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GD66
Senior Member
Western Australia
390 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Feb 2010 : 10:27:36 PM
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Hi all, is anyone able to shed any light on the condition of Steve Maney after his unfortunate startline crash in heat 2 of the International Challenge ? Or at least say where he is hospitalised ?
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GD66
Senior Member
Western Australia
390 Posts |
Posted - 03 Feb 2010 : 9:09:25 PM
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| Great, thanks for nothing ! I finally contacted Keith Higgs, who told me Steve is in the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, with broken ribs, femur, and collarbone, and a punctured lung. The femur and collarbone have been plated. His wife has flown out to be with him, and he's in good spirits. But I bet he's a sore boy... |
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Bummers
Level 3 Member
Queensland
244 Posts |
Posted - 03 Feb 2010 : 9:29:10 PM
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What really happened in that crash? Rod Price thought he T-boned Craig Ditchburn when Craig appeared from his left. Was Maney involved in the same accident?
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“Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.” Steve McQueen |
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GD66
Senior Member
Western Australia
390 Posts |
Posted - 04 Feb 2010 : 01:34:32 AM
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| Yes Bernie, but I don't know in what way. I'd shot over to Siberia in the rental car to watch it, when all hell broke loose just after the start. Even from that distance, it looked ugly. After it became apparent that the raced wouldn't be re-started, I came back round to te outside of the front straight, and people were still tut-tutting and shaking their heads. Very ugly, by all accounts. Someone said they thought Maney hbad been run over, but I don't know. For sure the Norton was launched skyward in a big way. |
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Bummers
Level 3 Member
Queensland
244 Posts |
Posted - 04 Feb 2010 : 02:21:30 AM
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| I'd thought the "launched" bike was Rod's black TZ350 but I didn't see the accident. |
“Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.” Steve McQueen |
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Alan Cotterell
In a time out state
Victoria
421 Posts |
Posted - 04 Feb 2010 : 09:22:13 AM
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| Dumb question - what was a Norton doing in the same race as a TZ350? They are completely different types of bike! |
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jvdairlie
Level 2 Member
Queensland
48 Posts |
Posted - 04 Feb 2010 : 2:29:55 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by glen20
Dumb question - what was a Norton doing in the same race as a TZ350? They are completely different types of bike!
From memory it was one of the 'International Challenge' races where all the classes are in together.
GD66 - I see that there's an alternative email contact for Steve Maney on his web site while he's incapacitated. |
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Alan Cotterell
In a time out state
Victoria
421 Posts |
Posted - 04 Feb 2010 : 8:14:13 PM
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'From memory it was one of the 'International Challenge' races where all the classes are in together.'
Some situations might be an accident waiting to happen. In my perception the safest and smoothest racing occurs where all the bikes are of much the same type such as in the 250GP classes of the ARRC. I've always been wary of racing against strange bikes especially those 'chook chasers' that used to turn up sometimes in the old days. It seems wrong that an old British fourstroke 1000 twin was racing against a 350 two stroke GP bike, regardless of the relative speeds of the bikes. |
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GD66
Senior Member
Western Australia
390 Posts |
Posted - 04 Feb 2010 : 9:55:45 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by glen20
Dumb question - what was a Norton doing in the same race as a TZ350? They are completely different types of bike!
First post, first sentence.... |
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Alan Cotterell
In a time out state
Victoria
421 Posts |
Posted - 05 Feb 2010 : 09:48:27 AM
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| GD66. We have a situation where one of the top Poms has been seriously injured. I understand he isn't some young bloke likely to have brain fade, but he's a very experienced rider. I suggest that when one of the good guys gets hurt, it's worth looking very closely at how we are running the races. |
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GD66
Senior Member
Western Australia
390 Posts |
Posted - 05 Feb 2010 : 8:07:46 PM
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Rubbish.That series is for P5 Unlimited, and TZ350s and Commandos of that ilk raced together then and now with no drama. What happened was extremely unfortunate, and possibly even avoidable, but was no more than a race crash. And what do you mean WE are running the races? Clearly you weren't even there, let alone helping run it.
Racers of that calibre take their lumps no matter where they are in the world. Jim Redman celebrated his 72nd birthday by highsiding a 600 Honda at Wanneroo and breaking his collarbone, but he didn't sob and moan, he turned up the next day and signed everything in sight and then did the presentation that night. I bet if you went down to the Alfred and asked Steve Maney, he'd have nothing but praise for the meeting, the concept, and the format of the races. These things happen from time to time, and it's unfortunate, but it's a part of the game that we all accept. |
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vinton
Level 2 Member
Western Australia
42 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2010 : 12:07:56 AM
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| if you think motorcycle racing is risky then your right be it mixed classes or a definded class and cc grouping racing will always come with some risk to man and bike .I am sure there is something read out to us all at the start of each and every meeting . |
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Alan Cotterell
In a time out state
Victoria
421 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2010 : 11:45:02 AM
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| I might point out the Standards Australia document 'guide to managing risk in motor sport', and our obligation to minimise the risk. |
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Alan Cotterell
In a time out state
Victoria
421 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2010 : 2:08:22 PM
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| Vinton, some of us actually remember what happened in our history. In the old days the bikes and riders were separated by machine capacity, and rider grading. It was done for a purpose. In the International Challenge there were different types of bikes, different capacities, and all the different possible grades of riders. It isn't how races were often run back then. The mix of capacities sometimes occurred in C grade, and Club races, never in an INTERNATIONAL event! As far as rider grading was concerned, we were permitted to ride in the next grade up, so C Graders didn't race against A Graders. Time for a rethink? |
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Palookaville
Level 1 Member
UK
4 Posts |
Posted - 07 Feb 2010 : 12:39:31 AM
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I'm not sure when your 'old days' were, but in the late sixties/early seventies is was routine for 250's to be running against much bigger engined bikes in unlimited C and B grade races. Grading too was a bit hit and miss, since some C graders appeared in the 'feature race' alongside the hotshots, and 'lightweight' races often included A, B and C grade riders. None of this assisted too much on the safety front, particularly when some grids consisted of fifty or more riders.
