Cam claims Sheene crown
2014 Barry Sheene Festival of Speed
21-23 March, 2014 – Sydney Motor Sport Park, NSW
What has become a keenlycontested twice-yearly stoush between traditional rivals on both sides of the Tasman kicked off at the 2014 Barry Sheene Festival of Speed. As NSW’s sole remaining major Historic meeting, the program was packed with classes, with the more modern categories boasting very healthy entries, while the Pre-war class has disappeared. With riders and sidecar crews from Australia and New Zealand matched by performance, the result is always close, but has swung in the Kiwi’s favour in prior contests. This time, the swing went Australia’s way, 343 points to 227. In the blue ribbon Period 5 Unlimited, each of the five rounds was a no-holds barred clash between Australian Champion Michael Dibb’s Harris Honda and Cameron Donald’s Macintosh Suzuki, with Dibb taking three wins to Cam’s two. However in the feature Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy for the Fastest 40 riders, Donald downed his rival with a win that included a new lap record of 1.36.024. Dibb suffered rear tyre woes in the 8-lap race, but Donald had his head down from the start was in a dominant mood, eventually winning by 8 seconds from Dibb, with the impressive Stephen Kairl taking third on the C&M Motorcycles Yamaha FZR1000.
As well as the Australasian stars, the program included 8-times World Champion Phil Read, the 75-year old putting in some sedate laps on a 250cc Yamaha TD3. At one stage the fastest female around the Isle of Man, Maria Costello rode a Honda RVF400 and a 500 Manx Norton, while the Japanese squad of ‘Tommy’ Adachi and Yugi Terada had mixed results.
Lap records were shattered throughout the weekend. Runaway Period 3 500 winner Chris Swallow (500 Norton) left the class mark at a blistering 1.47.235, Brett Clark established a new P6 F750 mark of 1.41.841, while Derek Brown set up a new P5 250 mark of 1.51.661.
Sidecars were out in force, the meeting hosting the opening round of the Australian F1 and F2 Sidecar Championships as well three other