Bermuda's motorcyclists hope to put a disappointing year behind them, get their machines off their kickstands and tear up the track by the end of the year.

After being asked to leave their base at Clearwater last year, members of the Bermuda Motorcycle Racing Club have been forced to shut down their engines and wait and wait and wait . . .

Plans for a new track for all motorsports enthusiasts were unveiled by Government as far back as April, 2002, but the project is yet to come to full fruition.

"I can say that I'm hopeful that when the new season starts in September that they will be able to race on a new track," Sports Minister Randy Horton told The Royal Gazette in April of that year.

"We are not talking about a whole new stadium. Initially, it's going to be a track they can ride on. The plan is to have it right adjacent to where the track is now in Clearwater."

A total of $301,000 was set aside in this year's budget to get the site up and running and the first steps towards the construction of the complex, which is on airport property, were taken in April this year, with the Department of Airport Operations applying for planning permission to construct a wire fence around the area. The work was then scheduled to get underway in earnest this month.

"We have been promised September 1, so we have our fingers crossed," said club member Grant Goudge on whether the work would be completed in the near future. "I am confident it will get going but whether it will be by September 1 . . .

"We haven't seen any movement and we are already into mid-May."

He said up to now it had just been a case of "sitting and waiting".

"Since our season ended last May we haven't raced," he said. "We have had the machinery up and blocks and have been busy kicking our heels."

Goudge said he was grateful for what Government had done so far and said it was nice to have everything in "black and white".

"It's no longer a figment of the imagination, it's definitely happening," he said. "It's just that it can't come soon enough."

He said it had been hard to keep enthusiasm in the club going when its main purpose - racing - had ground to a halt.

"The club has shrunk because there has been no reason to be in it," Goudge said. "But we are going to start some fun rides, to build the interest back up. Once we have somewhere to go they will come back."

In another effort to bring the club back into the public eye, a special screening of members' trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia last year will be aired on VSB in June.

"We decided to put it on TV as a little reminder that we are still about," said Goudge.

A dozen riders took part in the Bermuda Motors Shubencadie 125cc Grand Prix at the Atlantic Motorsport Park.

Those who made the trek were the aforementioned Goudge, David Jones, Shannon Caisey, Josonne Smith, Patrick Groening, Billy Dunn, Ray Thompson, Darren Dowling, Ray Masters, Alex Dowling, Kyle Pimental and Dennis Wilson.

"Everybody finished in the top 20 out of a field of 36 and two finished in the top ten," said Goudge.