Brno August 1984

This is a photo of Tony Rutter (in the middle) which I apparently 'photo bombed' (on the right) in the paddock at Brno for the Czech GP in 26 August, 1984.  We're both on Ducati TT2s.  I've lost track of who took the photo, but it was one of the thousands of East Germans who came to the event.

This is from the same event and I did keep track of who took this photo: H-P Gerschner

Tony Rutter

I just hear that Tony Rutter died at the age of 78 after a brief illness.  While I didn't really know him, I think we were seven races together.  The first race I ever did at the Isle of Man was the F-3 TT which was run concurrently with the F-2 and Tony won that on a TT2 Ducati, while I was 12 in the F-3 on a 350 Aermacchi after the chain fell off on the last lap in Ramsey and I spent a while getting in back on and restarting.  In '83, I ran the F-2 and F-1 TTs and Tony won the F-2 on a Ducati, while I was 12 in the F-2 on a Morwaki Kawasaki and DNFed on a 950 bevel drive Ducati in the F-1 race when the gearbox broke.
Again in '84, I ran the F-2 and F-1 races and Tony again won the F-2 race and was 3rd in the F-1 on Ducatis, while I was 22nd in the F-2 after a lengthly pit stop to repair the shift lever which I has grounded and bent back at Sarah's Cottage on the 2nd lap and was able to shift up to 5th gear on the Cronk-y-voddy straight, but then found that I couldn't down shift and completed the rest of the lap, including Ramsey Hairpin and Governors Bridge, in 5th gear.  I only got to the Gooseneck on the 1st lap of the F-1 TT, where a fitting on the oil cooler let go, spraying me in oil.  Later that day, I won the Senior Historic TT.
Later that year I raced at Villa Real, Portugal in the TT F-1 race and while I don't know for sure, I assume Tony was in the race.  I only made a couple of corners in that race before I got shunted into a haybale and broke off the shift lever riding a TT1 Ducati.  In August of that year, the Ulster GP at Dundrod and the Czech GP at Brno were back to back and I race the TT F-2 class at each of them.  Again, I don't have complete results, but I assume Tony was at Dundrod.  I had a good race and finished 6th.  The next weekend, I race in Brno, Czechoslovakia after traveling through the I.O.M, Paris, and Vienna.  I know Tony was there because I have a photo of the two of us on our Ducatis in the pits.  Again, I don't know where Tony finished, but I had another good race and ended up 7th in a race that was part wet through the 10.925 Km. street circuit with a reputed 400,000 spectators.

Tony won 4 TT F-2 World Championships, 7 IOM TTs and numerous North West 200s.  He was one of the truly great road racer and did well to make it to 78 years of age after almost dying in a huge crash at Monjuich Park in 1985.

Roebling Road 2020

For the second race of the season, I drove down to Roebling Road Raceway in Bloomingdale, Ga., with my CRTT and ERTT Sprints.  This would be the first run on the CRTT since I discovered that the crankcase was cracked after racing it at NJMP (and winning both 250GP races) Memorial Day weekend of last year.  I replaced the crankcase with '67 SS road bike cases, which had to be modified for the bigger diameter sleeve gear, bearing and seal on the transmission output.  Bill Himmelsbach did the shimming and assembly and when I took it to my secret test site, it fired right up and had no leaks or issues.

I arrived Fri. afternoon after driving through heavy snow in Va. and N.C. Thurs. night.  I got my pit setup and the bikes through scrutineering.  It got very cold that night and there was frost everywhere in the morning.  I took it very easy in practice, but gradually worked up a little speed.  The CRTT wasn't running correctly, hesitating and cutting out.  I wondered if it was running lean because of the cold dense air, so went to put in a larger main jet.  But, I found the main jet laying in the jet holder, so just screwed it back into the carb tightly.  The motor ran much better in the second practice.  The ERTT ran well and the gearing seemed perfect.

Alex McLean is on the pole for the 350GP race to my left out of the photo.  photo by Darleen Dremel

The 350GP race was my first, with 350 Sportsman gridded behind us.  I got a good start and went straight in the lead.  On the 2nd lap, Alex McLean drafted by me toward the end of the straight.  On the third lap, Kevin Dinsmoor came by the both of us on his Sportsman bike, but perhaps braked a little early into turn #1 and balked Alex a bit and I went under the both of them and back in the lead.  After a couple of laps, Alex drafted by me again near the end of the straight.  He seemed to have a little motor on me and I could stay in his draft, but couldn't pass him.  On the last lap, we came up on a backmarker going into Turn #4 and I got by him, but Alex didn't.  I was thinking that I had a shot at the win, as Alex had only drafted passed me well after the Start/finish line, but he was right on my tail and timed the draft perfectly and beat me by 0.034 seconds.  It was a very fun race.

