twincamweslake

At last someone else can see what I have been saying for years, the reason he rears and centre punches so many riders in the corners is because he rides with a straight right leg. This makes it difficult to shift body weight to steer the bike correctly. Have a look at some older photos of previous top class and world class riders, all have bent right knee, that enables you to push down on the footpeg and give you leverage to shift weight back and forth on the bike and turn it quickly. Nicki is very fast, but sorry thats all I can say about him, as far as a good speedway rider, nah, think back to some of the greats, PC, Ivan, Ole, Phil Crump, Ove Fundin, Michael Lee, Dave Jessup, Bruce Penhall, Erik Gundersen, Hans and many many others, how often did you see them come off their bikes, it was a rareity. This bloke is off nearly every GP at some stage or another, either himself or causing a fall from being out of control. For those on here old enough to have seen some of those names as mentioned above you will know what I mean. For just pure control and smoothness, I have to say Ivan and Ole were poetry in motion. He may have won 3 titles, but to mention Nicki in the same context as probably all the names above as far as being a speedway rider in the total sense, is insulting to say the least.

Thanks Tim will give that a go...cheers

Hi Tim, I found the site not long ago and there are some great shots of some restored bikes on there. I tried to submit a photo, but I can't seem to get it to work, nothing happens when I hit on the " webmaster" tab. Is there an email address that I can use to send something in? Thanks

Yes what Sir Lunchalot says is right. At Jason Crump's dinner earlier this year, Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke stated he would be doing everything possible to assist the Gold Coast Motorcycle Club in finding suitable land to realocate in the future. Lets hope that this happens BEFORE the current track gets closed down by the ever encroaching housing developments. At last Saturdays meeting, both Mitch Shirra and Kym Mauger were in the pits, oh yeah and a certain Mick Doohan was up in the clubhouse watching proceedings to!

How about Scott Smith, an Englishmen and a Aussie. The Aussie rode for Newport and Newcastle and few years back and the other Scott (Nickname Scud???) rode for Sheffield at one stage I think???

Iused2, thanks for your input re the engine numbers. I just had a look at my two engines. The engine that John Titman rode is No: 3183 DOHC and another engine I bought blown up has No: 3373 TLPS. I wonder what the difference is regarding the lettering?? I do remember seeing a picture of Reg Wilson on one many years ago in the Star, didn't know DJ rode one at some stage but.... Thanks for your interest....

Genuine???? Think you need a dictionary to look up the meaning....

Yeah thanks Mark and Sandman for the tip about the keys. When they designed the engine and John was to be a test pilot he pleaded with them not to do the crank/main shaft with tapered shafts and main bearings. They would not listen and said that the idea was successful in road racing, but John said no, it wont work in speedway, rev a lot higher etc. But they went ahead and designed it the way they wanted and it really was the main downfall of it, besides being too top heavy compared to the pushrod Weslake. Even though Tito only raced it for a season over here, he spent a lot of time mucking around with cams and a "outside of factory specs"set up on the bottom end. This improved the motor quite a bit and I remember him racing it here, it went well, but certainly no quicker than his normal Weslakes at the time. John did finish second overall to Billy Sanders on the motor in the 1980 Australasian Final in NZ. The field was pretty strong, including Crumpie, Mitch Shirra, Larry Ross, Mike Farrell, Steve Koppe etc. so it was no slug after he tinkered with it, just a lot of extra maintenance for no real gain in performance. I do not race the bike ever, give it an occasional start on the stand a couple of times a year and thats it. Whenever I display it anywhere it attracts a lot of attention and even though "WESLAKE DOHC" is stamped on the timing cover, many people ask, "whats that"?

Thanks Trackman and Sandman. Trackman, one of my engines is in the original Weslake chassis exactly as it was raced by John Titman in 1979/80 in Aust. John only rode it for one season for the exact reason that Sandman said, it was too top heavy and because of the way they did the crank/main shaft, it required a lot of maintenance to ensure the engine would rev freely. John actually cut a lot of material out of the barrell and head to reduce some weight, so it does vary in appearance to the standard motor. Although John had some good success on the motor the season he raced it here, feedback to the Weslake factory was obviously not too encouraging to keep manufacture going on it. Trackman thanks for the invite to the Gold Coast next weekend, but nah, wait till the new season starts later in the year, as for the speedcars, only interested in legitimately restored vintage speedcars.

Hi to Trackman and Mark 246, thanks for your input on my enquiry regarding the Weslake DOHC speedway motor. The motor I have that runs was built in 1979 and raced by John Titman in Australia during the 79/80 season. When I was in England in the early 90's I caught up with Bill Davies and actually bought a set of brand new tapered main shafts he had, which were used in the DOHC. I still have them wrapped up unused, cos I doubt I would be able to get any others these days, especially new. I checked both Weslake and Antig websites but no information really on there about old speedway stuff. A number of these engines must have ended up in Australia, even though not all that many were made (around 50?). I know of two other engines over here that are brand new, never fired a shot. Kenny Carter bought one to Perth when he rode there for the season, must have been 79/80. I do not know if that is still around over there or the blown up motor I bought in bits from Perth could be the same one, I don't really know! Thanks for your interest anyway, I will keep searching.. Cheers from Oz..!

OK, hi from Australia to all. Looking for some more info on approx. how many of the Weslake DOHC 500cc motors were ever built. I was in touch with Brian Valentine some years ago, but he wasn't able to spread too much light on that particular info for me. I actually have two motors, was wondering if any of you might be able to spread some more light on the history of them and are there many about in the UK? Cheers and thanks