The heavens were kind to participants and visitors of the 2010 Italian Festa at Wentworth Point in Sydney on Sunday with sunny skies lighting up the bodywork of the Ducati, Aprilia and Moto Guzzi bikes on show. There were a few other beauties of by-gone eras sporting brand names which will evoke plenty of emotion for those who know of their place in history.

The day started with a frenetic pace with marquees and stalls opening up all along the piazza. The Ducati Owners Club of NSW were quick to set up shop with an impressive marquee and plenty of members helping out. The DOC of NSW ‘owned the fountain’ with 851, 999, ST4, Monster, Hypermotard examples on show and filled any nearby space with 1098, 1198, Multistrada and Streetfighters.

Keen to talk to anyone about their passion the Ducati folk were extremely approachable and a great example of the effect one club can have on a community, let alone the motorcycling community (are you hearing this ‘big four’?).

Not to be outdone, Aprilia were represented in force thanks to BikeBiz. A solid showing, plenty of models from the range were there including the brilliant RSV4 Factory and RSV4 R which garnered a substantial amount of interest, particularly when BikeBiz marketing manager Cameron started one with an Akropovic exhaust for an impromptu ’sound off’ with the live entertainment playing at the time. Other friendly BikeBiz staff like Dags were on-hand to answer any and every question thrown their way and provide interested parties with brochures and flyers.

Almost providing as much interest as the large capacity RSVs were the Aprilia learner legal bikes, Pegaso Trail 650 and RS 125. Every time a teenager looked at the RS 125 you could see their eyes light up, with a collective groan from nearby parents no doubt aware that a fire had been lit.

It was a delight to see retailers providing support for not only the large motorshows but the smaller local events like the Italian Festa, proving some stores really are involved in the motorcycling community and not just out to make a quick buck.

A number of other bikes were on display from Moto Guzzi to Laverda to Tony’s lovingly restored Aer Macchi. No Italian Festa would be complete without a line up of Vespas though and sure enough we were treated to great line up at Wentworth Point.

It wasn’t just bikes that made the day a success as plenty of cars lined the piazza. Tiny Fiat 500s and crazy Abarths made everyone smile while the gorgeous Maserati Spyder and De Tomaso Panteras pulled plenty of crowds.

A great selection of specialty Italian food, wine and treats kept hunger at bay while kids got to go nuts in the play field nearby. There were a number of other events on throughout the day catering for all ages but for Dailybike.com it was all about the bikes. Keep it in your diary for next year because this event is growing!

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Proudly supported by:

The Waterfront: www.thewaterfront.com.au

The Waterfront Bocce Club: www.thewaterfrontbocce.net/

BikeBiz: www.bikebiz.com.au

Ducati Owners Club NSW: www.docnsw.org.au/

Concerto Restaurant: www.concertorestaurant.com.au/

Cucina Viscontini: www.cucinaviscontini.com.au/

Classic Italian Motorcycle Association of Australia: www.cimaa.asn.au/

Italian Made Social Motoring Club: http://imsmc.blogspot.com/

Ferrari Owners Club: www.fca.org.au/

Fiat Club of NSW: www.fiatclub.com.au/

Alfa Romeo Owners Club of NSW: www.alfaclubnsw.org.au/

The Scooter Community: www.scootercommunity.com.au/

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The farewell race at Sydney’s Oran Park, the Bel-Ray 6-Hour, served up endurance racing delights in spades to everyone who braved the all-day-long hellish heat and the wind which picked up in the afternoon.

If, as they say, anything can happen in racing, in endurance racing it usually does. Pitstops bring competitors passed many laps ago back like zombies. Even crashes don’t guarantee someone will stay out of the way, and after a racer has pulled in and climbed off the bike, it’s only to rest, not to call it a day.

Because of the pitstops, crash repairs and safety car periods constantly shuffling and compressing the field, endurance racing makes for great watching. Someone’s always putting the pass on someone, there’s always a seven-bike freight train somewhere on the track, and because there’s hours and hours of non-stop racing on the menu, there’s no real need to hold off on going to the bog or the snack car – they’ll still be racing when you come back.

Saturday’s qualifying performance, and the resumes of the riders and teams, put outright victory – and the none-too-shabby $10,000 winners’ purse – within reasonable reach of five teams: the pole-getters from team Big Kahuna Racing on the #63 black 2009 R1, Demolition Plus on the #36 Fireblade built by Geoff Winzer, Dean Evans’ Revolution team on the Rob Halcroft-built #1 R1, race organiser James Spence’s own The 6-Hour team on the #6 R1, and Team Green 2 with their #96 ZX-10R.

