Motorcycle racing
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TWELVE months after nearly losing his life in a racing accident, historic sidecar racer Brian Williams got "back on the horse" and he couldn't be happier.
With the support of his wife Evelyn and a tight-knit group of Leeton Motorcycle Club members, Williams competed at the Australian Historic Road Racing Titles at Eastern Creek on November 17 and 18.
Williams suffered serious facial, chest and spinal injuries in 2011 when the bike he was riding with sidecar swinger Paul Newman left the Baskerville Raceway track and flipped.
It happened just a week after the 2011 Australian historic titles in Tasmania, at which the pair finished second in the period 4 (1962-73) class.
Williams said just one year later he had covered nearly all his goals.
"One of my primary goals was getting back and racing," he said. "Then attend the next Australian titles, ride in all the championship races, all practice and qualifying, all the other support races at the meeting that I could, and not get lapped.
"I covered them all, but I did manage to get lapped."
After successive second places at the titles in 2010 and 2011, there was no expectation in 2012.
"This year we finished fourth in the title and I'm more than happy with that," Williams said.
"Very few people held any hope I would get on the bike again. I had the easy job. I just had to make a decision to get back on.
"These guys had the hard job. They had to rebuild the bike from what was a pile of scrap fibreglass."
Williams is now classified as a T6 paraplegic, with spinal damage up to the sixth vertebrae
After the accident he had titanium rods inserted into his back and now he can walk about 50 metres, but uses a walker and sticks.
The impact of the accident shattered his helmet, but it retained its integrity. Despite that, Williams ended up with a broken eye socket, jaw, cheek and nose, and all his ribs, and both lungs were deflated.
While a broken collarbone and left shoulder was the least of his concern, it turned out to greatly hinder Williams' rehabilitation because the knitting bones affected the nerves in his arm and he still hasn't got full strength back in his hand.
While the team had to work through issues of how to get Williams on and off the bike, Newman said the first meeting back was a breeze.
"It was a good weekend and it all went according to plan," he said.
"There is a just a bit of fine tuning to make it easier for Brian."
Another Leeton rider, Joe Valenzisi, was also at the titles, riding a Yamaha RD 350LC in the 1973 to 1982 class.
"I did better than I thought," Velenzisi said.
"In the 350 championships there are a lot of TZs, which are virtually a production racing bike.
"I ended up getting 11th overall in a field of 26."
He also finished third in the LC (liquid cooled) class.
"On the Friday it rained and it hadn't rained for a while (which makes the track even slipperier)," Valenzisi said.
"We were slipping and sliding.
"It was good to race in the nationals like that, you could really compare your skills against others."
Williams has nothing but admiration for his wife Evelyn who did not leave his side since the day of the accident.
"Evelyn has been terrific," he said. "I can't imagine I would have got to this point without her.
"She spent nine months living out of a suitcase. She is just amazing, I'm pretty lucky."
The next race on the agenda for Williams, Newman, Valenzisi and their team is the Phillip Island Classic from January 25 to 27, the third biggest motorcycle event in the country behind the MotoGP and Superbike World Series round.
They will work on the bike set up, which will be ongoing for the next 12 months.
Even with the will to ride again, the final decision on whether Williams would get back into racing leathers and onto the track came down to governing body, Motorcycling Australia.
"The powers that be allowed me to get my racing licence back," he said. "Because they are a historic bike, we got an exemption on technology (to help change gears).
"They came to the party, I couldn't ask any more of them. Hopefully it is all go from here."