I congratulate Alex McLean after a great race.  Darleen Dremel photo

The 250GP class was gridded in the second wave behind 500 Premiere, Formula 500, and 500 Sportsman.  Again, I got a good start and went straight into the lead.  I won the 250GP class by more than 30 seconds and passed 15 of 28 starters to finish 13th overall with the 12th fastest lap.  What I didn't realize was that my arch nemesis and good friend Jack Parker had crashed his DT1 Yamaha on the warmup lap.  Things would be different Sun.

I wait to start my CRTT before Saturday's race.  Darleen Dremel photo

While it was slightly warmer Sun. morning, there was still frost about when I arrived at the track.  I took the CRTT out in practice gingerly the first lap, but then tried to go too fast too soon and tucked the front end in turn #3 and tumbled for a while.  The knuckle on my left little finger, my left forearm, and left hip got minor abrasions, but nothing serious.  The bike wasn't too bad, but the clutch lever was broken, the tach cable broken, the transponder had got ripped off the bike (but was recovered) and the carb was full of dirt.  When I took the carb off, I saw that there was dirt down the port and the intake valve was slightly open with a grain of sand sitting on the valve seat.  So the cylinder head had to come off if I was going to race the bike.  Dick Miles started to help, then Erik Green happened by and sprung into action.  When we took the head off, the Helicoil for one of the exhaust bolt came out.  Then Al Hollingsworth came by and he had a Helicoil kit and went and fetched it.  Erik decided that the intake valve had to come out as it wasn't sealing.  I pulled out my valve spring compressor, lapping compound and suction stick.  But, AHRMA had accelerated the scheduled for Sun., and there were three races before lunch, the second being the 350GP.  I went off to race while the crew continued to work on the 250.  I got a good start, but Alex soon came by.   I went a little slower than Sat., and he slowly pulled away and won by over 5 seconds with me 2nd overall.

Putting the CRTT in gear to pull it back on compression.  Darleen Dremel photo

Fortunately, the 250GP was after lunch and we worked straight through.  At some point, Jim Jowers came over and told Erik that he had a flat tire on his sidecar and he went off to deal with that, as the sidecar race was immediately after the 250GP race, which was first after lunch.  For some reason, with the new Helicoil in the head, a longer bolt was needed and Al went off to find one.  When I turned the crank to get the piston at TDC, it lifted the cylinder off the crankcase and dirt fell down in the joint, so we had to pull the cylinder well up to clean and reseal it. 

Al Hollingsworth putting the head back on the motor.  Dave Hollingsworth photo.

We removed the tach cable, but the tach drive was still binding, so we removed that, too.  The front mudguard was cracked and rubbing on the tire, so when we pulled the bike down off the bench, Dick straightened the forks which were tweaked and the mudguard cleared.  We fired up the motor just as they were making 3rd call, and I rode straight down to pit road and onto the track without stopping.  I took a pretty tentative warmup lap and gave the motor a good look on the grid and didn't see any leaks.   Again, I launched straight into the lead, but on the 2nd lap Jack Parker drafted by.  But, I could draft by him if I got on his tail on the straight.  We went back and forth and I was leading when I took the white flag starting the last lap.

Leading Jack Parker at the white flag.  Dave Hollingsworth photo

I was getting a good draft behind Mark William's H1 Kawasaki when, near the end of the straight the motor lost power and I pulled in the clutch and coasted to a stop at turn #2.  It turned out that the sparkplug lead and fallen off, which is a lot better than a rod through the case.  And, I was still scored as 2nd even though I didn't finish the last lap.  I guess that Chris Spargo, the overall leader on his F-500 Yamaha had lapped everyone behind me, so I did my 7 laps before anyone else in the 250 class.  And, if the plug lead hadn't fallen off, neither Jack or I was sure who would have won.  So, it was an exciting, successful, fun weekend despite the crash in the middle.  Many thanks to Erik and Henry Green, Al Hollingsworth, Dan Levine, and Dick Miles.

Dick Miles imparts some wisdom to me.  Darleen Dremel photo

I tell Dr. Dan Levine how it is.  Darleen Dremel photo.

