Ice-Hacks!
ICE-HACKS!
RACE WATCH
120 horsepower in a skating rink
IT WAS A CONTRADICTION OF logic. During intermission, Scott Ormiston and Rob Walker pushed their Kawasaki KZ 1000-powered sidecar onto the ice at the Tucson Convention Center arena for a few exhibition laps. The 120-horsepower rig looked as out of place on the ice as a cowboy in sneakers.
Of course, the crowd, including hootin’ and hollerin’ cowboys, as well as motorcycle fans, loved the performance. Watching a pair of wild-and-crazy speedway riders wrestle a 400pound, three-wheel motorcycle around an ice arena that measured less than 120 yards in circumference was about as exhilarating as poking a mad bull in the snout and living to tell about it.
“The main problem,” said Ormiston, who got to steer the beast, “is not to wheelie. And this thing likes to wheelie. The big problem about wheelieing,” he explained, “is that when it comes down, it’ll first spit the swingman off, then go into a wobble and spit me off, too.” The “swingman” Ormiston referred to was his passenger, Rob Walker, a.k.a. “Cowboy Rob.” And Ormiston knew all too well what it was like to be a swingman. His introduction to speedway hacks was with one of New Zealand’s ace drivers, Rob
Jennings. Ormiston’s father, Bud, who built the KZ-powered rig, summed up Jennings’ attitude towards passengers: “He treats a swingman like parts.” While Bud spiced his remark with a grin, he meant every word of it. A sidecar pilot’s only concern is powering to the next corner, no matter what it takes. Even if that means spitting a swingman or two along the way.
Bud Ormiston got hooked on sidecars in 1988 when he saw Jennings and a few other Down Under riders racing in America. "I built this rig in the autumn of `88," he boasted. An electrical troubleshooter by trade, the el der Ormiston fabricated the frame from mild-steel tubing. The engine, which belongs to fellow Coloradan Bill Litt, is a mildly modified 1978 KZ I 000 sporting high-dome pistons, some port work, 26mm Mikuni carburetors (a Hilborn injector unit is used for the dirt), and usu ally running on a mixture of methanol fuel.
Even though the rig was just putting on an exhibition, the Tucson fans loved it. As one cowboy, after watching Walker hanging on for dear life, put it, “Why, that must be tougher than riding a stud bull who hasn’t had a cow in a week.”
Dain Gingerelli
