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Photo - The Lawrence brothers love their sidecar racing, their Thundercat engines, and rainy days!
It takes courage to come back from a near fatal crash. It also takes courage to take a knife to a gunfight. But that’s what makes Yamaha sidecar riders Chris and Richard Lawrence so special.
The Auckland brothers were amazed they had survived their high-speed crash at the annual Isle Of Man bike races in June 2003 but, able to salvage much of their wrecked Yamaha-powered rig, they set about rebuilding it.
Richard Lawrence, the 38-year-old “passenger” on the three-wheeled speed machine, suffered a punctured lung, two broken ribs, a broken collarbone and two broken arms in the Isle Of Man accident. But, 18 months after the big crash, the Lawrence brothers were fit and ready to race again, their treasured engine prised from the twisted metal and the rig totally rebuilt.
Richard puts his trust in his 40-year-old “driver” brother Chris and they also both have huge faith in the 600cc Yamaha Thundercat engine that powers their racing campaign.
They began racing in 1986, haven’t missed a year yet, have always been among the top three in New Zealand and all of this despite the fact they give up a huge horsepower advantage to their rivals.
“All you’re allowed on the Isle Of Man is a Formula Two size engine. It’s our first season back since the crash but we managed to set the fastest lap time at Pukekohe, still on the tyres we’d crashed on.”
At the annual Wanganui Cemetery Circuit race meeting on Boxing Day, the Lawrence brothers were again at a disadvantage on the “point-and-squirt” horsepower nature of the street racing circuit but they still managed 3-5-3 finishes to take the third step on the podium.
“Racing at Wanganui is all about hard braking and lots of horsepower out of the corners so we always knew we were going to struggle … unless it rained,” Richard said with a grin. …. “and then we’d win.”
“The engine we use is the model before the R6 came out. A worked one of these is about the same as a standard R6. The R6 engine doesn’t really work in a sidecar yet. The cases are too light and they twist. I’d dearly love Yamaha to give us an R1 so we could shoehorn that in. Then we’d have the horsepower to beat everyone.
“Hard to say if that would be the way to go though. We’ve got three of these Thundercat engines and they’re great. Why change a winning recipe?”
While the Lawrence brothers were bravely battling their way to third overall at Wanganui, the R1-powered sidecar of Australians Doug Chivas and Mitchell Cluff raced to runner-up spot and Masteron duo Brian Wyeth and Ian Mitchelmore settled for fifth overall, making it three Yamaha-powered outfits in the top five.
