Treasure Racing

The 5th round of the IDM/German Road Racing Championship was held at the picturesque Salzburgring in Austria. Australia’s Treasure Racing was there to compete in the F1 sidecar championship. This was the 3rd visit to the extremely fast track for Adam Treasure but a new track for Darren Dewhurst to learn yet again.

Between the last race Meeting at Rijeka in Croatia and the Salzburgring, Adam and Darren put a fresh Mick DeWith Motorsports tuned Suzuki GSXR -1000 motor into the bike to run the 2nd half of their European campaign, the previous motor having run faultlessly to this point. With some high speed tracks coming up in the coming months a fresh motor will be the ticket to continue Treasure Racings improvements in race pace.

Adam and Darren would like to take this opportunity to thank John Daley and Max Hooper from Melbourne for the collection they put together during a sidecar function held in Melbourne recently. Their decision to donate the collection of money to a sidecar team competing internationally was well received by us here at Treasure Racing and put to good use helping to pay for tyres for the World Championship round at Croatia, these new tyres added to the improvement in Adam and Darren’s results which they have carried on to the IDM round at the Salzburgring, So thankyou to all who donated!

Austria turned on some beautiful weather for the weekend with temperatures hitting 36 Deg C. Adam and Darren revelled in the 1st Qualifying session on Saturday finishing the session in 5th place. The 2nd qualifying session had Josef Moser/Manfred Wechselberger beat Treasure racing’s qualifying time by almost 1.3 seconds. Adam and Darren continued to methodically work through the qualifying session trying to improve their pace with their best lap coming in their final lap managing to improve their time by 1.1 seconds from their best qualifying time in session 1. Unfortunately, still .2 of a second shy of Moser/ Wechselberger Adam and Darren finished qualifying 6th out of 23 teams.

The race to turn 1 on Sundays 15 lap race was filled with excitement as the leading bikes all faught hard for the same piece of real estate into the very tight right-left chicane, with Moser/ Wechselberger in the thick of things missing the corner completely as they outbroke them selves bounced off another bike, cut the corner and then slammed into the back of Peter Schroder/Anna Burkard, forcing them off the track, in the process breaking the front of the fairing off the Schroder Burkard LCR as it plowed through the tyres placed along the edge of the track to discourage the cutting of the corner, the outfit was unable to continue in the race. Moser/ Wechselberger regained their composure and continued on managing to remain in 7th place, meantime Adam took avoiding measures as the meelay unfolded in front and after safely negotiating the turn 1 altercations found themselves behingd Moser/ Wechselberger and set off after them as the 2 teams attempted to work their way forward.

For most of the race Adam and Darren were by them selves 50 meters behind Moser and Wechselberger, but well clear of any teams behind, but in noway was it boring for the boys, the Salzburgring boasts one of the fastest average lap speeds of any track on the European circuit with the back straight (which is more like a sweeping double “S” bend) being almost 25 seconds of full throttle as you accelerate to a top speed of approxamately 290Kmh with armco lining both sides of the track only 3 meters from the edge of the track. Sitting in 7th for most of the race, the boys were gifted 6th place when Moser spun on the last corner when the pressure of trying to finish in front of Treasure Racing caused an error and the costly spin. Adam and Darren’s average speed for the entire race was in the vicinity of 175Kmh.

Sunday’s race was held just before lunch which was to turn out to be a huge stroke of luck for the Sidecar fraternity with rain seemingly coming out of nowhere after the warm weather all weekend at the completion of the race.

For Treasure Racing the most exciting part of the weekends results were not so much the positions they started and finished the race in but more the pace they were able to achieve with their overall performance and lap times being closer to World Championship points leader Pekka Paivarinta and Adolf Hanni, it is this result that has Adam and Darren smiling as this shows great improvements in the boys riding more than any other gauge.

Treasure Racing next competes at the 4th round of the FIM World Sidecar Championship when the Sidecar Championship joins the MotoGP this weekend at Sachsenring in East Germany. To keep up with the boy’s progress over the weekend check out the FIM or MotoGP websites.

In the meantime, a video has appeared on Youtube which was filmed at round 2 of the sidecar world championship at Shleiz in Germany. Adam and Darren can be seen briefly at 1:12sec and then again at the 1:20sec point in the video whilst in front of Pekka Paivarinta/Adolf Hanni’s onboard camera. The video can be found using the following link.

