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This is your old friend
Ferodo
Vaselini
™ signing on my
regular racing Line.
This is a little article I wrote in 2002 and explains how I got the name
Ferodo
Vaselini
™
I had an invite from German sidecar driver Helmut Ludemann, to firstly visit the
BMW motorcycle plant in Berlin and then to ride in the 1st German Bike Toberfest
at a brand new circuit called the Eurospeedway Lausitzring in former DDR 132km
from Berlin.
The BMW visit was organized to show appreciation to Herr Meir the works mgr, who
unfortunately had terminal cancer. One feels very humble when the guest list
includes 8 times and 5 times world motorcycle champions receptively, Phil Read &
Jim Redman.
Wingnut & I bought over the Hales Honda and the Trekdean G50 Seeley. Mike Braid
came with bikes from his collection, The Peter Williams (who’s leathers I still
ride with and worked next to at Norton’s in the design office) Monocoque, The
Lancefield (1st 100 mph single cylinder lap of TT IOM) Manx Norton and the
Monard. In his van he also brought, Readi’s 850 Magni MV four and a 500 Gilera
four, belonging to Peter Jones!
We assembled all these bikes plus Helmut’s 1960’s 500 BMW Rennsport kneeler
outfit which he finished 4th in the world championships on, in a special area in
the factory. In between visits to different parts of the factory, we started
them up one at a time, all on open mega’s, which brought all the surrounding
workers running. The highlight being a Buffet of roast suckling pig and very
very good quality German beer.
Then on to Lausitzring, kindly organized by Allan Robinson, which is, a
fantastic state of the art complex built around an American tri-ring oval. We
used the 4km infield track, which uses two straights of the oval (is it
meee!)connected by a series of various types of corners, set on downward sweeps
and inclines.
Over a mix up W/N and I were without a hotel, but very kindly, Jim Redman asked
us to share his suit (it is surprising who you have to sleep with to get on in
this life) at the impressive “Landhaus” just outside the circuit, which was
really only for the star’s like Jim, Phil & Ago etc, but one just had to put up
with it !!.
One enduring feature of the weekend was the enthusiastic fans, every one of us
was asked for autographs. This become a standing joke between Jim and myself,
especially after one session. W/N, Jim, Phil and myself were standing talking in
the marquee, where all the classic’s were stored and I could see out of the
corner of my eye, a fan with program and pen in hand approaching to my side.
Naturally I moved aside and Jim moved to sign, but to our great surprise and
great hilarity after, the fan said, “No he wanted my signature”! Which I signed
Ferodo
Vaselini
™ . Jim asked somewhat
tongue in cheek after we wiped the tears from our eyes " How many world
championships did you win Al” which brought us to our knees again.
My nickname
Ferodo
Vaselini
™ came from an idea
by Mike Braid (as I was know as previously known as slippery Al, for my habit of
slipping off from a drinks session to talk to the local females) and cast in
stone by Jim Redman.
Jim told the guard at the gate, as we were coming back from the hotel and only
had 2 tickets for the three of us. “Don’t you know who this is?, (pointing at
me) its ex world champion
Ferodo
Vaselini
™ ”, the guard saluted
and shouted Ja Wohl and waved us through!!! What he must have thought of seeing
three grown men convulsed with laughter draped over the dashboard as we drove
through, can only be left to the imagination.
The new tarmac was somewhat slippy in the damp and subsequently wet practice
sessions and it was tippy toe time around the glistening corners. But being as
we all were learning the way round it did not matter.
I rode Tony Hales Drixton 350 Honda (which W/N and I built up in Manx practice
week and subsequently he came 3rd on!) in the first session and I must say it
steers and sounds and stops like a Grand Prix bike. The main straight is between
the towering grand stand and the pit garages and the noise of that Honda flat
out at 12000 RPM and then coming down the box for the second gear left-hander,
is sex on wheels. Our new mission statement for the bike is “Hales Honda Howls”!
I must say to line up on the grid, along side the classic world champions on
their MV’s, Gilera’s etc and get deafened in the process, is an experience one
only dreams about and will stay in my memory forever. Unfortunately I had clutch
slip on the 500 Seeley. But it did not stop me enjoying a good long dice with
Ron Chandler. We even passed Jim ( I gave him the one finger behind my back as I
passed) on a 350 Honda 4, but it was a converted road bike. As when I followed
Jim, you can see the pedigree in their racing lines and style.
This is old slippery, taking the chequered flag until next Line.
Ferodo
Vaselini
™
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