Team Thompson Racing

🏁 WHAT A WEEKEND AT THE INAUGURAL LA FEMME MOTORCYCLE FESTIVAL! 🏁

Team Thompson Racing hit the road from Brisbane on Friday, 11 September 2026, and headed south to MX Central / Ranch MX in NSW for the inaugural 2026 La Femme Motorcycle Festival, hosted by Motorcycling NSW and Motorcycling Australia.

After pulling in at around 12:30am on Saturday, 12 September, it was a short turnaround before arriving at the track around 7am to unload, set up our display and get ready for a massive day.

Adam, Adrianna, Holly and Jett Thompson were all there representing Team Thompson Racing, with Adam and Adrianna helping with coaching throughout the day and Holly taking part as one of the festival participants.

Across the day we worked through around nine different coaching groups, covering riders of different ages, experience levels and disciplines. It was fantastic to see so many people getting involved and learning more about safe motorcycle riding and racing.

Holly had the opportunity to work through the festival activities herself, covering everything from flags and track roles through to braking, jumps and bike control.

And of course, we brought the sidecars along! 🏍️💨

We had hoped to demonstrate three different outfits.

🤍 Our white 2007 methanol-injected Speedway sidecar was first out and gave us some great practice and demonstration laps.

🏁 We then brought out our dirt track sidecar, but after experiencing a technical issue on the first lap we made the call to bring it straight back in. There was no point taking unnecessary risks.

🔥 We were also ready to debut our brand-new 2016 ZX-10 Speedway sidecar… right up until we discovered its key was still back in the van! 😂 With the demonstration window running out, that one unfortunately stayed parked for the day.

So for our final demonstration we fired the trusty white Speedway outfit back up, with Adrianna jumping into the chair, and headed back onto the track for another run.

Not everything went exactly to plan, but that’s motorsport!

More importantly, we had an awesome day meeting riders, families, coaches and officials, sharing some knowledge and introducing plenty of people to Speedway and Speedway sidecars.

A huge thank you to Motorcycling NSW, Motorcycling Australia, the organisers, officials, volunteers, coaches and everyone who took part for inviting us down and making us feel so welcome.

We hope everyone who stopped by the Team Thompson Racing display or watched the demonstrations came away knowing a little more about our incredible branch of motorcycle racing.

We certainly enjoyed being part of it.

Now it’s time to get the bikes home, sort out that dirt tracker… and make sure we pack the ZX-10 key next time. 😂🔑

🏁 Team Thompson Racing

🏁 ROAD TRIP TO NSW THIS WEEKEND! 🏁

We’re taking a short break from building and orders this weekend because Team Thompson Racing is heading south to Ranch MX in NSW for the La Femme Women in Motorsport event! 🙌

Saturday is all about supporting and growing women and girls in motorcycle sport, and we’re stoked to be heading down to be part of it.

We’ll be helping with coaching throughout the day, our daughter Holly will also be participating, and we’re bringing a pretty serious collection of sidecars with us for everyone to check out. 🔥

We’ll have:

🏁 Two Senior Speedway Sidecars
🏆 Little Weapon — our Junior Speedway Sidecar with THREE Australian titles behind it
🔥 Our Dirt Track Sidecar

And of course, we’ll also be getting some of them out on track.

Adrianna will be back in her usual spot as passenger, and we’ll be doing a couple of Speedway and Dirt Track Sidecar demonstrations during the day — currently looking like one around lunchtime and another around 3pm.

For us, this weekend is about much more than just doing a few laps.

It’s about supporting women in motorsport, introducing more people to Speedway, Dirt Track and Sidecar Racing, and helping get more riders, passengers, families and supporters involved in the sport.

And being able to bring Sidecars back into the Maitland / Newcastle region and put them in front of a whole new crowd makes it even better.

So if you’re anywhere around Newcastle, Maitland or the Hunter region this Saturday:

👉 Come down and say hello
📸 Grab some photos with the bikes and sidecars
🏁 Check out the demonstrations
📱 Share your photos and videos across Facebook and Instagram
👊 Bring your mates and family along

We want to get as many people down there as possible and make some noise for women in motorsport, Speedway, Dirt Track and Sidecar Racing.

We’ll leave Brisbane Friday, arrive late Friday night, spend the full day at the event Saturday, then turn around and head home Sunday.

A massive weekend — but exactly the sort of weekend we want to be part of.

Let’s pack the place out. Let’s grow the sport. And let’s show everyone what Sidecar Racing is all about! 🏁🔥

PLEASE SHARE THIS AROUND!

🔧🏁 NEXT CUSTOMER BIKE ON THE BENCH — 2012 SUZUKI RM-Z250! 🏁🔧

This RM-Z250 has come in for an inspection after the customer reported little to no compression after fitting new piston rings. 👀

We’ve worked through the usual checks so far:

✅ Top end pulled down and inspected
✅ Piston installation checked
✅ New piston rings fitted
✅ New top-end gasket installed
✅ General assembly checked over

We’re now narrowing it down to a couple of areas.

First is the cylinder head and valves — making sure everything is seating and sealing correctly. The customer has advised that another mechanic has already checked the head and believes everything is OK.

Our next check is to get an internal bore gauge into the cylinder and confirm the bore size, taper and out-of-round are all within specification.

The customer has also advised that this has previously been checked and was within spec.

So… what do you reckon? 🤔

If the piston, rings, bore and valves all supposedly check out, where would you look next?

💬 Ring orientation or end gap?
💬 Valve timing?
💬 Auto-decompression system?
💬 Valve clearances?
💬 Head or cylinder sealing?
💬 Something else?

👇 Drop your thoughts in the comments!

We’ll keep working through it and post an update once we find the actual cause. 🔧🔥

And if you need work done on your own bike, send us a DM! 📩

We can help with mechanical repairs, diagnostics, race engine work, custom race bike builds, wiring, fabrication and race preparation.

🏁 Team Thompson Racing