Clocking up 277 laps completed by the fall of the chequered flag, it was Demolition Plus’ crew of Russell Holland, Craig Coxhell and Gareth Jones which triumphed with a convincing three-lap margin over Big Kahuna Racing’s Grant Hay, Zac Davies and Dan Stauffer, who managed the race’s fastest lap, a 1:10:994. A further three laps back, The 6-Hour team’s trio of James Spence, Warwick Nowland and David Johnson outdistanced the Revolution team pairing of the Cudlin brothers, Damian and Alex, by just over 36 seconds.

Fifth was taken by a Kawasaki ZX-10R, but by the #10 bike of Team Green, with Mark Hatch, Jason Kain and Rod Taplin aboard, not the #96 machine of Jamie Aitken, Michael McMillan and Murray Clark. They finished just a lap outside top ten after, Murray Clark, the senior rider in the team, lowsided exiting the downhill turn 7. 20 minutes were lost getting the bike back to the pits and repaired. Team manager Paul Aitken was philosophical about the result, confident that, if not for the crash, the team’s strategy of hour-long stints would have brought them victory against the competition’s 45-minute stints. Team Green’s fifth place, however, was achieved on a 1000cc production bike, rather than a more – albeit slightly more – modified Superstock machine. They beat home an even 10 1000cc Superstock teams.

Dailybike.com reader Craig Williams will use any excuse to go for a ride, even commuting to work through Australia’s worst traffic, searing heat, pouring rain, or perhaps all three at once. It’s not however, the most challenging aspect of riding to work, as Craig explains, that’s left for the barrage of pot holes, loose gravel and metal grates…

For most people the 6 am alarm on a Monday morning is the painful beginning of another five grinding days at work. It also signifies the unavoidable commute in peak hour traffic or on overcrowded unreliable public transport. Like most, for me this alarm awakens the senses from their deep recess of the weekend. But unlike most, I look forward to the commute in peak hour traffic.

Whether you’re a weekend rider or a daily commuter, the many joys of riding a motorcycle include the sense of being free of the shackles that hold back the flow of traffic. You pick your line through the maze of metal like surfing down the line of a wave or carving down the powdered slopes of a mountain. The greater the gridlock, the faster you can slide your way through. A red light ahead is an invitation to step up to the front of the line and when you arrive, there is usually a fellow rider waiting for a chat. For the daily motorcycle commuter, peak hour traffic transforms from an unavoidable mind wreck into another excuse to go for a ride.

“But for those of us who can, riding a motorcycle to work would have to be the best option”

I can halve the time it takes me to commute by car from Sydney’s Northern Beaches to the CBD by riding in each day. This doesn’t mean I need to take risks, break laws or even use aggression. I can do this by riding in a safe and responsible manner. It was a similar time saving when I lived in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne and commuted to the CBD. It’s hard to understand why more people don’t join the fast lane.

There have been several initiatives in most states to encourage people to arrive at their daily grind in ways other than in their private car. Understandably it’s just not practical for a lot of people to search out an alternative. But for those of us who can, riding a motorcycle to work would have to be the best option.

But it’s not without its drawbacks: we don’t mind the forty degree days in summer, the chilling mornings in winter or even the unexpected downpours throughout the year. These are all part of the joys of motorcycling. What takes away the joy and creates challenge is the poor quality of the roads. Having had the ‘luxury’ of being a regular on Melbourne’s roads, I’m still constantly astounded by the quality of Sydney’s roads;  they make some third world donkey trails look like Phillip Island.

While it’s unreasonable for us to expect our corridors to the city to be comparable to the pristine tarmac of a race track, the bone jarring maze of surface patchwork interrupted by pothole after pothole makes the trip to work about as relaxing as racing a MotoGP bike on a motocross track. I don’t get upset by small imperfections in the roads surface, what I’m referring to are basketball-sized holes that I’m surprised one of our riding friends hasn’t tumbled straight into, never to be seen again.

Half-arsed attempts to fix the imperfections more often than not exacerbate the problem; when a pot hole appears, instead of replacing the section of the road to ensure a permanent solution, they just throw some dirt and tar into the ditch and pat it down. After the first downpour, the hole reappears and is surrounded by loose gravel so when you suddenly brake or swerve to miss the new crater, you have the added challenge of finding grip.