The historic class is one of four championship categories run by the club.

After building a mid-1980s water-cooled, two-stroke twin Yamaha that son Jim campaigned toward the end of last season, his other son, Ben, requested a similar mount.

Abey's job was made more difficult by the fact that was was unable to source a complete machine to prepare.

``A club member offered me a frame and wheels and I said I'd take them if he could track down a motor for me,'' he said.

``We spoke to a bloke from Victoria who was here for the Australian Historic Road Racing championships in November and he said he had a bottom end - we'd already managed to track down some barrels which we re-bored.''

But with only a couple of weeks until the start of the season, Abey is becoming resigned to the fact that only one of his racers will be on the starting grid.

Ben has laid claim to the yet-to-be completed bike, not because his brother has already ridden the other, but because its cylinders needed to be bored out to the second over-size to clean them up.

``That makes the motor a few cubic-centimetres bigger than Jim's and Jim's a better rider, so I need all the help I can get,'' Ben said.