Ricky Graham & the Wood Racing XR750

Ron Wood, better known for the big tube Norton and Wood Rotax racers, built this fantastic XR750 for Ricky Graham before the rider went on to be a champion with Honda. G

Peterborough DTRA by Sam Christmas

Photographer Sam Christmas is racing the bike above (what number is that supposed to be) and travelled to DTRA round 2 at the MCN Festival, Peterborough. He was with James from Kingdom of Kicks who was making his debut on a Triumph twin. They travelled up in this murder wagon.
These are all Sam's shots.

Alongside the DTRA, MCN and Peter Boast had organised a Transatlantic challenge where the USA raced a British team. Kevin Schwantz and Dave Aldana were joined by national #12 Jay Maloney (and a couple of ringers). They faced the best of British: Tim Neave (riding with a broken scaphoid); Ollie Brindley, Ade Collins and, guest captain, David Knight, the Manx extreme enduro legend.
The British won.

It was great to have David Aldana back in the UK. He's always fantastic entertainment. 65 and still quick.

 But not as quick as Neave and Brindley.

Me and my mechanic Max in his favourite Survivor Customs shirt. I had a good weekend, making both finals and finishing in higher results than where my three heats qualified me. A fifth and seventh. I think.

Olivier on the Ornamental Conifer painted WR that is our Sideburn 21 cover bike. Incredible machine.

The Vintage class has got very competitive all of a sudden.

The next DTRA round is at Eastbourne, Sunday 14 June. Free to spectate. G

Sideburn 21 - Pre-order

Sideburn 21 is expected next week. If you would like to pre-order, that will help us get your magazine to you as soon as possible.
Sideburn magazine has evolved again. Long-time readers will know that issue 1-10 was one size, 11-20 was bigger. Now issue 21 is bigger again. Our thinking is, if you're not moving forwards, you risk going backwards. And while we do that on the racetrack from time-to-time, we didn't want to do it with our beloved magazine.

Changes for issue 21:

• New bigger format. Wider and taller.
• Still as handsome but now more useful with a How To from GNC front runner Johnny Lewis.
• Handpicked New Products section.
• New price of £6. Our first price increase since 2010. 

Subscribers will avoid this price increase. And you can still take advantage of our most recent subs offer - EIGHT issues and a free Sideburn Bultaco Astro line drawing T-shirt (see below) at the old subs price. That's two years worth of Sideburn delivered to your door. The T-shirt will be delivered with your first issue. Make sure you choose the correct size T-shirt when you order. This is the only way to get this T-shirt design, it won't be sold separately online.

UK price - £50
Europe price - £68
Rest of World - £80

All prices include delivery, so you're guaranteed to not be affected by cover price or postage increases. We still offer three issue subs too.

If you're an existing subscriber, we are offering upgrades to this deal. Email us for details at dirt @ sideburnmagazine.com giving your name AND address.

Go to the Sideburn webshop to pre-order or subscribe.

DTRA Ladies Day

From our good friends at the DTRA

DTRA Ladies Day So we decided to organise a day to encourage some more female riders to come and join our UK Dirt Track racing series. We are keeping it low key and will have no more than 20 riders and some experienced riders (Leah Tokelove (below #37) and Anthony Brown) to help you get the hang of things. 

Where: Rye House Speedway, Rye Road, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, EN11 0EH

When: Saturday 4th July arrive before 10am and we will be riding by 10.30. Finish time 3pm

What to expect: We will have some mini bikes that we will start out with. This is a great way to get the hang of riding on the dirt and master sliding and body position. We will then move on to riding some full size dirttrack bikes. You will be riding bikes loaned by DTRA club members.

What you need: Some riding gear including. Boots, gloves, helmet any pads and protection that you can get your hands on. We will try and provide some steel shoes that you can have a try with.

Can I ride? Yes, if you are over 16 and female.

How much? £60 all inclusive

If you have never ridden a motorbike before that’s fine. If you ride on the road but fancy a go on the track, that’s fine too. No previous experience on a dirt track is needed. If you have had a go before but want to learn a bit more, come along.

  Questions? info@dirttrackriders.co.uk

Flat Track at the X Games TONIGHT

Many of the top GNC riders, and a few crossover guests, like current road racer and two-time Daytona 200 winner Danny Eslick, will contest the first ever X Games flat track race in Austin, Texas tonight. 24 riders are aiming to qualify for a 12-rider main.

Riders will start from a motocross-style gate (like at the Superprestigio) on a track built at the Circuit of the Americas. We spoke to Sammy Halbert at the weekend and he said he had been told it's a 3/8-mile, and when he saw an overhead photo he thought it had very tight corners.

