Norton Owners Club NSW

Steve Cutting passing Laurie Fyffe for the lead at turn 10

Steve Cutting at speed around Corporate Hill

Steve Cutting passing a number of riders on his way to 4th place in the second of his races

Col ridding the Carey Velocette at Corporate Hill on his fastest and last lap

The following is an abridged version of Colin's account of the 2008 Barry Sheene Memorial Meeting

Unapproachable Seeley Norton

I had spent the months preceding the meeting by extending the seat length on the Seeley by 70mm, to accommodate normal sized riders, re-painting and re-upholstering in the process. I replaced the batteries, disc pads, fork oil, brake fluid, the fairing screen and the front tyre, and I had previously dyno tuned the bike again in January, to ensure the carburetor modifications were OK. I spent Thursday finishing off the bikes and loading them up, with my rollers and all my spares and bits, ready to meet up with Geoff and Gronk early on Friday morning for a day of testing and practice.

Steve Cutting, proprietor of Motorcycle Weaponry at Mona Vale in Sydney, had agreed to ride the Seeley in the new 750 Post Classic class, whilst I had dusted off the Velo for a run, after a break of nearly two years. But Steve was not doing Fridays private practice.

We unloaded the bikes, set up the garage and I took the Seeley out first. The bike started easily and I went out for 5 or 6 laps, mainly to bed in the new brake pads and check that the bike was running properly. It soon appeared that all was not right, with the motor running very roughly at low revs only to then accelerate like fury right up to max revs. We re-fuelled the Seeley and took it out again. After a few more laps the bike stopped and I was transported back to the pits. We found that the oil was contaminated with so much methanol that when we drained the sump and oil tank we found twice as much oil/methanol as should have been there! Geoff and I agreed to change the float bowl needle and seat valves back to the original ones, so I took the Seeley home on Friday night, drained the sump and oil tank again and charged up the batteries. I arrived at the track at 7.00 on Saturday and re-filled the oil and fuel tanks. We fitted the old float bowl ‘needle and seat valves’ and started the Seeley only to find that the fuelling problems had not improved. The oil was contaminated again so we drained the sump and oil tank one more time. After Roger had noticed fuel pouring out of the needle jets when we started the bike, Geoff and I agreed that we had to revert to more of the jetting that had been fitted previously, so we put the old needle jets back in and managed to get the motor running properly at last, without spraying puddles of fuel out of the exhaust pipes. After all of this stuffing around Steve took the Seeley out for qualifying. Unfortunately the new batteries then failed again and he had to pull in. This meant that he did not set a qualifying time and had to start his first race from the back of the grid. His first race was shortened, however. After flying through the field, Steve was up to 5th place before he pulled into the pits on lap 4.

We checked and soon found that my replacement battery was no good, with only 10.5 volts. Kevin, Gronk and myself had agreed late on Friday to bring a ‘normal’ battery each on Saturday to be fitted if needed. The bike seemed to be working well apart from the loss of battery power and some mysterious clicking sounds from the valve gear when we turned the engine over by hand. It was decided that we should press on regardless of the noises, as the bike was finally running well. Geoff had clocked Steve with a time of 1.55 seconds on lap 3, which was very encouraging. We removed my replacement battery, fitted Kevin’s near new heavy duty one and put it on the charger, ready for the next two races on Sunday.

Steve started his second race from 16th position on the grid, with a super start rapidly taking him through the field again. After some epic overtaking manoeuvres Steve ended up finishing a stunning 4th, with a new 750 Post Classic record lap time of 1.51.5 for the Seeley Norton.

The next outing was the final leg 3 of the Post Classic races. Steve was starting from position 4 on the grid, on the inside of the front row. He made a fantastic start to almost pass Glen Kelleher for second going into turn 1. He held 3rd for another 2 laps when he made a very close pass on Glen going into turn 4. As they both accelerated out of the turn Glen had an enormous slide and the whole crowd on the pit row roof took a big gasp as he was flung out of the seat, being very lucky to stay on board. Steve then pressed on to catch up to Laurie Fyffe on the unlimited 1000cc (1300cc ?) Honda. After another lap Steve was right on his tail and after nearly passing him at turn 2 he finally managed to overtake Laurie entering turn 10 and move into the lead. I nearly collapsed on the pit row roof! My astonishment was short lived however as Laurie Fyffe promptly re-passed Steve with a 100metre long wheelie out of turn 10 down the back straight to re-take the lead. On the final lap Steve told me that he was holding the Seeley flat out in 5th gear through turn 1 at just on 8000rpm. I figure that his speed going into turn 1 would have been in the order of 140 miles per hour. The bike was drifting both wheels right up to the ripple strip on the exit to turn 1 as Steve caught up to Laurie once again. The Seeley then lost one cylinder at turn 11 and Steve just managed to coast down on to the straight. He looked as though he was about to pull into the pits but instead continued coasting down the straight to take 2nd place by 2 seconds. Steve had in the process lowered the 750 Post Classic lap record to 1.49.5, which is an outstanding milestone for all concerned.

This capped off one roller coaster of a weekend for me. As much as I would have liked to race the Seeley on the weekend, I am absolutely over the moon about the results. I have worked for many years to get the Seeley competitive and now Steve Cutting has opened up a new horizon of possibilities for me and my unapproachable Seeley Norton. Repairs are already underway, along with a few changes suggested by Steve to further improve the bike, and I am looking forward enormously to the next outing. Finally I must once again give my heart felt thanks to Geoff, Gronk and Kevin for their support and assistance over the weekend. I could not have had the successful weekend that I had without them.

Colin