Well, I dunno about you, but it seemed to me that the 1998 TZR Tour finished rather abruptly, and left me wondering what to do next. This state of affairs was not to last long though, as it appears I've now talked myself into running the tour for 1999. Some of you I know, are leaving to join other classes (Phil - Off to 125s. Hope the diet goes well Phil). Some are joining other classes and keeping your TZRs (Scott - At least you'll have one bike to ride while the fire service are busy attending the other one). And others are throwing in the towel for competitive championship chasing (Daz. Thank Gawd. Now the rest of us will have a chance).

It does seem however, that there is plenty of new blood coming into the TZR class next year, and a few more familiar faces are making the jump from other classes to join us. With any luck most of these will still be standing at the end of the first encounter with Lingy. However, 1998 still has two things that need reporting on...

Carnage as TZR riders fail in London

The inaugural TZR Tour minimoto challenge took place in London, on 21st November at the first round of the all London minimoto championships. From the hallowed ranks of TZR fame came three riders... Representing the 'fast and aggressive' riders was Scott Allaway. From the 'smooth and consistent' corner came Ben Gilbert, and upholding the honour of the 'crap but having fun' brigade was yours truly. Daz Mowat and Nick Wiles were also due to take part, but due to mechanical failure, neither could actually make it on the day. As suspected, Scotty scorched round, and alternated between winning spectacularly, and falling off. At one point he even managed to crash out twice in one race after a bout of red mist seemed to remove his ability to close the throttle when approaching a corner, tyre wall, or unfortunate backmarker. However, the good finishes he had were enough to easily take a place in the semi-finals. Ben, on the other hand was using his ample momentum to glide round the course, in the same manner a rutting rhinocerous glides around the African plains. A series of consistent finishes in the top 3 secured his place in the semis. I wobbled round at the back, and scraped in to the semis by taking the 19th spot out of 20 qualifiers. The first semi saw Scott go head to head with Ben, neither of whom qualified for the grand final. It has to be said though, that Scotty was cheated out of his place by the incompetent organisers failing to notice that the rider awarded 2nd place was, in fact, sitting on his arse in the middle of the track. The third semi (?) saw me finish last, but take the award for most bizarre accident by falling off in a straight line, and quite spectacularly bending the minimoto to the point of unrideability. All in all a good time was had by everybody, and with any luck we'll be doing a few more before the new season starts.

Lord of Lydden end of season piss-up

This year's Lord of Lydden meeting was to be remembered for several reasons. Firstly, the weather. It was exactly the kind of weather that makes you want to give up racing bikes and take up something more comfortable and less dangerous. Like naked alligator wresting. However, TZR riders are a hardy (or clinically dense) bunch, and so a select group of us descended on Lydden with a view to watching a good race, getting drunk, and having a good barbie. The first part of this plan went as well as can be expected given the weather, with our very own Scott Allaway providing top entertainment for all by taking a dive at the elbow, then getting up and bowing to the assembled crowd. Fine style, but could have been finished off with another of his renowned on track barbies for full marks. As the racing finished, and the weather closed in, we all retreated to the relative comfort of Daz's palatial motorhome to begin the serious process of getting drunk. At one point there were 14 of us in there, comfortably surpassing the old record of 12 set at Pembrey back in April. Ben showed that his lack of race fitness had no bearing on his ability to drink loads, while Scotty took the 'most likely to get glowing reports from next years TZR Tour organiser' award by producing a large bottle of vodka. So that gives him a 50 point headstart for next year... The evening ended in complete moral disintegration, and a thumping hangover for me. (Phil, you really shouldn't have parked your van so close, and I hope you've given it a good wash).

So, until next year, I reckon that's about it. Hopefully we'll have some of this years faces back again. For next year the plans are roughly the same as this year was, with a couple of small surprises... Once I've got everything worked out I'll be sending out the application forms.