Rookie sidecar rider finishes third at nationals

Rookie Mauriceville sidecar rider Derek Ramsay has taken third place at the 2007 New Zealand Sidecar Championships only seven weeks after first twisting the throttle on a speedway bike.
With long time friend and former Eketahuna man Tony Hislop as swinger, the pair placed seventh in the qualifying field of 16 at the Eastern States Speedway New Year meet in Blenheim to follow up at the finals the next day with a dead heat second alongside Les Plummer and Kirvin Demester of Hawkes Bay and championship winners Toby Lardelli and Mike Bond of Gisborne.
"We had to have a run-off to decide the second placing and flipped a coin for the inside line. They won the toss.
But I'm a bit of a rookie and would have been happy just qualifying for the finals, which is all we were expecting to do, especially with all the sponsors support we got. It was the least we could do," Ramsay said yesterday.
He said the bike he and Hislop ride is a 220kg machine running a 110horsepower VTR1000 motor and despite leading for two and a half laps in the run-off, their rivals took the lead coming out of the strait on their 180kg 200horsepower bike and went on to finish the four-lap decider as winners.
"I'm rapt to have done so well after just seven weeks in the sport. It's amazing. I started speedway because I wanted to take up something that my whole family can enjoy. To get a national placing so soon after starting is just pure bonus."
Ramsay, owner operator of Ramsay Earthmoving, said he raced in hare scrambling about 20 years ago, placing second at a national meet "but speedway racing is an adrenalin rush" other pursuits could not touch. "When you're racing at 120kph toward a concrete wall only a couple of feet off the ground with other bikes almost touching you, and there are no brakes ? I've tried skydiving and bungy jumping among other things but speedway blows everything else out of the weeds."
Mrs Ramsay manages the family bull farm of Hastwell at Mauriceville and is philosophical about the dangers of the sport, praising the family profile and crowds that attend the meetings.
"I reckon speedway is safer with all the gear and ambulances than a farmer working the back blocks on a quad bike. And a lot more fun."
Ramsay said his eight-year-old son Matthew may soon be following in his father tyre tracks, with a motocross bike already in the shed and training runs set down for both rookie racers early in the New Year.
*For more information on the sidecar team of Ramsay and Hislop go online to www.6p.sidecar.net.nz.