Laguna Seca 2020

I've raced at Laguna Seca on seven different occasions going back to 1982 (which was a shorter circuit then without the current turns #3, #4, and #5).  The last time I raced there was 1989.  The last time I rode there was 2008, when I did a Moto Giro based in Monterey and we got to do a lap of the circuit, me on my '53 250 Airone Sport (I crashed).
In Fri. practice, I was second out in my group and first out, Brian Larrabure, crashed on the pit out road before he even got on the circuit.  This freaked me out, as it didn't look like he was going fast, and I slowed way down.  I started gingerly on the circuit and when I got to turn #5, I saw the red flag.  So, I threw my hand up and putted slowing ahead.  Even at this pace, I blew the corkscrew, forgetting how tight it was and ended up on the rumble strip going down the right.  In hindsight, it was probably a good thing that I did my first lap of the circuit in almost 12 years under the red flag.  A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  But, everything went well for my four rounds of practice in beautiful weather.
I had entered 350GP and 'bumped-up' to 500 Premiere with my 350 Sprint.  I noticed in practice that my times were better than Andrew Mauk on Keith Leighty's 450 Honda, one of my competitors in 500 premiere, but I didn't put too much stock in that as it was Andrew's first time at Laguna.  The sunshine ended around 4:30p when the fog rolled in and the last two practice groups didn't get their last round of practice.
The fog was very slow to lift Sat., and there ended up being no practice and we went straight to racing after lunch.  My first race was the 500 Premiere.  We were in the second wave behind the first wave of Sound of Thunder 3 (which consists on SV650s and 750 Ducatis and such).  Behind us in the 2nd wave was Formula 500, and 500 Sportsman, with Lightweight Novice Production in the third wave, 42 entrants in total.  Brian Larrabure, on his Minovation Seeley G-50, now without a windscreen after his Fri. crash, and Andrew Mauk came by me almost immediately and gradually pulled away.  Mark Morrow on his two stroke Yamaha came by the three of us to win the F-500 class and Ari Henning, on his 350 Sportsman Honda, finished 0.001 seconds behind me to win his class.  I was 11th overall.
The 350GP followed after two races and we were gridded in front of 350 Sportsman in one wave.  I got the holeshot, but Ari Henning came by before we got to turn #2 and pulled away, but no other bikes challenged me.  I finished more than 16 seconds behind Ari, but more than 30 seconds ahead of my teammate Walt Fulton III, who was second in class, third overall.  My best lap was more than a second quicker than in the 500 race.
Sunday was sunny, but windy.  We did get one round of practice in and I just did two laps to make sure everything was alright and get my mind right.  But, all the 8 lap races were shortened to 6 laps as they had run out of time on Sat.  In the 500 Premiere, again I was first off the line and again Brian and Andrew came by me, but this time I was able to hang with them.  On the second lap, Brian was leading and I was second when he seemed to check up early in turn #6 and being right on top of him, I stuffed it inside him and there was light contact.  He immediately shot off the track, but it seemed he decided to rather than it was out of his control.  In subsequent laps, I saw him standing with his bike at the barrier on the outside of the turn.  Had I damaged his bike when we touched?  No time to think about that now as Andrew was all over me.  On the last lap, I was leading when Andrew stuffed inside of me in turn #6 and again there was light contact.  I lost my drive a bit and Andrew pulled ahead up through the Corkscrew.  There was traffic ahead and I was able to get ahead and win the race.  What I didn't realize was that one cylinder of Andrew's twin quit and that's why I got by him.  Brian's drive belt had broken, probably the result of his Fri. crash and getting gravel in it, and that's why he suddenly slowed.  Mark Morrow and Ari Henning didn't start the race.  Andrew's fastest lap was about 1/2 second faster than mine.
In Sunday's 350GP it was pretty much a repeat of Sat., with me getting the jump and Ari coming by early and pulling away.  I only finished 1.5 seconds behind Ari as he had a problem and slowed towards the end.
One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to spend time with Ari Henning and Zack Courts.  I raced with both of their dads in the '90s and they both grew up at the track.  Ari's dad Todd came to Laguna to see his son race and everyone was happy to see him.  Ari and Zack are best of friends and both superb racers.  Zack won Sound of Thunder 2 and Sound of Singles 1 riding a Kramer for the North American distributor.  Years ago, Ari got a job at Motorcyclist Magazine and  brought Zack there.  In addition to both writing for the magazine, they did very creative and funny videos.  They left Motorcyclist and went to Motor Trend when it started doing online videos.  Now that has ended, but they have plenty of projects in the works.  I was very flattered that Zack took the time to photograph me at various places around the circuit.

all photos by Zack Courts.

Skip’s ‘79 Daytona LW win

Larry Lawrence tells the story of Skip Aksland’s 1979 Daytona Lightweight win in a Cycle News Archive:
https://www.cyclenews.com/2019/11/article/archives-when-skip-beat-the-best/

