2009 Les Deiner Series
This annual series to remember Les has been running since 1995 and since I had been lucky enough to win it for the last six consecutive years (seven overall) I felt the interest in the series was waning.
Originally it was for pre 1958 machines of any capacity, but the little 7R seemed to be difficult to beat as the series consisted over three or four meeting over the year and hence consistency was critical.
To revitalise the series, we proposed a new competition between the Historic Register and Atujara. The concept was for any period of historic machine and each club would select three riders for the day with their final class finishing position in two races over the day scoring points towards the final club score. In addition, the rider would score additional points for their age and the machine age. Three meeting for the year were selected.
While this sounds cumbersome, with the assistance of a simple spreadsheet made the task relatively simple. The idea was to reward the older riders and older machines with bonus points, which we felt was in line with Les’ outlook of enjoyment and promotion of the sport.
The final round was at Mount Gambier over the New Year period and while Atujara went into this event one point behind Historics, we were finally beaten by 35 points.
Overall, the series proved quite successful (although we lost) as Atujara had seven riders with eight machines competing, and Historics had 6 riders with seven machines. We had to try and select the riders and machines most likely to gain high placings in their classes on the day.
Now the perpetual trophy will go to Historics for the next twelve months so that we can lament and hopefully regain the trophy for 2010.
The spreadsheet shows the riders and their appropriate scores. Thanks to all of the Atujara riders that scored the points for the Club, and hopefully we can achieve a few more points towards next year’s score. Not only did the Club riders assist in scoring points, but they helped keep Les’ name alive – well done.
Richard Metcalf
Download the spreadsheet – 2009 Les Diener Points Score