The Accidental Racer

Old codgers' day out. Me and Robbie Dobbie lining up at the Sportsman Nationals June 2026.
Robbie has been racing for 50 years. My first event was 1980, so 46 years (spectating since 1976). That's 96 years of racing experience between us.
I won't tell you how old we are as that wouldn't be ladylike but our combined age is 146.
And we are still racing competitively, both finishing with top ten championship positions over the last few years.

Old blokes rule.

Check out the commentary for some wild statistics!

Dave Grundy (me) and Robbie Dobbie

Thank you Santa Pod TV for your superb live coverage.

YouTube video

Finals time
Unfortunately don't include me... :-(

Here we are again.
Sportsman Nationals at Santa Pod for Round 3 of the ET Bike Champonship.
Weather looks good, fair old crosswind though!

10.40 is scheduled to be our first round. You can watch all the action on Santa Pod's TV channel on YouTube or Facebook.

I was sorting out some stuff in the garage today when I came across these two relics. 1980 was my first season of drag racing. Not sure where my 81 or later licences are - and you're definitely not seeing the 86 licence from when I tried rallying as I was trying to look far too cool and trendy on that one!

Must get my microphone fixed...

Hoghton Tower Motorcycle Sprint 2026 on a Speed Triple RX and Street Triple RS I usually enter 2 classes on Asbo (2017 Street 765RS), usually finishing top three in both Class 7 (British, European, American) and Class 12 (Modern Superbi...

On Sunday I ventured north to compete in the Hoghton Tower motorcycle sprint organised by Marshals North West. A fantastic event, friendly and professionally run, so a massive thank you to all the volunteers that put their time and effort into making the event such a pleasure to attend. Thanks also to Sir Bernard for letting us use his drive to play on.
Asbo, my Street Triple 765RS did its usual thing and ran faultlessly, posting a 7.4 second time (7.31 in practice!), good enough to take the win in the BEARs class. In previous years I have also entered Asbo in the Modern Superbike up to 1000cc class with similar success.
This year, however, I have a new toy to play with, Asbo Too, my Speed Triple 1200RX. Still yellow, only a few kilos heavier and an extra 50bhp to play with. "Should be fun" I told myself.
Fun it was not. Frustrating is the word I should have used. The computer said "NO" loudly and emphatically on every run. Even with everything down to a minimum it would not allow even a hint of wheelspin off the line and on one run even killing the engine as the TC kicked in. I wasn't yet brave enough to switch everthing off, as that also kills the wheelie control and as once it did start to grip it lofted the front wheel and it was still in the air as I crossed the finish line. Practice run 2 managed to run 7.88, but the first two competitve timed runs were disastrous. For the final run of the day, I decided to launch like the granddad that I am and then open it up once rolling. 50ft short of the finish line, I hit the limiter in second gear, the front came down and I coasted across the line.
No chance of winning the class, Steve Walton on his Gixxer 750 had that wrapped up with a 7.21 - fastest time of the day -but second place after the second runs was just over 8 seconds. Had I done enough? I wouldn't know until the prize giving as the final round times aren't usually published beforehand.
The times still aren't up - but whatever I ran, it was good enough for second place and a hard earned trophy. :-)