Help Hubert Win!

Sideburn ambassador and Dirt Quake hero, Hubert Bastie has been included in a photo comp run by 100% goggles, with this photo.

Perhaps you're sick of being asked to vote for strangely-coloured people, but if you're on facebook, please give him your support. Not sure what he'll win, but he doesn't win very often so it would be appreciated.

Here's the link. G

Hubert & the Husqvarna Shirt

In the post below Hubert Bastie mentioned the very few items that his racing father kept after he stopped competing. One of the items was a Husqvarna race shirt. Hubert wore the shirt to race in the the DTRA and in French motocross on his own vintage Husqvarna two-stroke. Lad above, Dad below, same shirt over 30 years apart. G

Bastie Racing Heritage

Sideburn's French ambassador, Hubert Bastie sent tells this great story about his family background...

Many of us, DTRA riders, are from a family of racers. The same for me.

My dad was born in 1950 in Paris. He rode Husqvarna, Ossa and Bultacos from 1973 to 1983. But I never saw him riding, not e even once (but last year he competed in a Super veteran race, after 33 years of not racing). Why? Because he just stopped everything when my brother came to the world.

What did he leave us from his racing years? Tons of bikes? Cool riding gear? Did he take us ride as youngsters? NO! Nothing!

He was just ok to help me to buy a trials bike, a Gas Gas 125, at 16, but I'd been focussed on a 1985 YZ since I was 12! For him motocross is baaaad and dangerous. That's so strange for a man who finished the seventh at first edition of Le Touquet, who won races in the French Enduro Championship.

Here is what he left:
3 helmets in the Garage, that became nice bird's nest.
One single Husqvarna Jersey.
Some trophies And a used Trelleborg tyre and tooooons of pictures...

 1981 Husqvarna 250

  1981 Husqvarna 250

 1982 Husqvarna

                                                                    1982 Husqvarna

 The one on the left became my mum 

 Ossa Trials

 The shirt I wore in DTRA

 Broken shock at Le Touquet in 1981

 The helmet cemetery today

With his road bike a Z1, one of the first in France

Dirt Quake V by Motor Rausch

See more of the German photographer's Dirt Quake V album. Thanks for the great photos, Motor Rausch.

(above) Sideburn 26 cover bike, El Solitario's Pluto, and Sideburn blog contributor, Hubert 'Marge' Bastie.

Lovely Dimitri on his way to win the W&W Harley class on the gorgeous Shaw's Mert Lawwill Sportster. 

 Michael Herman's Kawasaki stroker

 Don't forget to get our questions in for the next instalment of Ask Guy

 Dirt Quake virgin, Carl Fogarty

 Sideburn ed remembering to put keep his elbow up

Blog contributor, John Harrison

Richard Rowden and Drogo Michie, plus one of the Greenfield Girls, on DTRA Friday.

 The Stags' Conway Castle, letting his hair down

 Happy punters

 The Brinkmobile

Hubert v David El Solitario

Introducing Hubert Bastie

Joining Travis and John Harrison as new blog contributors, is Frenchman Hubert Bastie. Hubert is a nurse/paramedic, a racer, a wildman, a DTRA and Dirt Quake regular (Super Mario, Marge Simpson, Ninja Turtle), even though he lives and works in Paris, France. He loves two-strokes and competes in various different types of amateur competition, and also rides on the road. Here's what he says about a recent race...

Two month ago my old mate Oliver told me about a race close to Paris (for once) called Ultracross. A mix between motocross and supercross. He was so enthusiastic to race it because there was a Enduro class. Yeah maybe... I looked at the website. Whaaaaat! There is a Vintage Class! I filled in my entry form in one second.

- Me: Oliver, I'm gonna race with you mate!

- Oliver: Sorry, I forgot that I have a job interview this day.

- Me: Ok. I'm gonna make it on my own.

Two weeks before the Ultracross - Driiiiing driiiiing 

-Me: Hello?

-a Girl: Hello Mister Bastié?

-Me: Yes.

- the girl: I call you about the Ultracross. Unfortunately we must cancel the Vintage Class cause you are the only one to enter, so do you have a modern bike?

-Me: Yes, but I want the ride my Husky, so let me ride with the fuel-injected ones.

Racing in France is a different thing. It's all about winning and having the biggest van with the biggest trailer and the biggest tent. Unfortunately I have no tent, no trailer and a small dirty van.

Nobody cares about my bike during tech inspection because they didn't understood how fun it is to ride a vintage compared to the modern ones.

Nobody cares about me till my first race. I start dead last. By the way, it is my first start on a real motocross starting gate. But I overtake 3 or 4 guys every lap. The commentator and the crowd start to focus on me. I became the little fun thing in a too serious race. Between the races I become the crowd favourite and people queue in line to ask me what year my bike is.

I make three strong races and got the 8th place out of 22. Overall. I was damn happy, but had nobody to share my happiness. Don't mess with a vintage bike!

On the way Back home I saw the Facebook page of the event. The report shows two photos : The first is the Pro Class winner and an other of me and my Husqvarna jumping the finish line.