Winningest TT riders

Back on 14 Dec., 2012, I posted on this blog about the winningest riders at the IOM TT, tracing the the title from Alec Bennett to Stanley Woods to Mike Hailwood to Joey Dunlop to John McGuiness. 
https://daveroperracing.blogspot.com/2012/12/when-writing-review-of-biography.html
I also commented on these and other rider's percentage of wins to starts and said that Hailwood lays claim to being the greatest TT rider having won 40% of the races he started.  I didn't check every rider's win percentage and there may be a rider who only raced once and won or even twice and won once, thereby eclipsing Hailwood's 40%, though I doubt it.  But, in anticipation of spending a few days with Giacomo Agostini at the Classic TT, where we're both riding Team Obsolete bikes in the Lap of Honour, I reviewed Ago's TT record.  Ago raced in 16 TTs over an eight year period and won 10 of them, a 62.5% win to start ratio.  Yes, Ago had superior equipment during this period, but it's still an incredibly win ratio.  In his first year at the IOM, 1965, he DNFed in the Senior TT, which his teammate Hailwood won, and Hailwood DNFed in the Junior TT, while Ago finished 3rd behind Redman and Read.  The next year, Ago started winning.  And while it may have been a relative cruise in some of his 10 wins, he averaged winning by almost 7min. in those 10 races.  He only raced in the Junior and Senior TTs and won both in '68, '69, '70, and '72.  He would probably be the first to say that Hailwood was the best, but Ago certainly ranks up with Woods, Dunlop and McGuiness.

Calabogie 2019

Calabogie is a fabulous race track about an hour west of Ottawa, Ontario Canada.  It's 3.136 miles long and has 20 turns, all of which seem to be blind, decreasing radius and off camber.  Well, thats a bit of an exaggeration as it does have a couple of high speed sweepers, but is probably the most challenging purpose built circuit that I know.  And, there's not a bump on it, which is amazing as I hear that they have winters up there.  The VRRA has been racing there for at least 4 years and this was my 3rd visit there.
I pre-entered my 350 ERTT H-D Sprint and my 250 CRTT H-D Sprint, but the next day, I discovered that the crankcase on the 250 were cracked.  I guess that's why is wasn't very oil tight and vibrated more than I remembered when I won two races with it at NJMP four weeks earlier.  So, I put the CRTT aside and put the motor in my 1946 Moto Guzzi Dondolino and took that instead.

How many two wheelers does one need at the races?  Clearly, four. though in the end I never started the TC 200 Suzuki.

I went up Fri. June 26th without having started the Guzzi, so when I got there, I wanted to start it right away before I committed to the entry.  The Dondolino has the oil tank on top of the fuel tank (where else would you put it?????).  I was talking to some friend as I gassed it up and then realize that I was putting the gas in the oil tank, which already had oil in it.  So, I had to drain it all out and put fresh oil in.  Having done that, it fired right up and I did a slow lap around the pits.
Sat. morning after getting the bikes teched, I went out in practice on the Dondo and immediately discovered that I couldn't shift it past 2nd gear.  My incompetent mechanic (me) had indexed the gearbox selector incorrectly and that all I had to do to fix it was take the engine out of the frame and totally disassemble it.  That wasn't going to happen this weekend in the pits, so I put the smallest rear sprocket I had on the rear and rode the 4 lap heat race in 2nd gear, which was still way too short.  The track is long enough and the race was short enough that I didn't get lapped.  It was a bit futile, but people enjoyed seeing and hearing it run and it did run fine and passed the hot tech coming off the track and now I'll be able to see how things are doing when I do take it apart.
I won the P1 350 heat, which was run in the second wave, with P1 200 behind us, and P1 Open in the first wave. finishing 4th overall by passing one of the P1 Open bikes.

This is probably coming out of the last turn, but it could be turn #1.  Bill Murphy photo

I decided there was no point in riding the Dondolino anymore so I changed my Pre 50 entry to P1 500 for Sunday.  The P1 350 final was first and again I won my class and was 4th overall.  All weekend I had a slight, intermittent, and random misfire, which actually seemed more like an ignition cut out.  This seemed a little worse Sun., and after the P1 350 race, I checked over the bike looking for a loose wire or something.  I cleaned the points and checked the gap, but never found a smoking gun.  The P1 500 race was right after lunch and when I went to start the bike, there was not a pop.  I quickly disconnected the kill button and tried again, but still not a pop.  Then, I put in a new sparkplug, grasping at straws, but still nothing,  by this time the race had started without me.  I clearly did something wrong, but it always could be worse.  Better than a rod through the case.

My old friend John Wilson worked on his outfit all weekend and still has more work to do.

Gary Macaw's Alan Taylor Special Velo in a Lyster frame.  Holly Varey raced this, but had trouble with the vibration.

Holly Varey also race Gary Macaw's 250 Ducati 

Vickie Fournier raced this 250 Suzuki with a 4LS front brake that I didn't recognize 

Vickie also race this 250 Can-Am that her husband built.  There seemed to be a high percentage of women racing at Calabogie, always good to see.

The Crussell's equipe with Lorraine's CB175 in the foreground and Daves Z1, Bighorn, and TZ750 behind. 

Roger McHardy's 500 Norton twin ridden by Paul Brubaker

Paul Breubaker's own Kawasaki 550 GPZ with an innovative frame, suspension and fuel tank.

Jamie Bosson's G11 Matchless...

a bike that's been in his family forever and which he's about to restore.