The whole of US dirt track is buzzing about this opportunity to put their sport and skills in front of a major TV audience. For those who don't know, X Games is the Olympic games of extreme sports and is run by the TV network ESPN. It is a made for TV sporting event and serves up some incredible moments.


But while this is a fantastic opportunity, it has given some people the opportunity to be negative about the AMA and what they're doing for the sport. I interview quite a lot of the pro racers and all of them want pro flat track to be on TV. That's obvious. who wouldn't? But some race fans are bashing the AMA for not having the sport on TV on a race-by-race basis. I was included in a reply to an email reminding people the X Games was on that said:

'Great for flat track. It just shows how far AMA has fallen down that they can't get decent TV exposure for anything but arenacross. So many good races are never seen anymore.'

It struck me as quite a blinkered view, so I wrote this reply and thought I'd share it here.

Every sport in the world thinks it deserves to be on TV, but it's not an easy deal to pull off. 
This doesn't prove the AMA has fallen down at all, in my opinion. The truth is flat track is a niche within the already minority sport of motorcycle racing. 

Try writing a pitch to a TV executive on how you'd sell dirt track to their TV company. It's not easy. It's not a world championship. It's contested by bikes that don't relate to street bikes. It has little manufacturer support (except Harley). It is slower than superbikes or GPs. It is less exciting, to a couch potato, than a flying 450 at a supercross event. To non-aficianados it doesn't have a lot going for it. 

The X Games deal is a lot easier, because
A: The sport hasn't been on TV for years, so it's a novelty.

B: Harley Davidson have thrown their weight behind it, to try sell bikes to a new audience. 

C: The X Games needs to reinvent itself every few years. They experimented with Supermoto a few years ago. It didn't save that sport. 

D: Street motorcycles are gaining popularity with the opinion-formers of the X Games generation (the hip crowd). Flat trackers can crossover with this crowd. 

E: The sport is blue collar and 'extreme' like the street sports X Games is built on. 

F: It's a one-off annual event, so no one has to wonder if an audience would follow a whole season of the sport. It'll be wild for one night, then the masses will move on. Hopefully a few people will fall in love with the sport and start following it on fanschoice.tv or at their local GNC race. 

I'm not saying the AMA are doing a good or bad job with regard to TV, but just because someone is putting the sport on TV for one night a year doesn't mean someone is doing a terrible job, because they don't have the whole season televised. 

American viewers can watch Harley-Davidson Flat Track Racing on ESPN's live coverage of the X Games on Thursday, June 4 at 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT).

British viewers with ESPN or BT Sport packages can see it from, I think, 12.30 to 2.30am in the early hours of Friday morning. G

Viva Vince

Dave's DTRA Photos

Dave Bevan visited Leicester Speedway for round 1 of DTRA to research the cover story he was commissioned for Sideburn 22 (out next week!). While he was there he took some photos on a film camera, developed and scanned them and sent a few to us.

Milo H and his Harley 45 vintage class bike.

Tosh giving Olivier moral support when his Harley WR tank started to leak. It was all repaired for the next race. Olivier is one stylish fella on that hand-shift Harley. This is our next cover bike.

There are three '45' Harleys racing this year, two of them are WL/UL, one is a race spec, super-rare WR. Nick Ashley, above, has had Tosh convert his WWII spec 45 into a racer. Last year he raced a Cheney Triumph. This is a different kettle of fish.

Oily Rob on the Triumph he built and debuted on the day. It looked great, he even built the frame himself. Unfortunately, Rob also has a modern 450 and he highsided it (right in front of me) and ended up breaking his ankle.

Here is Rob on the gas and air. Get well soon Rob.

The next DTRA round is Eastbourne, Sunday June 15. There are going to be a ton of great bikes there and people from all over the world are racing, if they hot foot it back from Wheels and Waves in time. G

Flying Cars II

Long-time supporter, Driver Chris, left a comment on the blog post below saying he'd done the whole flying car thing back in 2010. And he did. Here are his efforts. Click his name to check out his blog.

Flying Cars

 Amazing concept /photoshop trickery by Sylvain Viau.

Citroen cars are famous for their very smooth handling and hydraulic suspension system. They are usually nicknamed 'flying carpet'. 

This is my own flying carpet after little custom works, a Cx Gti Turbo produced in 1984 ! Much more comfortable like this ! Then I pushed the idea with other cars, and it's still working. 

 I'm ready to experiment this change on any car, provided I can drive it myself to my usual shooting place in Cherbourg. This is my only condition!

Dirt Quake IV - late entry

What's Dirt Quake, you ask? Oh, please. MP