We are now approximately half way through our season here in Europe and other than an “International Riders Grant” that Adam received from Motorcycling Australia, the donation originating from John Daley and Max Hooper’s sidecar riders collection was the first real bit of financial support that Treasure Racing has received, every other form of support has been in the form of product or labour which leaves the constant maintenance, upkeep and running costs for the team coming directly from Adam & Darren’s piggy banks. The legend of the Aussie battlers lives on in Treasure racing and like all before us, you will just have to believe us when we say, it’s not easy. Adam and Darren would again like to thank all of those people who have helped us out along the way. It is through your support that Adam and Darren are able to be competing on the world stage and have achieved the results they have obtained in recent meetings.

Till next time!

Yours in Racing
Adam and Darren

Treasure Racing
F1 sidecar #38

The Third round of the 2010 FIM World Sidecar Championship was held at Rijeka in Croatia, Treasure Racing’s Adam Treasure & Darren Dewhurst took the 16 hour long trip from Ludinghausen in Germany to Rijeka in the B & R Tyre Service Truck with their Mick DeWith Suzuki GSXR-1000cc powered LCR Sidecar being towed behind in Albert Raesfeld’s trailer.

Adam, Darren and Albert talking strategy over dinner.
Photo by Linda Beumer

Arriving at the circuit on Thursday the weather was a relatively warm 30 Deg C. Adam & Darren were lucky enough to arrive on an open track day that allowed the boys to go out on the track and get an extra (unofficial) practice session done which would prove to be a very valuable 40 Euro spent. The track surface at Rijeka is very old, having been laid in 1978 without any resurfacing been done. There are a lot of cracks and bumps in the track that Robbie Maddison might even have trouble negotiating, but the surface provides for an insane amount of grip.

Friday provided a chance for 2 more free practice sessions, the 1st session being another “unofficial” session with the 2nd being the official start to the meeting for the World Championship Sidecars. Adam was bedding in some new brake pads for the meeting, a different compound to the pads he normally uses on the bike, so The teams progress through these sessions was smooth and steady.

By Saturday Morning’s 1st qualifying session Adam & Darren were starting to pick up there pace and were putting in lap times that had them well inside the top 10 on track. After the 2nd qualifying session Treasure Racing had managed to put itself into 4th place on the starting grid, this was Adam’s highest ever qualifying positon in World Championship racing.

Saturday afternoon had the 1st Sidecar race for the weekend, the 11 lap Sprint race, which saw Adam & Darren get swamped off the line, not making the most of their high grid position, placing 8th into the first turn, a race long battle with Janez Remsi/Jamie Biggs and Scott Lawrie/James Neave had Adam and Darren dicing for 4th place and while into 4th at times Treasure racing had a slight disadvantage when the new brake pads installed for the weekend still weren’t working as well as Adam had hoped for, with a lack of confidence in the bikes ability to stop at the end of the back straight into the tight double left corners Adam & Darren had to settle for 6th place, their best finish in a World Championship race to date.

Photo by Linda Beumer

Saturday night had the clouds open up with Thunder and Lightening so ferocious it sounded and at times looked like Rijeka was going to be turned into “Lake Rijeka”. Still not happy with the brake pads at the end of the Sprint Race Adam re-installed the old pads after the race, unfortunately Saturday nights rain continued into Sunday mornings warm up and with only a short session in the wet to try to bed the old brake pads in the boys were trying to fight a losing battle.

The 20 lap Gold race was declared a “Wet Race” from the very start with the track wet and just a heavy drizzle to keep it damp. As the teams fronted up to the start line there were all sorts of tyre combinations on the Sidecars from full slicks to combinations, Intermediates and full wets. Adam had chosen a full wet set up and from the start of the race their race pace was very good. The 2 leading teams of Tim Reeves/Gregory Cluze and Pekka Paivarinta/Adolf Hannii were both on Slicks and their previous experience on the track with it’s outstanding grip showed that they knew they would be ok with their tyre combinations. Meanwhile, Adam & Darren had settled into 5th place and were extremely happy that they had had their 1st wet racing experience at the previous meeting at the IDM/German Championship at the Nurburgring and the useful knowledge they gained at that meeting was being used here in Croatia and was working well for them.

After the first 3 or 4 laps were used to explore the wet setup of the bike and the levels of wet weather grip on the track which are amazing due to the very rough texture of the asphalt, Adam began to push a bit harder and the gap to Ben & Tom Birchell and Josef Moser/Manfred Wechselberger began to close. Over the course of many steady laps Adam & Darren caught Moser/Wechselberger, the Birchell Brothers had managed to increasd eheir pace and were comfortably into 3rd place so the battle with Moser/Wechselberger was for 4th place. Adam made a brilliant passing move into one of the right turn corners of the double chicane before the back straight but with no confidence in the brakes the boys were passed again into the hard braking double left at the end of the back straight. Two laps later Adam made the same passing move on Moser and again Moser passed back at the end of the back straight.