Strange world.

HB89

Read about Hubert's Racewear, the kit he competes in, in Sideburn 25.

Leon Foggitt

Evocative shots by Leon Foggitt of DTRA Vintage Class racing.

There's much talk of 'correct body position' being the corner-stone of racing but Anthony's sack-of-spuds poise seems produce results for him, and here, on Wliky's Triumph framer. Hot Chip.

Mobile emporium of metal flake funk. Guy Bon Zorro on his trusty street-legal Triumph.

Drogo on Co-Built Rotax with team manager Dickie Brown

Hot Frog / Ninja Turtle, Hubert Bastie not doing a wheelie for a change. On not very converted Husqvarna MX.

See these fellas juggle their metal and spuds TODAY!
Amman Valley, South Wales SA18 1UT

Yamaha Yard-Built x Dirt Quake

This is Yamaha Yard-Built's official video from Dirt Quake IV. They brought a great line-up of modified Yams from their Yard-Built program and two 'official' riders - Marco Belli (dirt track legend and man behind the Di Traverso school) and Alessandro Rossi (one of the owners of Deus Ex Machina Milano).

Marco raced the Deus modified XV950 D-Side (with sidecar and surfboard removed - see it below in its beach-bothering incarnation). Alessandro raced a 2014 SR400 modified for the Di Traverso School.

The video - which was made by the same crew that film Yamaha's MotoGP coverage and campaigns - features other Yamaha riders from the weekend: the DTRA's reigning Thunderbike champ Dave Chadburn and the wicked fast #36 TT500 he raced on Friday's night DTRA round; Hubert Bastie - the Ninja Turtle on the Clutch Paris-supported FZ750 and Serge Nuques on the 1000cc R1 he raced at the TT. Watch him win the inappropriate road bike class at 3:01 for an incredible way to cross a finish line.

Big thanks to Yamaha Yard-Built for supporting Dirt Quake IV, all the sponsors help make the show bigger and better. G

Gary's Leicester DTRA Report

As promised, here are some of my own snaps from the first DTRA round at Leicester. 

The weather forecast didn't look great, but, in Britain, you've just got to saddle up and go. Sometimes you waste a tank of diesel for a rain-off, but not very often. As it turned out, it rained for about one-minute all day and I got a sunburnt nose.

I was so excited to be back out racing I couldn't sleep the night before. I stormed the first heat, winning by a few bikes lengths from some very good riders. Even then I was thinking, The season can only go downhill from here. I was right, but at least I proved I can still win a 12-man heat.

Oily Rob, above, has retired his home-built Ducati Monster race bike and bought a DTX bike. He felt a bit conformist, so he made this new painted and studded race jacket. 

Leicester had the biggest entry of any UK dirt track race ever (except the Dirt Quakes). Two grids of Thunderbikes, two grids of novices, Pro class, restricted, Juniors and the new Vintage class. Above is Bon Zorro who competed in his very first dirt track race on his old Triumph road bike, after bringing it to the track in the back of a people carrier. He had a blast.

Also in the five-man inaugural Vintage class was DTRA regular John Boddy on his 750 Triumph twin (feature on this bike coming soon). Below is the seat, giving a pep talk before every race...

Frank Chatokhine and his Metisse Triumph, both featured in Sideburn 17, dominated the class, but he was hounded all day by his good friend...

Dimitri Coste, who was in his normal all-action mode before stalling on the line in the final and gifting second to...

Nick Ashley, who was riding a Cheney Triumph. Yes, it has a front brake disc and caliper, but the lever was removed so it didn't work. This is his road bike.

 Me and Drogo in our new FTWCo team kit.

 There were some new bikes, and some older ones given make-overs, like Adam Waller's Husqvarna.

Before the race, Ross Herrod was trying to cut some life into his wrecked rear tyre (the UK importer were out of the Maxxis CD5 compound he wanted). He looked like he didn't know what he was doing, and admitted as much, then won the Restricted final. Classy.

Dimitri's trailblazing, coming over from France to race, then raving about it, has generated a mini-French invasion. One French rider who debuted at Leicester was Christophe Decombard on his tidy, home-built Suzuki DR600. He went very well, but slid off while leading his novice class.

Another Frenchman making his DTRA debut was Hubert Bastie. Hubert raced at last year's Dirt Quake, riding his TW200 road bike and making a lot of friends. He came back with a 450 DTX, stayed in Sheffield with friends he made at Dirt Quake and rode like a demon.
It's great to see Dirt Quake acting as a feeder for the DTRA, like it did with Ross Herrod and Oily Rob before.

Tom Neave turned up with this Chinese-made WK in DTX trim, it's based on the £3999 450RX, to put on display. Tom is road racing a WK 650  (ER6-alike) and doing very well on it. More details on this bike when we get it.

A spectator turned up on this lovely Norton P11, taking advantage of free entry.

And this Dirt Quake hopeful turned up for approval too. You're in. Get your entry in now.

Health and Safety: Carb strip with a fag on?
Next race is 18 May at Coventry. GI