The December 17 th Café Racer Club of S.A. race meeting at Mallala had promised a special something with the star studded line up of returning international riders.  It certainly produced its share of high speed skills as well as some unfortunate spills with the likes of Billy McConnell, Dave Johnson and Glen Richards on hand to treat the local crowd with their talents.  But o n a somewhat less exciting level, the meeting was also graced or more appropriately disgraced with the presence of three ugly Victorian's, SD Racing's Super Daz Sciberras, Mega Ken Onus and Randy Rod Johnson. For those who don't know this trio let me assure you that there is nothing Super, Mega or Randy about any of these characters other than their egos.

Their Megacycle CBR400s were entered in the limited class but to make things more interesting a wager between the three was placed. The rider who could qualify their pretty much identical bikes fastest would receive $50 from the other two. But it wasn't just money at stake, pride was on the line and the bragging rights would weigh much more heavily than folding currency ever could. This was a rare occasion when qualifying actually mattered more then the race. With so much at stake Trevor Manley from TMPerformance.com.au was keep busy with some suspension modifications which assured that all three riders would be riding some very fine handling motorcycles and no excuses could be made. With that the bikes were loaded into the Megacycle bus and the South Australian adventure began.

Pre Qualifying War favorite, Mega Ken, had a somewhat turbulent Saturday practice when a brake hose burst leaving him hurtling along the back straight without brakes. Thankfully he was able to wash off enough speed and use the runoff area to avoid an accident but the bike was going to need some repairs. The brake hose was inspected in an attempt to uncover the reasons for the failure, in the end it was concluded that the line just failed under the 'enormous' load it had to endure with Mega sitting on top of the bike. Thanks to Brendan Roberts a replacement hose was found and the bike was fixed and ready to roll for Sunday's shoot out. Randy Rod was also to experience his share of trouble in the lead up, a crash in the Sunday morning warm-up when his lost the front in turn 3 left him lying in the dirt, thankfully uninjured. The damage was minimal and after a bit of a sook he got his bike together and was ready to roll.

The siren sounded, after all the hype, tension and anticipation, the time had come and the three-way qualifying war was upon us. Rod was first to burst out of the gates followed by Ken then Daz. It was quickly apparent that the lack of track time on Saturday had not hampered Mega Ken as he displayed why he was pre war favorite with his aggressive riding style. After a few flying laps Ken had reeled in Rod and slipped passed, it looked as if Mega had got the job done.or had he? With a quick glimpse over his shoulder Mega was somewhat surprised to see the rider that he had been coaching and molding this year still on his tail. Super Daz had been behind Mega's ugly backside the whole time and for that matter Rod hadn't fallen too far behind either. Although it was quite a horrifying view Daz was well aware that motorcycle racing is tough and sometimes a rider must overcome extremely difficult circumstances. Looking a Mega's fat butt was certainly one those circumstances. Knowing that they had given their all, both Ken and Daz pulled into the pits even though there was still some time remaining, both knowing that their times wouldn't be separated by much at all. Rod had certainly picked up the pace after being passed by his rivals and decided to use the momentum to squeeze out a few more tenths, it was then that our Randy friend displayed just how consistent he is! Pushing hard to win this epic war he again lost the front in turn 3, the exact same place he a crashed only an hour or so before. In fact the crash was almost identical in so many ways that when he came to a hault he found the foot peg that he had lost in the first crash. Most riders rarely can put 2 identical laps together but not our Rodney, he can even replicate his crashes.

The moment of truth, the grid sheets had arrived! The first thing that was apparent was that the only person to out qualify the Victorians was the ultra fast Mandy Beals on her 125GP machine, all three of the Megacycle CBR400s had qualified on the front row but which one had secured the $100. With that unmistakable 'Krusty the Clown' like laugh the shocking truth was revealed, Mega Ken had in fact got the job done and a reluctant Super Daz and Rodney had to cough up the cash. As suspected it was close though, dam close. Ken had only managed to pip Daz by 0.2sec with Rod only 0.3sec further back. A dejected Daz commented, "I am pretty disappointed, it was so tough out there. Everything was going OK and I thought I was in with a good chance but then it hit me. As I excited turn 2 I made the mistake of looking up and there it was..Mega's ugly butt! I admit it scared me a bit and my head wasn't quite right from that point on." Rod too had his share of excuses but we couldn't print them all here, it would just take too long. To be fair his bike was running right after his crash in the warm-up so he defiantly lost some time there but there was no denying, or shutting up the winner. Well done Mr Kenny Onus!

Still there were 2 races to run and the prospect of all three riders on the front row certainly was going to provide some interest. Sadly it was realized that in the second crash Rod's bike was damaged beyond repair and he would be absent from the grid. Ken and Daz took their places on the grid, a flying start by Daz saw him lead the first couple of laps until Mandy Beals and Mega Ken slipped by in one swoop. Ken tried to stay with Mandy but the CBR400 was no match for the 125GP machine and he finished in 2 nd place but more importantly ahead of Daz. Daz faded in the last few laps which saw him slip to a disappointing 5 th place. Race 2 saw Ken in 2 nd place with Daz dicing for 3 rd when his borrowed bike's engine expired in a big way, leaving a huge cloud of smoke as he left the track. Ken continued on to take 2 nd behind Beals which netted him 2 nd for the weekend as well as that all important $100. Each $50 lighter, the dejected Daz and Rod were left with nothing to do other than drown the sorrows while dreaming up as many excuses as they could think off. The only source of joy for the two came from witnessing one of the world's funniest hair cuts! We don't have any photos of it available yet but hopefully they will be posted on www.sdracing.com.au in the coming weeks.

We would like to thank everybody at the Café Racers Club of S.A. for their hospitality and for putting on such a great race meeting, we thoroughly enjoyed it! We would also like to apologies to those pitted next to us for having to endure all the ranting and raving that so often follows the Megacycle bus. What a fun weekend!

It's been a great year for SD Racing, we have had so much fun along the way, and we would like to thank everybody involved and all those who take the time out to read our reports. To all have a safe and very Merry Christmas and we look forward to doing it all over again in 2007.