The 2 teams raced in close proximity until coming upto back markers saw Moser/Wlceselberger get by with Adam and Darren caught behind the back markers for almost a full lap. Once passed the back markers with 2 laps to go Treasure racing was passed without warning by the Scott Lawrie/James Neave combination at Adams least favourite part of the circuit, the hard braking double lefts at the end of the back straight. Another 6th place for the Gold race was a brilliant way to cap off the weekends racing.

The 2x 6th places at Rijeka saw Treasure Racing leap from 16th in the World Championship into 8th place overall.

Adam & Darren’s next race meeting will be on the weekend of the 2-4 of July at Salzburgring in Austria as part of the IDM/German Championship, the “Steve’s Place” website at www.steveenglish.com or the IDM website at www.idm.de can be viewed to keep up with the racing results as they happen.

Till next time!

Yours in Racing
Adam and Darren

Treasure Racing
F1 sidecar #38

Since the last instalment from Treasure Racing Adam Treasure & Darren Dewhurst have competed in 2 rounds of the IDM/German Championship. The 1st of these was at Oschersleben. Oschersleben was a new track for both Adam and Darren and is quite a technical track to learn with many corners having multiple apexes.

The temperature was cold, with both Friday and Saturday barely at 8 Deg C and raining. The sidecars received 1 free practice session on Friday afternoon, which was held in dry conditions. With each lap Adam improved his lap times while attempting to commit to memory not only which direction the next corner would be but also trying to find his braking markers and the correct line through each corner. Meanwhile the Mick DeWith tuned Suzuki engine was revelling in the cold temperatures to provide an abundance of performance for the boys to play with.

Saturday saw the sidecars have 2x qualifying sessions in the rain, Adam, who has had limited riding experience in the wet approached the qualifying sessions with a very methodical learning process in mind. As each session progressed the number 39 sidecar (unfortunately 38 is being used in the IDM) moved its way forward on the grid to eventually qualify 12th.

Photo by Linda Beumer

Sunday turned out to be a fantastic day, weather wise, no rain and a positively balmy 13 Deg C. Adam who has never raced a Formula 1 Sidecar in the wet managed to maintain his unbroken record and the boys fronted the start line for a dry race. Memories of the Jump start and the penalty that was incurred at the 2nd round of the world Championship at Schleiz were still fresh in the minds of the team which led to a slight hesitation off the line and Treasure Racing found itself dropping back a few places by the 1st corner. A race long battle behind the #65 sidecar of Steffes/Walker and the #20 outfit of Kiser/Engelmann ensured. It was an enjoyable but also frustrating race with Adam unable to find a way past the 2 teams until the 11th lap which unfortunately coincided with a race stoppage due to a crash involving one of the lead teams as it attempted to pass a lapped rider.

Photo by Linda Beumer

Photo by Linda Beumer

The restart for a further 6 laps found Adam & Darren again behind Kiser/Engelmann and Steffes/Walker. This battle continued on as it had done in the 1st part of the race, with Treasure Racing having more pace but unable to find a way past until the last lap saw some brilliant riding by Adam who put a fake passing move up the inside of Steffes/Walker going into a series of 3 left corners, as Steffes had done countless laps before, moved down onto the line to cover Adams passing move Adam changed to the outside and went round the outside with a very clean and well executed pass followed by a pass on Kiser/Engelmann 3 corners later pulling out of a chicane to cross the line in a very commendable 6th place. The lap times in the race were the quickest times for the whole weekend for Treasure Racing.

The 2nd of the IDM rounds that Treasure Racing attended was held at the World Famous Nurburgring. The Nurburgring is an amazing facility, bathed in huge buildings that feature stores from Ferrari, BMW and Mercedes to mention a few. It has its own museum and the pit facilities are 2nd to none.

The track was an easier layout to learn than Oschersleben and while the weather was cold there was no rain about, like there had been at Oschersleben. Friday saw the sidecars again on the track for 1x free practice session which allowed Adam & Darren a chance to learn the track layout, this being another new track for both team members.

Adam receives setup tips from Louis Christen, designer & manufacturer of the LCR Sidecar

Saturday’s 2x qualifying sessions had Adam & Darren improving there lap times and qualifying position as each session wound its way towards their conclusion. The end result being a qualifying and start position of 10th. While at Nurburgring Adam and Darren took advantage of the great service provided by Arai and had their Arai helmets cleaned & serviced by the Arai Technicians at the track.

