins in the aging crank-case. We are hoping to trial this at the one day meet at Rowrah in the lake district on the 9th of September. This will hopefully not be affected by building work on Sideshows house - a kitchen extension and a new "studio" (aka workshop!!)

05 - 02 - 07 - Since the success of the last round of 2006 at the Lydd Circuit in Kent, we have been busy planning our attack on the 2007 season. There are a few issues we am hoping to address on the outside (and the inside) of the AP - more will be added into the "latest news" section in the coming weeks.

15- 12 - 06 - Having been always based in the southern end of things - Andover, Cardiff and now Bristol, transportation has always been an important factor in the success of the Team. Over the past 3 seasons, we have been very fortunate to have had the use of a Renault Kangoo Works Van from Dorothea Restorations, but since Sideshow has recently moved on from that fine establishment we are exploring other affordable transportation options: caravans, trailers, vans... Winibagos...

Just a note here to say a huge Thankyou to all who have contributed to getting us to the meetings over the years since our first meeting in 1996 - and the innovation that has often required!

31 - 03 - 06 - It will be interesting to see how the little AP fairs in this new racing format, as it has proven to be a tough little motor over the long races and this has made up for it's lack of handling when compared to the modern chassis of our rivals. As ever we are looking at ways of improving the handling, but with a chassis that dates back to the first Production Suzuki A50 in 1969, it is quite a handicap to start with!

01 - 03 - 06 - All Change! Due to organisational changes behind the scenes of this racing series, the format is changing... The 6hr Le-Mans style races are to be ditched in favour of Sprint races, and the old mixed grid of 5 classes is to be split across 2 sprint groups. It is hoped that this will reduce the "Hare and Tortoise" effect which i'm sure has led to many accidents in the past. Sideshow got stung in his first 2 seasons meetings by this effect at Rowrah in '96 and '97 - basically, the slower rider (sideshow) is circling around, minding his own business when suddenly he is flooded from behind by a group of enthusiastic "fast boys", and by a combination of startlement and (sometimes - not mentioning any names..) contact by said "fast boys", a tumble results. Speaking from experience its pretty annoying to say the least.

30 - 09 - 05 - Carnage at Elvington Finals!! We killed both engines in one weekend. We didn't even finish the 6hr race which is totally unheard of since our first ever race in 1996. I will be taking photo's of the damaged engines for the damage files once I have finished our house (!), cleared some space in the sideshow studio and had chance to pull them to pieces. There was a silverish lining to this fiasco though because it gave Sideshow a chance to take Douggie up on the offer of a ride on his championship winning sidecar outfit, which was AWESOME!! Many thanks Douggie.

28 - 06 - 04 - Ape Racing still hold 2nd place in Class 3 despite finishing down the pack at Elvington on 27th June 2004. With the team comprising of Miguel and Moped Mayhem veteran, Ben Stobart - we managed to retain our points lead and finished 6th out of 13 in class: not too bad considering that we were 3 riders down (Sideshow Ben is freshly married).

Many thanks to Esma for her sterling work in keeping the team fed and focused and remaining enthusiastic over the weekend. She also was quartermaster for the Team which involved lots of hulking bike bits around - which was greatly appreciated. Thanks also to Matt for keeping Ben S under control. Matt also kept an eye on the clock for us over the race which is a mission in itself.

26 - 06 - 04 - Terry Frankland, a partner in Taffspeed Racing, one of the more renowned scooter shops in the world, has sadly passed away. Terry was a leading force in tuning and racing Vespa and Lambretta scooters since the early 1970s. We would like to offer our condolenses to his brother Ian and all at the shop at this difficult time. We have lost our team mentor and very good friend. Terry will be sorely missed.

11 - 05 - 04 - We are back nice and fresh from a fine weekend at Rowrah in Cumbria. The weather was fantastic and there was a great weekend of racing. We achieved a 3rd place finish on the Sunday 6 hour endurance race and a 2nd place finish on Monday 4 hour. The A50sp (sort of) ran fault free unlike smartin who took a dive for the team when another rider swiped him and he went down on 5th lap of the 4 hour. Smartin got concussion. The bike was unscathed - sideshow and miguel rode the remainder of the race.

I am also developing a new website as this one has been hacked together over the last 4 years. I'm starting fresh and bolting a database in to handle the content. This means in the near future you will hopefully see SideShow adding a bit of news letting me get on with my other passion - www.mopedmayhem.com. SideShow has compiled a list of old race stats which may be of use if you run a similar ped. Keep your eyes open for more updates in the near future.