Motorsport Retro launches Vintage Motocross Team

Rich Fowler

Motorsport Retro are extremely excited to announce that we will be running a five-bike Vintage Motocross Team (VMX) in 2011.

“VMX is a huge amount of fun, the racing is great and the people are real. It’s refreshing to go to the track and see all the incredible old school machinery, lovingly restored and enjoy a good chat with the riders” said Motorsport Retro Editor, Rich Fowler.

Fowler goes on to say, “And there is nothing like dropping the clutch as the gate drops and powering down the straight into the first corner with a bunch of hooligans all trying to get there first. Just thinking about it gives me butterfly’s and make me sick with nerves.”

The Heaven VMX opening round will be held in Bulahdelah March 19/20, which will be three kilometres of grass-track and motocross-track combined.

Rich Fowler gives the run-down of the bikes they are planning on running throughout the series:

2 x 1984 Kawasaki KX250

We have two of these green beasts in the team. Personally I love Kawasaki’s, they look a bit different, plus Jeff Ward rode them, so they must be pretty cool. I will be campaigning one and the other will be ridden by John Finlayson. My bike came from Dead Dog Racing in Queensland and was a nice tidy bike, but needed a full restoration to get it race ready. Rebuilding the bike with my mates was a lot of fun. We did all the usual things, stripped it down, powder coated the frame, fitted new bearings, brakes, tyres, suspension, filters, controls, piston and ring, carby internals and we bolted it all together with a couple of kits from Classic Fasteners. It all came together remarkably well and I was lucky to win on it first time out last year.

Johno’s bike is still on a boat on its way to Australia. He bought it from some bloke, sight unseen over the internet and he is praying that it turns up race ready as described! Unfortunately its taken longer than he hoped to get here and he is going to miss the first round. Hopefully it won’t require too much time sitting on a Polisport stand

1983 Suzuki RM 125

This bike was on the cover of VMX Magazine a few years ago and was then owned by Carl from Northside Motorcycles, who sold it to me to get another bike out on the track. The bike didn’t need much done to it, but after a few practice rides the suspension blew, so we rebuilt both ends. We also gave the carby a few jetting tweaks and added a DG pipe to try and gain an extra horsepower or two and add some period bling. Thanks to the guys at Link International we also topped her up with some Motul gear oil and fitted a gold RK Chain. Jamie Pollack, AKA Johnny Sport, is going to race it in what will only be his first full season of VMX.

1982 Honda XR500

This bike simply didn’t want to be built. We really should have set fire to it or used it as a toilet. I sure have never heard of any XR’s winning motocross races, so what were we thinking? Anything that could go wrong did go wrong, but as I write this I’m confident it will now stand up to a full season of VMX.

My mate, Chris Mullan (AKA Muzz), actually forgot he owned this bike. He had left it on his brother-in-laws farm for about 15 years and when he picked it up it was completely trashed. Stupidly we thought it would make a fun restoration and a great bike for the grasstracks. Lets hope so, as it owes him a small fortune.

The worst aspect of the rebuild was the job a supposed XR engine specialist did on the engine rebuild. Firstly, it took them more than three months and countless phone calls to rebuild the donk – despite the fact we supplied them with all the parts. Then when we finally had the bike back together the kick starter didn’t engage. Great! They had to pull the motor back out and split the block again. We sent the completed bike back to them and we waited another two months until it finally turned up, thrown back together with no care or respect, with nuts and bolts missing and with a huge indent in the brand new seat where it had obviously been left under a pile of their crap. On the positive side it does actually kick start now, but only after Carl stepped it, adjusted the decompression and set it up properly.

1982 Suzuki RM 465

This bike will be campaigned by Justin Bowtell, who also imported the fire breathing RM from the USA. Like Johno, he isn’t going to make the first round, but we can’t wait to sample the RMs hard hitting power when it finally turn up. It should look good when it arrives because Australian Quarantine has steam cleaned it at a cost of $250!

Back in 1982 this bike was a favourite with big bore riders and a factory version of this bike took US MX legend Brad Lackey to a World Motocross Championship, a first for an American rider. In Australia the 1983 RM 500 was a surprise winner of the Mr Motocross series in the hands of a young Ray Vandenberg.

For more pictures and information about the Motorsport Retro VMX team take a look at their website.