Malta Dirt Track

These pics are from Malta New York a few years ago. I went down there thinking this was a half mile track, it isn't. I think it's a 1/4 mile around the inside. Fast and rough, I broke my ankle in the first practice but since it was a long drive down there I decided to race through the pain.
I ran the XT in whatever Vintage class they had, and the CRF450 in some senior class.
They were both fast classes and I never got the final results because I was in too much pain to stick around and wait for the promotors (Electric City) to tally results.
I'm sorry I can't remember the photographer to give him credit, I found these on the web much later. I do remember this race, bad start and picking my way through the back of the pack on the XT500.
The Senior race was a blur, really fast and hairy.

Wish I knew whether I got past #611!

Me, racing

I find it very difficult to take pictures of myself while I'm racing. This is an old problem, shared by many racers. Often, family members can help, but sometimes not.
So in these situations it's nice to have a track/event photographer around. Some are better than others, and I've never felt particularly compelled to support the ones that can't seem to frame a photo, or pay attention to the background, or who lack imagination and simply click away at a thousandth of a sec. and lay out their "product" for sale at the next race. To quote a recent TV ad that cracks me up with the grammar while being very succinct, "buy 'em or don't".

Well with that intro, here are a few pictures that I did in fact choose to buy. The selection was somewhat limited this year, since I only attended a few races, but at least there's some variety.

This was at the Stateline Harescramble. It looks like I have a mustache, it's a dirt mustache. Gross.

A different vantage point at the same Harescramble. Good thing the photographer was ready, 'cause I was really flying through this section. (Sarcasm). The #39 is on because I raced this bike in Supermoto in Maine earlier this summer. The Harescramble requires their own numbering system, which is why I have a hand written 4861 number on the front of the bike. That number is assigned to a transponder on my chest protector, and when I complete a lap and ride through the control station, I can see my progress (how far behind I am) on a digital display above the exit gate.

This is at Lebanon Valley Speedway. One of two times this season when I was ahead of Nick Wiemer for at least part of a lap. Inconsequential, since he was ahead when the checkered flag dropped, but still....

And finally, here I am at Electric City Riders, once again going so fast that the other guy doesn't get himself into the picture, just his front wheel and number plate. I'm going to look into a chest mount for my GoPro, so I don't look like a Teletubbie racing around.

Footnote in the FWIW category, my final official result in the Stateline Harescramble was 5th in class, not 7th as reported earlier.

XT500 seat

After 13 seasons of racing. Time to freshen it up.

Electric City Riders

Here are some photos from this past Sunday at Electric City Riders club. These folks have been running a short track series near Schenectady N.Y. (Electric City) for decades, although the track venue changed a few years ago from their original site near Rt.88 to a newer site. The old track was a pretty flat 1/4 mile dirt track that I really liked, the new track is a 3/8 mile flat track that is faster but a little rougher, so it's hard on the ol' vintage suspension.

We hung out with Hugh and Fumi since they pitted next to us. Unfortunately, even though this club has been doing this for decades, they can't seem to run the show on any sort of schedule, so we were doing a lot of hanging out.

Hugh has been building this Gold Star for a while now. It hasn't been 100% reliable, and this weekend he added a couple more items to the to-do list. It's a pretty bike though, and a rare one since BSA only sold around 200 of these frames.

I have no idea what we're talking about.

I raced in the Vintage Medium class again, got a 2nd in my heat race and a 3rd in the feature behind Nick Weimer and Aaron Richtmeyer.

I also raced in the 50+ class, which was populated with modern 450's and one Rotax. I had a decent heat race, maybe 3rd? In the feature I was running in third for a few laps until I crashed coming on the the front straight. They threw the red flag for me, so I was able to get up, get a push start and finish the race, but my handlebar had gotten pushed forward to a point that all I could really do was ride around.

The GoPro videos are posted on youtube on my channel, which is now just my name instead of 39XT500.

Jolly Roger Motorsports Park

Here's a photo from JRM, taken around '02 or '03 by Scott Rounds. This is probably an Open Expert heat race with #22u Mike Beland, #1 Roger Durkee, #26b Lowell Carson, and #9u David Bettencourt.

This kind of marks an end of an era when the open classes were dominated by Rotax engined "framers", with a few guys racing big air-cooled Hondas or Yamahas, and a few guys racing the brand new CRF450R's. In a relatively short period, maybe 3-5 years, the dominant bike on the front row became the CRF450R.

Mike had his own powersports shop in Mass before he moved to Florida, called A-1. He'd shown up on the flattrack scene coming from a background of drag racing motorcycles. He's tough to beat off the line, despite this photo showing otherwise.

Roger was the local expert to beat. A former National number holder, he showed a lot of younger riders the fast way around any short track, and didn't lose too often.

Lowell is an expert that raced more in NY Dictrict 3, but would still show up at NEDTS events occasionally.

Dave was another of the local experts to beat, and I believe he was also a former National number holder. He held a few NEDTS titles. Sadly, he was taken by Leukemia a few years ago.

Speaking of National numbers, the way you earn one is to qualify for an AMA National feature race. To do that you must first accumulate enough points racing as a Pro-Sport rider to be eligible to enter a National event. At most of the National shorttrack or 1/2 mile events during the 90's and early 00's a typical entry list would often run 60 to 80 or more competitors, all trying to get into the 18 rider main event, so needless to say the competition in heat races was fierce.

The Pro-Sport plates are white with red numbers. The letter next to the number designates the district that a racer comes from, "u" is the designation for New England, and I'm guessing "b" is the Eastern NY district.

I'll miss the framers, 'cause they look and sound so badass. They're still showing up and occasionally winning races at some of the local tracks, but they're long gone from the National scene.

This is another photo from the same roll (remember film?) later in the program. Dave Bettencourt about to go around the outside of another rider entering turn 1. I can't remember who #31 is, this may have been a night with a lot of New York/New England riders trying for a big purse. Love the roost!