The legacy of a promising young rider has been celebrated for the last six years by classic race enthusiasts Wolfgang and Mario Stropek, who organise an annual race event in July at the famous Salzburgring circuit, open to riders of vintage and classic racing bikes up to 1984. The meeting attracts not only a wide range of amateur enthusiasts but also guests of honour like Agostini, Redman and Read – some of whom not only mingle with the fans but also ride in the events! Salzburgring itself is built into a picturesque alpine valley surrounded by towering mountains, its long, thin layout comprising gnarly fast sweeping long bends at the ends, linked by a blistering fast long straight on one side and a tricky technical complex of bends on the other. In the circuit’s 40-year history it has been a GP circuit and still hosts world class events. This one however is the only one with no noise restrictions whatsoever!
The event is unusual from our point of view as despite to all appearances being a race it’s actually a time trial, or gleichmaessigkeit. That means you can ride it on a road licence, as it is not a ‘true’ race event. Think of it as a classic bike track day, all you need is an eligible bike. In theory you could tour round and ‘win’ the time trial but in practice when you sit a load of racers on a grid and drop a flag in front of them regularity isn’t the first thing on their minds!
I first rode at the Salzburgring three years ago with the offer of the loan of a rare and rather special 750SS Ducati from a friend of mine and fellow classic racer living and working in Germany. I easyjetted over with my riding gear, spent a weekend in summer sun riding the big Duke around (interspersed with excellent cold local beer!) and resolved to comeback with my own bike the next year. I duly entered my RD350LC, converted from road spec by the addition of race plates and taped-up lights and rode it round bucking and weaving to a 3rd place, receiving a trophy presented by no less than Ago himself.
The plan this year was to ride my 750 Seeley Norton, a proper race machine, in the over-500 event, and get an additional ride on my roadgoing KR-1S in the 250. It’s a long way to Salzburg, the best part of 2 days driving, so getting 2 rides made sense to get more ot of the weekend. The plans were dealt a blow on Friday evening having set up in the paddock when a storm blew up. Channelled down the valley, awnings took flight and expensive ‘quick-up’ gazebos went quick down. We strapped the caravan awning to the van, the bikes and anything we could find to keep it down and by midnight the gale had abated, to be followed by non-stop torrential rain.
The rain continued into Saturday, with morning practice being cancelled. They sent the Ferrari parade round at lunchtime to see if the track was driveable and it wasn’t, so afternoon practice was cancelled too. Only the beer remained a viable option….
The rain finally stopped 24 hours after it started, in the small hours of Sunday morning, and we awoke to blue skies and a drying track. The revised schedule gave every class 10 minutes of practice in the morning followed by the races starting mid morning.
Out first in the 250 race I found myself on row 2, directly behind no lesser a person than Luigi Taveri, 3-times 125cc world champion from the 1960s, riding an immaculate RC162 250-four h***a. Even more surprisingly, after a few fast boys on TZ Yamahas cleared off, I found myself keeping up with Taveri. At 80 years old he wasn’t on GP pace but still not hanging around, and the little h***a had the legs of my more modern bike on the straights. On the corners though the modern rubber of my Kawasaki let me close the gap, running close up the h***a’s wide-open pipes blasting a million decibels straight into my skull and drowning out my own engine. Hoping to set up a pass on one of the twisty bits where I had an edge, I popped out of Taveri’s slipstream but he had other ideas and we buried the noses of the bikes into the chicane side by side. Thanking Mr Bridgestone as I peeled in, I saw out of the corner of my eye Taveri straightening up and running into the gravel trap. Unsure if I’d just become the most unpopular person in Austria I carried on with a clear track in front to finish 4th on the road and 8th in the results for regularity.
I wasn’t expecting to be near the front on the Norton and I was right. The over-500 class attracts a wide variety of machines including TZ750s, Moriwakis, Benelli Seis, Laverdas, BMWs and even a rocketship ex-Mick Grant slabby GSXR750. Undeterred, I hung it out half way up the field but undergeared and with the bike over-revving badly on the long back sraight….. until it coughed and died crossing the line on the penultimate lap.
A mixed race outing, and certainly a memorable and surreal experience, but overall a fantastic weekend. Being part of the Rupert Hollaus memorial races is a great feeling, the spectators are massively enthusiastic, the atmosphere is hugely friendly and the old bikes round the paddock are wonderful. Gotta love those "classic" KR-1S's! :whistle:
and finally
The action...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL1iDBGGUgo