14-16 Oct., 2011 From Barber, much of the circus move on to Daytona for the AHRMA event combined with CCS modern club racing. I was able to stay with racing friends in Smyrna, Atlanta, and Savannah, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fl. killing the four days until activities started at Daytona. One part of the Circus that didn't move from Barber to Daytona was Ken Rosevere and his Goldstar that I had raced at Barber. So, I decided to race my 350 Sprint ERTT in the 500 Premiere race. With a reduced grid at Daytona compared to Barber, I ended in the same position on my 350 as Ken's 500: 6th. Wes Orloff, Ari Henning, and Todd Puckett had all gone home and John Cronshaw suffered a nasty high side crash in Fri. morning practice that ruled him out of racing this weekend. Doug Polen was riding the McIntosh Manx that Schwantz had ridden at Barber and he ended up finishing 3rd behind Tim Joyce and Pat Mooney, with Niek Leeuwis 4th on his Seeley Goldstar and Bruce Verdon 5th (after I had showed him around in practice). Bruce is the proprietor if TT Industries in New Zealand, manufactures of superb 6 speed gearboxes for the British singles.

Nancy Hollingsworth photo

Next, I raced Mike Bungay's 350 Aermacchi in 350gp and won comfortably. The bike worked perfectly with no sign of the trouble we had with it on Sun. at Barber. My quickest lap on my bike was slightly faster than my quickest lap on Mike's bike, but it came on the third lap and is probably attributable to the tow I got off of Alex McLean when he came by on his 500gp Norton Manx.

So, to finish the comparison between my 350 and Mike's, I raced his bike in the 500 Premiere race Sat. Again, I finished 6th behind Mooney, Nick Cole (ES-2 Norton!), Polen, Niek Leeuwis, and Bruce Verdon. I was able to swap back and forth a bit with Alex Mclean and Peter Politiek on Tom Heyser's BSA Goldstar as they came through from the 500gp grid. This time I got a killer draft off the two of them and my quickest lap was almost three seconds faster than on my bike. Fortunately, we had put taller gearing on after Fri. (the tallest Mike owned) to take advantage of the draft. Again, the bike ran great.

I decided not to stay for Sun. and the final 350gp race. I had already cinched the championship for the year and there wasn't too much competition left. So, Mike asked Don Hollingsworth to race his bike. Don got a big lead after starting from the back of the grid with no points.

Nancy Hollingsworth photo

When he exited the East Banking on his last run to the checkered flag, the motor made the 'bad noise' and lost power just as it had done on me on Sun. at Barber. Don clutched it and was able to coast across the finish line still in 1st place. Mike didn't have much time to check it over before the bike had to be loaded for it's trip back to Ca., but he was able to determine that that the motor turned over fine and had compression. The mystery deepens and I can't wait for the autopsy.