Scooter News  ADVERTISEMENT Le minz 24 hr One account of the 24 hours that lies ahead for Scooter HQ. Brendon is entering 4 scooters in the endurance event which is being held this weekend on the Gold Coast.
Brendon We will have a number of reports on the race and if your in the Gold Coast area get down and have a look. But first off lets look at one persons view of racing around a track for 24 hours! Over to you......
It is on again on the 8th of September at Parklands Showground’s on the Gold Coast. Midday the flag drops and 24 hours of pure scooter madness begins. Its free for spectators and you can win a scooter by just coming to have a look. We were there last year and will be there again this year with three team entries of three riders each team and one solo rider entry.
Our four entries this year are about competing and proving the reliability of the products we stock. There are only two riders out of ten that are under 35 years old and we are all of ample size. No lightweight young jockeys here!
Our first team riding a Vmoto Matrix consists of real people Craig "Kraygstar" who works in the medical field, Rob an eccentric scooterist & Tanwyn who is the Australian Manager of Vmoto Sales. They are entered in the restricted class which is off the shelf & completely standard 50cc scooters with a top speed of 50km/h. These guys are in it for the fun to compete & complete the event.
Second Team is Daelim S-five mounted with an all Scooter HQ riding team. We have Tim from the workshop, Brendon from the Showroom & Dave from Cyberbike who does our rider training and runs our track nights. We had a vacancy in this team with Matt Kuhne unable to ride so I called Dave & asked "Have you got any lightweight hotshot riders who want to do Le Minz?" He responded with "Why do they have to be light?" knowing where Dave was heading with this and unwilling to listen to another Young Bull/Old story I said you're in. This scooter unlike the Matrix is running with speed limiting devices only removed in the "derestricted class".
Third is a combined Scooter HQ/Bolwell/Gold Coast Scooters entry. The scoot being run here is a Bolwell PMX Naked in the de restricted class. In this instance we have teamed up with Mal McConnell & the team from Gold Coast Scooters. Scooter HQ provides the Bolwell plus support during the event and Gold Coast Scooters provide the riders. In last years Le Minz this team was fast and mounted on the PMX is capable of taking it up to anything.
Fourth is Adam going solo on a Vmoto Monza which is a budget entry level scooter fitted with one of our Kits. Adam is a good rider and competed last year with us on the Matrix. Having already done one Le Minz the question begs to be asked "why do you want to do this again and in particular Solo for 24 hours?".
All our entries retail under $2,800 which represents the overwhelming majority of 50cc scooter sold in Australia. .
Those of us who have done Le Minz before are approaching this years event with both excitement and trepidation. There is the fun of fanging around a track on a scooter with other riders. Then you remember the "moments" of past events "It's 3.00am, cold, dark and raining, what the hell am I doing running a scooter around parklands for" or arriving at the hairpin early morning in the rain that fatigued you can't remember which is the front and which is the back brake. Then there are the guys who are doing it Solo... probably on some form of day release from institutions big on padded walls and tranquilizers.
We ask ourselves why do we do it? We try and come up with intelligent sounding answers that add credibility to what we are doing. The truth is far from credible and intelligent, it harks back to primal competitive instincts and of course basically because we can.
published 4/09/2007 |