PRAISE THE SLIDE
THE JERKYLS BRING THE FUN TO VINTAGE DIRT TRACK
Sunday Slide is a place where legendary racers from a bygone era squeeze into beaten-up leathers and climb aboard vintage speedway bikes to share the track with inner-city hipsters shaking down their latest retro creation. It’s a fun vintage dirt track event held at Nepean Raceway near Penrith, Sydney — a celebration of old motorcycles and riders that puts the social vibe above the chequered flag.
The annual gathering allows riders to wheel their pride and joy out of the shed for a gallop — their mantra being ride it, don’t hide it. Their shared passion — old dirt bikes. The event is run by a group of vintage dirt trackers who call themselves the Jerkyls. Or jerks who love going round in circles. They praise all things vintage and avoid the soul-less ‘moderns’. And they don’t take anything too seriously. That love extends to cars, fashion, music … the whole nine yards. Their aim is to create an easygoing event where the pits is a place of banter, where the soundtrack of the ’60s fills the air along with the sweet smell of Castrol R, and a wide range of old bike enthusiasts swap stories about how fast they were.
The rider safety briefing set the scene. Dressed in their finest 1970s TV cop attire, chief Jerkyls Randy Faker and Scruff Hammill acted out a scene from The Exorcist as they cast out the modern bike demon from an ‘unsuspecting’ punter who was sprayed with fake methanol to cleanse his spirit. The re-enactment is a longrunning in-joke that the Jerkyls performed to remind punters that on any Sunday, the race track is more fun than church. Praise the slide!
Any racing that may have actually occurred never really did — because Sunday Slide is an official practice day. Riders lined up in two groups only — novice or racer. So once you’ve worked out which group you belong to, you’re at the races. Sorry, practice day.
$100 buys you all the riding you can fit in on the day and the fee includes membership, day licence and a burger lunch. And post-race Young Henrys. Heaps fun. Look out for the next Sunday Slide where you may find yourself discussing the colour of the grommets on a DT1 mudguard or the compression ratio of a JAP-engined speedway bike.
But it’s more fun than church. And you can ride in as many circles as you want.