Classic bike collector Chris Wilson invited me to partner Maria Costello on his Offenstadt Kawasaki 1000 in the Bikers Classic 4 Hr endurance race at the Belgium race circuit Spa.

The event is a massive Classic meeting in the calendar with many GP stars from the past. The likes of Gacamo Agostini, Will Hartog, Luigi Treveri, Kork Ballington and loads of other icons from the past.

I didn't really have to think about it for very long - Spa is one of my very favourite tracks in the world.

I would have ridden a skateboard round there given the chance!

We arrived Thursday evening and found our way to the paddock. We had been allocated a garage for the 4hr at the top of the paddock in the F1 garages; Chris was down in the original garages with all his classic racing machines. A selection,  a NSR250 & 500, KR500 &750, RS1000 Honda and more... Chris tempted me with the offer of a shot on his Works Kawasaki KR750 in some of the parade events - the sort of stuff dreams are made of!

I had not seen or even heard of the Offenstadt name before and looked forward to ridding the machine. However when I walked into the garage and looked over it for the first time I knew we had our work cut out.
Paul Boulton had been commissioned to refurbish the machine from the ground up but as the meeting approached he was getting tight for time to finish it. Maria and Aria Lane had run it round Mallory the day before, and reported it to be 'OK'.....I had my doubts.
The chassis was originally made for a Yamaha TZ 250/350 in the mid 70's and although the engine was of the same era it didn't fit quite right in the chassis. The main issue was the chain run and the lack of ground clearance.

The Friday practice day was held in perfect conditions, once the bike had gone through scrutineering we had our first chance to see what was going to be our biggest problem.
I love Spa and it has some of the fastest sweeping bends on any track anywhere but on my first lap I knew it was going to be very difficult to go quickly round many of them due to the ground clearance issues.
The fairing and exhaust ground badly on right handers and on left corners the alternator would touch down and being made of alloy it would not take too many scrapes before it would wear through. Next problem was the chain run was cutting through the swinging arm and because of the positioning of the engine we had to have so much slack in the chain it was jumping the sprocket under acceleration........interesting Eh!

We had several sessions including a night session to iron out our problems and we certainly needed them, as the day drew on we made slow progress. Curing one problem only to create another.
In the end we decided to go with the best set up we could. Paul and I worked out that the first race on Saturday was a two and a half hour affair with the second race on Sunday being a one and a half hour race.
It was clear the bike would struggle at best to complete the first race alone let alone the whole four hour combined race
With Maria and my times averaged, we had qualified in 32nd place so the strategy was to run for ten or so laps and then pit to see how things were going then make a decision as to whether or not to continue.
Maria said she would like to start the first leg and for me to take the flag. Waking up on Saturday morning it was forecast rain later in the day, I love the rain but with the bike being a little 'challenging' Maria declared that she would prefer for me to start - no worries there then!

 The start of the race was set for 19:30 hours and would run into the evening to create a spectacle with the bike running with their lights on, but this late start gave us chance to have a run round on some of Chris' other Classic Works machinery.
After a check up with Nigel Everet who looks after Chris' bikes we agreed I could take a few laps on the Works Kawasaki KR750.
I have dreamed about riding something like this and was now about to become a reality.
Down in the classic garages it was surreal, walking out of his garage into the pit lane and rubbing shoulders with icons of the motorcycle racing world was just fantastic.
The crowds were huge, thousands of people filed past gathering autographs, posters, stickers and talking to their heroes and I was actually the other side of the red rope!
Great!
The KR750 sounded superb. Cracking out the most amazing sound from its three un silenced expansion chambers.

Nigel handed it over to me and pushed me down the pit lane and out on to the track.
I was nervous to say the least but you never say no to an opportunity like this, the bike didn't disappoint and blasted down the back straight like a rocket.
Unfortunately it didn't last wrong as it went onto 2 cylinders approaching the end of the first lap but what the hell - it was so good while it lasted.

A lunch of Belgium waffles and strong coffee then more laps on another one of Chris' bike his favourite Hadleigh Honda 750, totally un silenced,  four into four pipes did sound like Mike Hailwood's 500 four screaming down the start /finish straight - the sound will live with me forever!

By now the weather was closing in and an hour before the 4 hour race started it started to rain only like it can in Spa.
Maria was not so suited and asked me to start as she thought I might prefer the awful conditions.
The atmosphere was fantastic and after two warm up laps I ran across the track to start the first leg.
The spray and sound of the bikes was amazing as we funned down through Eau Rouge for the first time and up the hill on to the back straight, I got off the line quite well but had no idea where I was as there was so much spray.

Finishing lap one I was in sixth place and making progress, on the second lap I passed Stephan Mertens down the long back straight and gave him a wave as we are good mates.
Lap two I was up to third place but still had no idea where I was in the race, however our strategy was to pull in after 10 laps or so but the chain was jumping the sprocket quite badly so after only 6 laps I pitted to see if we could do anything to help it.

It was clear there was nothing we could do so we fiddled around adjusting the chain and looking for a small electrical misfire which turned out to be the battery box was filling up with water!

This was easy enough to fix with several 6mm drill holes in the bottom of the battery box.

Unfortunately we had to sit out most of the rest of the race until the last few laps when Maria jumped on board to take the flag and make sure we had a finish.

Sunday started off very nice however by lunch time the rain had returned and as our race was 15:30 it was obviously going to be wet again, Maria had a little more confidence now and agreed to start.

As the race was only one and a half hours long we decided to have a go at doing the whole race and see when and if the bike would finish.

Maria started and rode really well as the conditions were very poor at best.

We had agreed to pit at around 10 laps which would be about half way through the second leg, so 10 laps and she pitted saying the bike was not too bad....

"We'll see" I thought.
Chain lubed up, tank of fuel and oil checked so off I bumbled out of the pit lane for my stint.

It had stopped raining but was still very wet and just to make it interesting there was loads of oil all round the track making it extremely dodgy to say the least.

We ended our race in 12th place in the second leg and 51st overall. The placing was unimportant for the team it was about competing, getting a finish and team building.

Chris was over the moon and is now talking of building a new machine based on one of his Honda RS1000!

Works KR 750 Onboard

Hadleigh Honda 750 Onboard

errrr, Mr. Ballington - I'm a huge fan...

errr, Mr. Edwards, I'm a huge fan....