Sunday morning had Treasure Racing go out for morning warm up in the rain and their warm up time was quite good and made for a promising race result in the wet. As the day went on the rain came in bursts followed by large dry spells. Leading upto the sidecar race had been a large dry spell with the track surface completely dry, but looking towards the heavens an ominous big dump of rain looked to be on its way.

For the race all teams lined up in the staging area, all on slicks but with trolleys on the dummy grid loaded with wet weather tyres. As soon as the sidecars rolled out onto the track the rain began to fall and by the time the bikes got to the start line to grid up there was absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was going to be a wet race and all teams worked feverously on changing to wet tyres on the start line. It was here on the start line that Treasure racing Sponsor Albert Raesfeld of B & R Tyre Service helped out with a hands on approach helping Adam & Darren change from slicks to Wet tyres on the start line. Adam’s wet race virginity was about to be broken.

Photo by Linda Beumer

When the lights went green, a great wall of water was thrown up from all the sidecars in front of Adam & Darren, knowing that this was going to be a long race Adam used caution heading into turn 1 for the first time having dropped back quite a few places in the run to turn 1. Once the mayhem of the first few laps had settled down Adam began to move forward through the field catching the bikes in front quite quickly but hesitating when making passes on the other teams. With large gaps between bikes visibility was good allowing Adam to ride faster but once caught up to a bike or even a group of bikes visibility from the spray coming off the bikes in front made passing a hazardous affair, the boys eventually finishing the race in 14th when it was red flagged due to an accident near to the racing line.

Darren, ready for a wet race at Nurburgring.
Photo by Linda Beumer

With Treasure Racings 1st ever wet race completed Adam & Darren learned a great deal of knowledge which they will apply to any future wet races so that they will be better prepared. A wet weather racing kit has now been prepared, with essentials needed like “rain X” for the visors to aid in water repelling for better visibility among other little secrets we don’t wish our competitors to know.

Photo by Linda Beumer

As this media release was being written, Adam and Darren were on their way to Rijeka in Croatia for the 3rd round of the World Championship. This race meeting is generally known for its hot weather but at the moment the weather forecast for the weekend is for rain….

Yours in Racing
Adam and Darren.

Treasure Racing
F1 sidecar #38

P.S To keep track of Treasure Racings racing as it is happening & keep upto date with Live Timing & race results check out Steve English’s website at www.steveenglish.com

It has been a busy 3 weeks since Treasure Racing’s 1st World Championship race meeting at Le Mans went pear shaped. The repairs required to the carbon fibre fairing were completed thanks to Dirk Heinemann & the team at Vektor Modelltechnik. Followed by a new coat of paint provided by Karl-Heinz Mattner and Anatoli Hildebrandt at Auto-Service Mattner. Adam and Darren were busy trying to get the bike back up to its former condition prior to the Le Mans incident. Many thanks to Albert Raesfeld from B&R Tyre Services for his help and organisation when it came to organising all of his contacts to help us out with the Carbon repairs and the re-painting of the bike, leather repairs and purchasing of new helmets. The bike looks Fantastic again! Repairs to Adam’s leathers were made by Herr Geesmann and the people at Modeka in Beckum. Due to time constraints new helmets were sourced through our new friend’s at Arai Deutschland instead of Treasure Racing’s sponsor Arai Australia. Three weeks between race meetings sounded like a long time to organise everything that needed to be done, but in reality, everything finally managed to come together on the last day prior to leaving for round 2 of the Sidecar World Championship.

While everyone in Australia celebrated Mothers day on the weekend of the 8th & 9th of May (Happy Belated Mothers day to all!!!!) Treasure Racing was competing at the 2nd round of the World Sidecar Championship at Schleiz in Germany. On arrival to the very picturesque location that is the township of Schleizer Dreieck the weather was freezing at a very chilly 7 Deg C. The track at Schleiz at one time used to be a 7Km long street circuit through the township, but is now a proper race track that still uses mostly public roads for the circuit, now a more standard 3.8Km in length. If you were unlucky enough to break down during a race, you might have the good fortune of stopping in front of the pub so you could drown your sorrows while sitting on the front verandah watching as the race continued on without you!!!

Schleiz’s Pub Verandah
Photo supplied by Frank Schauroth

Photo supplied by Frank Schauroth

Adam had raced at Schleiz in 2007 during his first World championship campaign but for Darren it was another new track to learn and as such Adam and Darren spent the 1st untimed practice session re-acquainting and learning the track. Next came the 2x qualifying sessions, Qualifying 1 on Friday afternoon and Qualifying 2 on Saturday morning. The boys set themselves a big task ahead for the races when they qualified in lowly 16th position.