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Alan Cotterell
In a time out state
Victoria
421 Posts |
Posted - 07 Feb 2010 : 09:46:34 AM
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| Then you will remember that the bike to have in those days was a 250 or 350cc Yamaha. You got about 4 times as many rides as someone with a bike over that size. I've got life membership of C grade from that time, and it was always 'the charge of the light brigade'. Are you telling me that the International Challenge is essentially a C Grade race? |
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Bummers
Level 3 Member
Queensland
244 Posts |
Posted - 07 Feb 2010 : 12:31:24 PM
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There were no 250's or C graders in the International Challenge. From what I gather those that crashed & were injured were all competent riders.
As I understand, it seems that Craig Ditchburn had a problem with his rear wheel cush drive which triggered the mellee. He clobbered Phil Davenport who ran into Steve Maney. I'm not sure now whether it was Maney or Ditchburn's bike that ended in front of Rod Price but I gather it was Maney's tank that caught fire.
So how are Steve, Phil & Craig? Rod has a broken femur and a severely damaged TZ350. |
“Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.” Steve McQueen |
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GD66
Senior Member
Western Australia
390 Posts |
Posted - 07 Feb 2010 : 6:39:13 PM
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quote:
Are you telling me that the International Challenge is essentially a C Grade race?
Yeah, that's right Alan, 19,200 people over three days came to watch a C-grade comp. Have you completely lost it, man ? What is your agenda when you insist upon continually diverting the thrust of any given thread to trumpet your outmoded, narrowminded views ? I challenge you yet again, to get off your clacker and get along and get involved in the fabulous classic meetings that run all year long, all round the country. Perhaps then, and only then, will you realise that while you sit at home and dream of what should have happened in 1973, we're all out there having the time of our lives, making friends and having a ball bashing round Australia's best circuits on classic race bikes of all persuasions, bench racing with buddies from all round the world, and leaving to go home to our humdrum, daily lives with a full memory bank of fun and memories to look back on. FFS, lighten up, man !! |
Edited by - GD66 on 07 Feb 2010 6:41:59 PM |
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Palookaville
Level 1 Member
UK
4 Posts |
Posted - 08 Feb 2010 : 8:45:17 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by glen20
Then you will remember that the bike to have in those days was a 250 or 350cc Yamaha. You got about 4 times as many rides as someone with a bike over that size. I've got life membership of C grade from that time, and it was always 'the charge of the light brigade'. Are you telling me that the International Challenge is essentially a C Grade race?
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Palookaville
Level 1 Member
UK
4 Posts |
Posted - 08 Feb 2010 : 8:48:39 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by glen20
Then you will remember that the bike to have in those days was a 250 or 350cc Yamaha. You got about 4 times as many rides as someone with a bike over that size. I've got life membership of C grade from that time, and it was always 'the charge of the light brigade'. Are you telling me that the International Challenge is essentially a C Grade race?
Mate, I dont know what the 'Internaional Challenge' is....merely recounting my recollections from back then. Maybe things were different in Victoria? |
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GD66
Senior Member
Western Australia
390 Posts |
Posted - 09 Feb 2010 : 7:24:13 PM
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| P'ville, the International Challenge is for Forgotten Era bikes (1973 to '82 cutoff) representing Australia, NZ and the UK, and has run for a number of years at the Island Classic with great interest and enjoyment. Results are at the computime.com.au website, for this and previous years. |
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GD66
Senior Member
Western Australia
390 Posts |
Posted - 20 Feb 2010 : 2:10:57 PM
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I've had an email back from Steve Maney this morning,he flew back to the UK on Feb 16th, couldn't travel before then because of his punctured and collapsed lung.
Other injuries he listed as 6 broken ribs, broken leg, and a broken clavicle, which had bone grafted from his thigh to assist in repair....a major stack, by any measure.
But he's opening the workshop on Monday, Feb 22nd and will be in for a few hours each day getting things up and running again.
As an aside, the kiwi Rod Price has indicated on another site that he's back at work, making light of the broken femur he received in the same unfortunate bingle. They're hard lads...  |
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john
Forum Moderator
Victoria
3130 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2010 : 2:14:40 PM
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| Should get them on the sidecars sounds like we could use blokes like them! |
John Daley Sidecar #68
' there are those who do, those who dont do and those who undo. We must lampoon the latter." |
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