BREGANZANE-ICR HISTORY

Stage 3 - Breganzane-ICR 2003-present

After being sold to Steve Battisson in 2002, The Replica took a few years off - its outings being restricted to scaring the pants off its new owner at the occasional track day. Meanwhile, in late 2006 Chris Cutler saw the error of his ways and purchased the now-restored genuine SFC back from Melbourne.

In 2008 Steve and Chris ran the Replica at the Phillip Island Classic, ridden by Kiwi Kevin McDonald. With rider, bike, track and team all unfamiliar with one another it was an uphill battle, but in spite of the mid to lower order positions the team had a great time and the bike had some niggles ironed out early to run well and finish every race, ending up 21st outright in the International Challenge.

A couple of years passed while the racing had to once again take a back seat, but by mid 2010 Steve was ready for a return to the track. With some time to mull over the experience in 2008 and having assisted the OzLaverda team in 2010, he now had a clearer idea of what he wanted for his own race program.

Around this time, the genuine SFC had another change of ownership. After some years of "discussion" Steve finally purchased the machine from Chris after having minded it for him since its re-aquisition in 2006. As Chris had originally wanted, the two remarkable machines were back under the same ownership and their history could be collectively preserved and continued.

Late in 2010 Brisbane Laverda identity Ian Morrison happened to meet rider Drmsby Middleton at a local bike shop. Ian proposed Drmsby as guest co-rider to Blair Briggs on the OzLaverda Spaceframe in November's 1-hour endurance race. Steve was assisting the team in the pits and was immediately impressed, seeing in him a rider well suited to the SFC Replica. The two soon found they had a very similar approach and enthusiasm, and within a couple of weeks Steve approached Drmsby to ride the SFC.

With the enthusiastic support of Ian Morrison, the third phase in the history of the two SFC's was thus started in earnest. Craig Macleod joined the pit crew and, with continued encouragement from Chris Cutler in South Africa and Drmsby's input growing to be much broader than just his riding talents, a cohesive team unit began to emerge. The National-level 2011 Barry Sheene Festival of Speed became the target for an SFC resurgence, but our first objective was to get the new rider accustomed to the bike and see if we could approach the sort of lap times achieved by Ken a decade earlier.

Some further refinements were carried out for the Replica's return to the track and Drmsby immediately bonded with the bike. Any concerns we had about matching the bike's earlier pace were immediately put to rest. A shakedown meeting at the PCRA club championship in February confirmed the confidence, qualifying in pole position and scoring two outright race wins and a fastest lap - against bikes up to 1989 no less!

All the hard work came to fruition at the Barry Sheene Festival Of Speed, with Drmsby storming to victory in the Post-Classic class and setting the fastest class lap of the weekend. The 40 fastest pre-1982 bikes in qualifying were also invited to participate in the two-race Barry Sheene Feature. In race 1, Drmsby caught and passed the reigning Post-Classic champion Robert Young, finishing 6th outright in a class field. He backed that up with an 8th outright in race 2 for an overall result of 8th place outright and the highest-placed Post Classic machine.

Prepared and run by the ICR crew, the SFC Replica operated from within the OzLaverda pits in early 2011. Although this was a great spectacle it did tend to get a bit complicated, and it soon became apparent that maintaining seperate teams would better allow each to persue their own race program. In honour of both the past and the present, the new team name of Breganzane-ICR was adopted. The team would like to thank all of OzLaverda for the great times in 2011, and the enthusiasm and generosity of Ian Morrison in particular.

As this is written in late 2011 a new bike is under construction at Breganzane HQ. Keep an eye on the website for details, we hope to put on another good show at the Barry Sheene in 2012.