Photo supplied by Frank Schauroth

RACE 1
Saturday afternoon saw the first of two races for the weekend, an 11 lap sprint race which had Adam get off to a good start making up 2 places within the first few corners. Adam & Darren managed to latch on to the back of a group of 4 sidecars that towed them along and out of the reach of the pursuing pack eventually finishing the race in 14th position almost 8 sec’s in front of the next team.

Photo supplied by Frank Schauroth

RACE 2
Sunday saw Adam & Darren front up to the start line for the 22 lap Gold race, after getting away from the start the boys settled into a good pace and managed to pass a few sidecars in the first few laps. Treasure racing was then forced to pit for a drive thru penalty for a jump start! When returning to the track the team was faced with playing catch up from last position. The boys rode hard and worked there way through the field to finish in 11th position after 22 laps.

Photo supplied by Frank Schauroth

Treasure Racing now stands 16th in the World Championship, with 3 rounds left. The next round will see Treasure Racing make the long trip thru Europe, down to the Rijeka Circuit in Croatia on the 19-20 June.

The DeWith Motorsport tuned Suzuki engine performed perfectly all weekend. Adam and Darren appreciate the support they’ve receive from Albert Raesfeld since landing in Germany. Thanks to Albert for his continued support and providing transport and accommodation for the team, also for his help in providing contacts for all repairs to the sidecar and racing gear. Treasure Racing would also like to take this opportunity to thank Henry Schwaden for all of his enthusiasm and help over the weekend as our volunteer pit crew. Thanks must also go out to Frank, Katrin, Luca and family for supplying the hospitality over the weekend for the team. Treasure racing has fan clubs springing up all over the place and for the weekend of Schleiz, we had special guests from Austria and former “Aircom Systems” sponsors all the way from Australia on hand to cheer us on.

Adam, Albert & Darren
Photo supplied by Frank Schauroth

This weekend coming, see’s Treasure Racing compete at the 2nd round of the IDM (German Sidecar Championship) at Oschersleben. This series has many of the World Championship Teams and some of the best German and European teams competing, and will make a great test bed for Adam and Darren to hone their skills and improve their speed for the 3rd round of the World Championship in Croatia.

Signing off for now

Adam and Darren
Treasure Racing
F1 sidecar #38

The First round of the 2010 World Sidecar Championship was held at Le Mans in France, Treasure racing’s Adam & Darren arrived early and set up their pit area amongst the other sidecar teams. The sidecar’s championship was held along side the 24 hour World Endurance Championship.

The First free practice on Friday was used to refresh Adam’s memory of the layout of the circuit and introduce Darren to the fast and flowing nature of the track.

Le Mans

At the completion of the 2x qualifying sessions Adam and Darren had qualified 13th on the grid.
For the 18 lap race on Saturday, Adam got a great start and the boys settled into a good pace very early, picking off quite a few teams in front of them on the grid with some aggressive riding into turns one and two, followed by some good early pace in the opening laps, which saw Treasure racing up into 8th place by half way through the 2nd lap. The race was red flagged near the completion of the second lap when another teams motor expired dropping oil onto the racing line.

Le Mans

The restart was for the remaining 15 laps and again Adam got away from the start in good time, the pair worked their way forward to 10th and nearing the completion of the fifth lap, under heavy braking at the end of the fast back straight, the sidecar became unstable and rolled, coming to a stop upside down off the edge of the track. Both Darren and Adam were not seriously hurt in the accident. The sidecar suffered only cosmetic damage to the fairing. Treasure racing had no choice but to retire from the race. Adam & Darren left Le Mans now looking forward to round 2 in Germany

The boys spent Sunday back in Germany preparing the sidecar for the next round in Schleiz Germany on the 8th and 9th of May.

Photos of Le Mans to come in the following days.

Signing off
Adam & Darren

Treasure Racing
F1 sidecar #38

G’day from Germany, Adam and Darren arrived in Germany on Thursday the 8th of April and were greeted by Treasure racing sponsor, Albert of B&R Tyre service, we went to customs to pick up the crate loaded with the bike and all our racing gear and equipment. The bike was loaded into the back of Alberts truckand we started the 3 hour drive to our home base in Ludinghausen.

Adam and Darren relaxed on friday whilst sorting out their new digs. Saturday saw the bike and gear unloaded from the truck and then from the crate. The day was spent preparing the bike for the upcoming LeMans meeting on the 16th, 17th & 18th.

Whilst Adam & Darren were in the air flying to Germany the Superside World Sidecar Championship self destructed after disputes with Superside CEO and the FIM. The result is that the World Sidecar Championship will now be run and promoted by the FIM.