Friday, August 19, 2011

Mosport, 2010 Turn #10 on my '70 H-D Sprint ERTT
Mosport, 2010, Turn #10 on Ken Rosevere's Geoff Monty replica 500 Goldstar
Mosport, 2010
Mosport, 2010 pit lane
Mosport, 2010
Mosport, 14 Aug., 1994, on my Velocette Thruxton
Daytona, 1991, me chatting with a relaxed Yvon Duhamel, while John Cronshaw stresses.
Mosport, 1989, Coming to the grid on the Team Obsolete BSA triple next to Paul McMillian on Tom Faulds CR 750 Honda.Mosport, 1989 on the T/O BSA Triple going inside Fergus Warwick on the Velo
Mosport, 1989 on the T/O BSA triple at the exit of turn #1
Pocono, 8 Aug., 1982, on my way to finishing 2nd(?) in the BOTT race on Robinson's XR H-D
Shannonville, 1982
Shannonville, 1982
Shannonville, 1982
Shannonville, 1982
Shannonville 1982, racing against 250 gp bikes on the Team Obsolete Matchless G0-50
Shannonville, 1982, Ron Peters, Alan Cathcart, and me in the last corner.Shannonville, '82
Shannonville, '82
Shannonville, '82
Paul Pace has been taking photos at North American motorcycle race for at least 30 years. He recently sent me a bunch of photos from his archives. I've arranged them in chronological order.
Daytona, 1981, on my way to winning the first ever 'vintage' race at Daytona on the Team Obsolete G-50
Shannonville, 1981 or 1982, The Team Obsolete line up. In the photo is Richard Casey, Phil Mahood and David Goldstein.Shannonville, 1981 or 1982, Me with John Beelen
Shannonville, 1982 me with Dan Sorenson and Ken Rosevere
Shannonville, 1982 on the T/O Matchless G-50

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

I entered three races with my 1970 H-D Sprint ERTT at Mosport: the primary class, P1350; the 'bump-up class, P2 lightweight; and the P1/P2 Masters race for riders over 50(?) years old on those period bikes. Sat. P1350 heat was combined with P1 Open, Pre-'65 500 and Pre-50. I had a great scrap with Doug Forbes and Peter Hurst on P1 Open bikes and Peter(?) Brubaker on a Pre'65 500. That's Hurst's 750 Norton I'm trying to go around in the lower photo. I was ahead of each of the three at one time or another, but ended up 3rd O.A. and 1st in class behind Forbes and Hurst. In Sun. final, they had a two wave start with P1350 gridded behind the bigger bikes, so I couldn't annoy those three as I had in the heat, but did win my class.
The P2 lwt heat was combined with p1500 and Dave Crussel on his Kawasaki Bighorn (P2 lwt) dogged Jody Pearce on a 500 Honda twin(P1500) and the two gradually pulled away from me. After finishing 3rd O.A. and 2nd in class, my carb fell off on the cool off lap. I was able to shove it on and ride back to the pits. I quickly safety wired it on and went out in the P1/P2 Masters race, which had no heat, just a 8 lap final. On the last lap, while running 3rd or 4th O.A., the wire broke and my carb fell off again. I stopped in turn #2 and shove it back on and bumped started the bike down the hill. Holding the carb on with my left hand, I rode back to the pits, thinking I could cross the finish line in the hot pit, but apparently it doesn't work that way at Mosport and I was listed as a DNF even though I did the 8 laps. Sunday, I carefully mounted the carb and used 0.041" safety wire rather than the 0.032" I had used Sat. and managed to get through the whole day without the carb falling off. In the P2 Lwt final, Tim Tilghman on Frank Gianinni's CB 350 Honda special, swapped back and forth with Crussel's Bighorn (after sandbagging in Sat. heat), with Crussel just beating him, with me a distant 3rd. The rain held off, another bonus for a well run event on one of the great tracks of North America.
Photos by Paul Pace
13-14 Aug., 2011 My friend Paul Pace has sent me a bunch of photos he took at the VRRA races at Mosport, Ontario, Canada last weekend. Paul has been taking photos at the races for at least 30 years and he's promised to sent some from the archives that I'll post later. This photo above of me on my 350 H-D Sprint ERTT in the middle of turn #10 impressed me because of how little contact the front tire has with the surface. But then I see in this photo below that there is air under the front tire. It is a bit bumpy there. More photos and report to follow.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Charlie Gauthier took this photo of me on the 1911 Indian on the Queen's Prom in Douglas, IOM on Thurs. 9 June, 2011. This is probably just before I almost crashed it making the 'U' turn from the other side of the Prom with the front 25 year old clincher tire with 50psi in it sliding out. Unfortunately, the handle bar broke just before the Milestones of the Mountain Parade lap the next day and I wasn't able to participate.