OVRP July 14

First race of the season for me. I can't remember when it's been this late in the summer for my first race, but there it is. I did go down to the old WVRC track to test out the bike a few weeks ago, and I should've posted an entry about that, but I never got around to it.

It was a hot day...temps in the high 80's or higher in the sun.

The turnout for this race was kinda low, but fortunately the Vintage class was pretty well represented with 8 entries, and the 50+ class had 6 or 7 bikes. Bill and I entered those classes, Scott was in Vintage with us and he also entered the Sportsman class on my bike. He hadn't raced my bike in a while, and we were curious about which bike he'd be faster on.

The heat races went pretty well, I got paired up with Scott in the Vintage heat. I thought I had a decent start, but he had a better one and got the holeshot. I tried to stay on him but he didn't make any mistakes that I could capitalize on, so we finished in that order. The 50+ heat went about the same except the winner was some dude on a modern Kawasaki 450.

Scott went out for the Sportsman heat and slotted into 3rd place coming out of turn 2 behind Nick Wiemer on his Rotax, and a guy on a Honda CRF450. He was chased hard by a modern KTM 450 for the rest of the race, but he held on to take 3rd place.

They didn't post the lap times for the heat races, so it was hard to know whether Scott was faster on my bike than his. He felt (and I agreed) that mine has more power than his, but it's a much harsher delivery from closed throttle, so it takes some technique to get a smooth exit from the turns onto the straights, whereas his bike is smoother, but doesn't have the same punch. They're both geared the same, for what that's worth.

We got to the features pretty quickly. Vintage started out kind of fun with Jamison Minor taking the holeshot, but Scott right on him, and I was a few lengths back. We ran a couple laps before Scott and Jamison pulled a gap from me. I didn't look behind, 'cause I never do, but I had a pretty good gap behind me to Pete Wooten on his very nice Triumph 500, followed by Bill on the RD350 and the rest. Jamison and Scott were coming up on traffic as they had 2 laps to go, Scott was pretty sure he might've been able to set up a pass, when Jamison pulled off into the infield with a mechanical failure. That put Scott on the top of the box, with me on the second step of the podium, Pete with a well earned 3rd and Bill taking an also well earned 4th.

The 50+ feature was only a few races away, with the Sportsman race immediately after, so I stayed in the leathers despite the oppressive heat. The race was a repeat of the heat race, dude on the Kawi checked out on me, I checked out on Pete, and he maintained a gap on Bill. Two second places in a row for me.

Then I handed off the bike to Scott for the Sportsman feature, and stumbled up to the bleachers to watch his race. While the bike had been running ok for me, he had a misfire right off the start. It became clear that there was something wrong, he couldn't maintain the speed he'd had before, so it was just a matter of finishing the race without getting in anyone's way. Too bad, because I think he could've been in the mix if the bike had been running well.

We had the best spot in the pits by the shade trees.

Scott got to ride Bill's RD350 in practice.

Vintage feature race.

Bill leading a vintage HD panhead?

On the other hand...

I was probably a little harsh on the track photographers in my previous post. It's easy to overlook the fact that they see their job as being able to provide an action photo of everyone that races on a given day. The more photo's they take, the better their chances of selling some. It can be a daunting task, with lot's of variables, and I can see why some of 'em become a little detached and mercenary about it. Hmmm, that sounded harsh too.

But then when someone comes along that has the skills, and is clearly fascinated by the whole dirttrack racing scene, and isn't in it for the money, you get a much different view.

This is the work of Joan Cuenco, a friend and colleague of Scott's who lives in the city. I don't know the whole back story about how she found out about Oakland Valley, but she came out for a race, and was obviously struck by what she saw. I'll let the photo's speak for themselves. This is all done on film, by the way, not digital.

These are just some of the photos that I picked out, mostly from self interest because it's me and my family, but she has lot's more on her blog.
Go to http://joancuenco.com/flat-track-moto to check out more of her work.
Joan very kindly gave me permission to use these, and I would hope that anybody who visit's her blog would respect her work and contact her before reproducing anything.

Cuddebackville, AKA OVRP

We had another pretty great Sunday of racing at Oakland Valley Raceway yesterday.
Hannah came down with me to race the XR100, Scott came up with Hugh from 6th Street Specials.
It was a smaller turnout this time, but the racing was still great.

