Electric City, 2010 Memorial Cup

After the rain out last weekend, I returned to Electric City to race the Memorial Cup on Sunday. Despite some threatening overcast, and some really tedious and unexplained waiting around, we got to race the full program.

I signed up for Vintage Light and the 50+ class instead of my normal Senior B class, at Hugh Mackie's suggestion, because at least a couple of the 50+ guys would be on vintage iron. So there was Hugh on his 750 Triumph, another guy on a 750 Yamaha, two guys on Honda CRF450's and a guy on a Rotax of unknown displacement.
In the heat race the Rotax lead the way, followed by the two Honda's, me and the two twins. I got around one of the Honda's early on, to take 3rd and we finished that way.
Once again I discovered during the heat race that my brake was mostly ornamental. Upon closer inspection I thought maybe I could tighten the pivot arm a little more, so I did that and re-adjusted the rod.

The Vintage heat had 3 "cheater" Honda's in it, plus another SR500 and a nice '78 YZ400. I refer to the cheater Honda's because they didn't exist before 1974, which was the original cutoff year for Vintage. And they always seem to show up in Champion frames, which hardly seems fair. Well it turns out that the AMA changed the cutoff year to '79, and they allow twin shock racing frames even if they were built last week, so the cheater Honda's are legal now.

So anyway, two of the Honda's are being ridden by experts, one by a nice fast kid, and they all beat me in the heat race. In fact both the experts jumped the start and were sent back to the penalty line, and they still beat me into turn one, but I was having some trouble keeping the front wheel down, which slowed me a bit. I finished the heat in 4th place.

As we lined up for the 50+ feature, the two Honda 450's stalled and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't get those bikes to fire again. That left the Rotax, the two twins and me. I gave chase to the Rotax and kept him honest for a lap or so, then he started to gap me and we finished that way, he got the better of me but I was happy with 2nd.

I had one of my worst starts in years in the Vintage feature. I was the last bike off the line and in my ham fisted attempts to catch up, the front wheel kept coming off the ground so I had to back off. This was not looking good considering I only had 6 laps to make my case. One thing in my favor for a podium finish was that the nice young kid on one of the Honda's didn't make it to the feature because of mechanical problems, but I still had to pass the SR500 and the YZ400 to get a 3rd. I got the SR coming out of T2 on the first lap, but the YZ was a little tougher. It took me a lap to catch up to him, then I followed him around for a few laps, looking for a good chance. He was fairly consistent, I had a better corner entry speed than him but I didn't want to do a slide job on him so I decided to work on a better corner exit, get inside and take his line away. He gave me the opportunity coming out of T4 on the
white flag lap, he just got on the gas a little too hard and opened up a nice hole for me to slip into and that was all I needed.

So I finished the day with a couple trophies, which kind of made up for the interminable waiting around. Hugh had a great day too, with a well earned 3rd place in Vintage Heavy after a race long battle with a Yamaha 750.

Here's Hugh setting up the bike.


The 6th Street Specials racing crew.

Sporty

This is Jeremy Patrisi's 883. It's for sale I think. Sweet ride.

My newest favorite thing

Just got this photo in the mail. Completely unexpected and unsolicited. Big thanks to Leon Stanley, who obviously has a story to tell regarding the acquisition of this signed and dedicated photo!



And, thanks Gary, I appreciate it!

Winchendon Aug 21

The Winchendon series went off great this past Saturday. A pretty good turnout of NEMM riders mixed with a decent NEDTS crowd made for some great racing. For most of the NEMM riders it was their first chance at a dirt oval, and it was definitely the first TT for us.

We started the night with the oval racing. There were two heats for the XR100 cup, I was in the first heat with Aaron, Jeremy and an NEDTS a racer. It was a great race with Jeremy getting a jump on me at the start, and Aaron right behind me. I was able to keep the pressure on 'til Jeremy made a little mistake going deep in T3 and letting me by. Aaron was all over me but couldn't figure out how to get by, if the race had gone much longer he might have got me.
For the feature I had an OK start but I didn't have the power that some of the NEDTS had, so I got gapped pretty quickly. I don't even know where I finished, but it was a fun race with plenty of laps.

Scott was racing in the Knobby class on a borrowed XR100 (very graciously offered by the Hildebrant's), so I couldn't race him on the oval, but he did have a good race and got lots of seat time.