Scott raced in the Vintage Sportsman class, and this time was out gunned by the other guys. His rear tire is absolutely shot, and in this class you need to have good equipment.

The groove was pretty narrow, and obviously hard to stay on.

Hannah had a good feature race, despite problems with the bike during practice and the heat race. She ran out of gas in the heat race even though there was plenty of gas sloshing around in the tank. Then I remembered that we'd had similar issues before, and always raced with the petcock in the "reserve" position. Problem solved.

She took an easy win in class!

I had a rather poor showing. The best I could do in the Vintage Heavy class was a distant 4th behind Scott. I figured I'd have a better shot at a trophy in the 50+ class, but I had a weak heat race and had to start on the second row. I had a decent start from there and worked past a few riders in the first lap to settle into 3rd. Then I got a little impatient and tried to sneak under the 2nd place rider coming out of T4, but I ran out of room.

The track crew had put cones on the track racing surface in an effort to get us up higher on the track, and the cones in T3 and T4 were spaced kind of awkwardly, they almost made a short straight out of what has been a nice flowing line, turning it into a two apex turn. I wasn't thrilled with it, but I guess everybody else had to deal with it too.

Anyway, on about the 4th lap, coming out of T4, my front wheel hit the rear wheel of the guy in front of me. He had finished the turn a little earlier than I could, and I got catapulted off the bike in a pretty vicious high side crash. It took me a little while to recover from that, and I took a ride off the track in a golf kart, feeling embarrassed and beat to crap as well. It took me a good 15 minutes before I had the energy to look at the damage to the bike, and I was disheartened to see broken and bent spokes, a crushed exhaust pipe and mangled hanger.

A bad way to end the season for me, but maybe an opportunity to make it a better race bike for next season.

Oakland Valley Raceway 6-10-12

Sunday June 10th was the rescheduled 1st race of the Vintage Series at OVRP. Hannah and I drove down and met Scott (and his GF Kira) at the track. This would be Hannah's 2nd race on the XR100, and Scott and I would be entering the Vintage Heavy and Vintage Sportsman classes. One nice thing about the Vintage Series is there were no Quads racing, so the program moves along a lot quicker.

As we expected, the Vintage Heavy class was pretty well attended with 15 bikes, requiring 3 heats to establish the starting positions for the feature. Scott went out in the first heat, had a poor start but finished 2nd, which inexplicably put him on the 2nd row for the feature. I was in the third heat and also had a lousy start and finished 2nd, but they put me on the front row for the feature.

The Sportsman class was only 5 bikes, a couple experts on air-cooled Honda's, an amateur on a Rotax, and Me and Scott on Yamaha XT500's. The heat race was a lot of fun, we all got off the line pretty well and I had a great view of a tight race for positions since I was last. I think Scott got a 3rd.

Re-start of the Sportsman heat race. Andy jumped the start and got sent back to the penalty line. It's always interesting to have the fastest guy behind you, knowing he'll be knifing through the pack like a falcon through a flock of pigeons.




Hannah's heat race was good seat time for her, the two other bikes were riden by a couple fast guys and she was pretty much out there on her own, but still trying hard every lap.




Our Vintage Heavy feature was a blast. The same two experts from the Sportsman class, Andy Karodontes and Nick Weimer got the lead, Scott was in 4th behind Fumi Matsueda on a Triumph twin and I was in 5th coming out of T2. It was a 12 lap race and I was able to defend my position from the Rotax behind me, and we gapped everyone else pretty well. Fumi pulled out after a few laps with bike troubles, so Scott and I moved up a position, finishing 3rd and 4th. I was happy with that result.

Hannah's feature was a 12 lap repeat of the heat race, but she was working the bike a lot harder. I had changed the gearing for this track and she wound up getting the most out of that engine. A great effort.

Our Sportsman feature was the last of the day for us and it was another great race. Andy jumped into the lead, but Scott and I both had great starts with him in 2nd and me in 3rd coming out of T2. I was able to hold that position from Nick for almost half the race while Scott tried to stay with Andy. Once Nick got around me he was able to catch up to Scott and make the pass for 2nd. I held on to 4th for a few more laps but the Rotax finally got around me coming out of T4 with a couple laps to go. I was just hanging on at that point, no fight left in me, but it was a ball.

1st lap of the Sportsman feature.




We walked the track after the racing was done, the groove looked and felt like pavement. Love this track.



You can check out the GoPro vids on my youtube channel, 39xt500