Once the oval racing was completed, they turned us loose on the TT course. 4 laps of practice, then immediatly line up for your heat race. I did sign up to race the Knobby class TT, as well as the XR100 Cup, so I'd have a chance to race Scott.
We had a blast, the TT course is so much fun on the small bikes. I don't think it would be as much fun on a big 450, more like work, but with the XR100 it's just so manageable that you can relax and just go for it without worrying about the consequences.

Scott had me covered in the heat and the feature, but I had a great time watching him battle for the top spot against another couple XR100s and little Bobby Bettencourt, riding a Pitster Pro with 14" knobbies on it. Scott wound up getting a 3rd place, which was well earned after a race long battle.
I stalled the bike in the race, couldn't get it restarted but luckily I had a spare plug at the truck, so I was able to change plugs and coax it to start for the XR100 Cup feature.

That feature was great, I had a decent start and managed to keep up with the front runners through the infield. It's so cool when you're following a pack of guys hitting the jump and setting up the left turn back onto the oval. It's a great visual. Anyway, after a few laps I settled into 3rd behind Aaron and was thinking I'd be really happy to finish that way, then he pulled off as we came out of T2 and I inherited 2nd place, so needless to say I was even happier to fininsh 2nd!

This is the XR100 Cup Oval heat race, the first two bikes are NEDTS racers, then it's Jeremy, me and Aaron fighting for 3rd place.


Here's a little bit of Scott's heat race on the Oval, before the camara batteries died.

The Grand Slam

I'm sure most of you are aware of it...the AMA Grand Slam...entails winning a National level Road Race, Mile, Half Mile, Short Track, and TT race. There are only a few (4?) racers over the years that have done it.
Well, I certainly can't expect to do it at this stage in my life, so I'm setting my goals just slightly lower. Specifically, I'd be satisfied to enter and compete in most of the sanctioned disciplines listed, and add a few that aren't.

I've already covered;
Short Track (Technically, an oval track shorter than a 1/2 mile, typically, a 1/4 mile)
Half Mile

That's it so far, but I'm excited about adding another event this weekend, TT. I've had the opportunity to do it in the past, but didn't have the right bike with me, so I suggested that NEMM and NEDTS run a joint effort at Pete's track in Winchendon, and they agreed.
I'll be racing the XR100.

I've got a secret plan in the works to get the Road Race event done, more on that later...

As far as events I'd like to add to the list, well I've already done some;
SuperMotard
Enduro
Hare Scramble
Ice Race

So the rest sort of becomes a "bucket list";
Drag Race
Land Speed Run
Trials
Motocross

I'll pass on Hill Climb, those guys are crazy.

'76 Bonneville

Well the day finally came for me to roll out the Bonneville. I started getting it ready for the street last year, then got distracted with other bikes. This year I swore I'd get it on the road. Fresh Battery, new rear master cylinder, air filters, and most importantly, new CDI Ignition with some help from Seamus.





Took it for ride this afternoon, with Hannah riding the borrowed Sportster.
Yay.

Oakland Valley Raceway Park

I can't believe I only took one photo. Here it is.



So I'm hoping that I'll get some other photos/vids to supplement this, 'cause this was a great day, except for the fact that we got rained out after the heat races.

The track is a 1/5 mile packed dirt oval, slightly banked, and it's the smoothest dirt track I've ever been on. No Rocks. No bumps. Fast as hell.

Anyway, Scott and I got to race together for the first time in quite awhile, and now we're on pretty evenly matched bikes, since they're both XT500's. His needs a few things sorted before it will be perfectly even with mine, but it's pretty close right now. In fact once it is sorted out I'll have a much harder time keeping up. Can't wait.

We did manage to get the heat races in before the rain. I was in the first Vintage heat race, and ran away with it. Scott was in the second heat race, which was a little more stacked, and he got a 3rd place after a good pass about halfway through.

We were paired up in the Open Am heat race, and we had a pretty good race. I came off the line in 3rd behind a couple modern 450's, Scott had a bad start and was a little ways back in 4th. I caught the guy in second place, but I couldn't get around him. I tried a few times, but he just seemed to pull me on the straights. Scott caught us with a lap to go and we finished in that order, I got a 3rd, he got 4th.

Hope somebody else took some photos that I can use...