Like the last two years, the season ended for me with the Barber Vintage festival and Daytona.  I had committed to racing at the Island Classic at Phillip Island in Jan., 2014 which meant loading my bike into a container right after getting back from Daytona.  I was getting concerned with how much time was on my 350 Sprint and having no time to go through it after Daytona.  So, when Tom Marquardt offered me a ride on his 492cc Honda CB400F, I gratefully accepted and decided not to race the Sprint at Barber, though, since Tom wasn't going on to Daytona, I would race the Sprint there. 

Tom Marquardt's 492cc CB400F Honda

 I also brought my Moto Guzzi Dondolino, into which I had just installed newly rebuilt roller rocker cam followers, one of which had failed at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

In Friday practice at Barber, I went out on Tom's Honda first and it seemed good initially, but started to misfire after a few laps.  While Tom was looking into that, I first took out the Dondolino, then the Sprint, just to make sure it was OK in case I needed it as a fall back.  After practice on the Dondolino, once again I found huge intake valve lash.  I took off the timing cover to find the intake rocker roller flopping around on it's spindle.  When I removed the  roller, I found that it's bush was totally bagged out and cracked.  Dave and Al Hollingsworth volunteered to take the pieces to a local machine shop which agreed to make a new bushing.

Because of my brilliant photography, it's difficult to see the cam followers, but they're just to the right of the tent pole.

The Sprint seemed good and I parked it.

In the mean time, Tom decided the problem with the misfire was the battery and he installed a new one.    Again, initially it seemed good, but then started to misfire at high revs.  On the third lap, I got on the gas too early/hard and spun the bike out in the 180 degree hairpin turn #5.  I was a nice gentle lowside and I just slid on my ass watching the bike slide ahead of me off the track without digging in or flipping.  There was very little damage to either of us; it didn't even break the windscreen on the bike.  I wish all my crashed were like that.  It did bend the shift lever which then cracked when Tom tried to straighten it, but he got Andrew Cowell to repair it during the lunch break.

Tom's pit.  A hotrod Civic is the tow vehicle pulling a home made trailer with independent suspension.

The Honda has a very close ratio gearbox which made me think I had to shift down to 2nd for the slow hairpin.  But Tom pointed out the bike has a very broad powerband and I decided to try to take the corner in 3rd and get on the gas before it came 'on the cam'.  This worked well though I was perhaps still a bit gun shy getting on the gas here.  And we still had the high rpm misfire.

Tom finally figured out that the problem was the kill switch which apparently was vibrating at high rpms and intermittently killing the spark.  He disconnected the kill switch for the next practice and the bike ran like a banshee.  I put a bunch of laps in getting my brake points down until the chain came off. This was because the cush drive in the rear wheel had collapsed, putting it's race worthiness in doubt.

In the mean time, the Hollingsworths had come back from the machine shop with a couple of new bushings and I carefully reassembled the timing chest on the Dondo.  I didn't get this done before practice was finished, but I was able to ride the bike around the pits and it seemed alright.

There's no practice at Barber on race days (to give more time to have more races with fewer bike on the track at any one time) and we went right into racing Sat. morning at 8am.  I wa able to do a 'scrub lap' in one of the early races to check out the repair Tom had done to the rear hub, basically eliminating the cush, and it seemed OK.  I was out first in race 6 on Tom's Honda.  The 350GP class was gridded first with Formula 500, which I was in, next in the second wave and Sportsman 500 the third wave.  I knew from practice times and past performance that my competition would be Nick Cole, who had come from New Zealand with an incredibly quick Norton ES2.  The ES2 is a 500 pushrod single that was one of the more pedestrian plodders that Norton made.  But, Nick's sponsor and the bike's builder, Peter Lodge has transform it into a ripper.  And, Nick is a superb rider and all the more impressive because he is a really big guy.  The ES2 motor is in a Manx chassis with a 6 speed TT Industries gearbox.  The bike primary class is 500 Premiere and so has a Manx 4LS drum brake and Nick was 'bumping up' into the Formula 500 class.

We got off the line pretty evenly, but Nick was on the inside going into turn #1 and then pulled pretty steadily away.  We ended up passing all the 350GP riders by the 2nd lap, so I ended up 2nd in class and overall, but my fastest lap was almost 2.2 seconds slower than Nick's, though faster than everyone else.

Photo by Fred Sahms

I was out in race #10 on the Dondolino, gridded behind the 250GP in the 2nd wave.  The race started fine but I soon started loosing ground and wasn't pulling as many revs on the straights.  When the motor  misfired, I was finally convinced that all wasn't well and I pulled off, seeing the last lap white flag as I pulled down the pit lane.  Once again, there was huge intake valve lash and when I pulled the timing cover off again, I found bronze swarf  everywhere as the bush had disintegrated.  I decided then that I wasn't going to try to get it repaired for Sunday (or Daytona, for that matter) and wasn't going to run it until I took the motor completely apart and determined what was causing this cam follower problem.

So, for Sunday, I change my Class 'C' entry for Formula 750 in addition to F-500.  In the F-500 race, I got a good start and even got into the lead when Nick Cole got baulked by one of the 350GP riders, but he was soon past and pulling away.  

I'm about to pass Stu Carter on his Seeley AJS 7R from the first wave.  Fred Sahms photo

But, as we finished the first lap, there was a red flag and we all returned to the pit lane.  Tom was concerned we (Thad Wolfe was riding Tom's CB77 based racer in 350GP) might not have enough fuel and went to get some more.  But, the incident was cleaned up quickly and we were off before Tom got back with more fuel.  On the restart, I didn't get as good a launch as the first start and Chris Spargo on his RD 400 Yamaha based racer got a killer start and got ahead of Nick. 

 I started to have some shifting problems where the bike didn't want to downshift and several corners I was force to exit in too tall a gear.  I dropped back from the leaders while Nick got by Chris.  After a couple of laps, I had no more shifting problems and tried to close on Chris. 

Fred Sahms photo

 On the last lap, I made a big effort and two corners from the end I got into a huge slide and tank slapper, almost throwing it away.  

Smoke from oil from the cracked oil cooler getting on the exhaust headers (and the rear tire).  Fred Sahms photo

I told myself to calm down and took the checkered flag in third.  Then on the cool off lap, I was given the black flag. I immediately pulled off at the exit of turn #5, to find the bike had been leaking oil some of which got on the rear tire causing that slide.  Apparently the bike had been smoking increasingly towards the end as oil was coming out of a crack in the oil cooler and getting on the exhaust unbeknownst to me.  Once again, I cheated death.  

There was no way to repair the leak before the F-750 race, so that was the end of my weekend.  I had the satisfaction of knowing that my fastest lap was about 0.6 seconds faster on Sun. than Sat., but Nick Coles was more than a second faster and Chris Spargo, who didn't start Saturdays F-500 race, went almost 2 second faster than he did in the later F-750 race.

Another view of Tom's rig.

After loading up, we made it just short of Columbus, Georgia.  The next day we got to Savannah and spent three delightful days in that beautiful city.  Then on to Daytona where we raced Fri. and Sat. the 18th & 19th of Oct.  

Now back on the 350 H-D Sprint ERTT, Fridays morning practice went fine, though Jack Parker came by me on the banking on his very quick DT1 250 Yamaha but immediately backed out of it as we overtook a slower rider.  

After winning both 250GP and 350GP races at Barber, Paul Germain seized at Daytona.  Here he's installing his spare motor, which wasn't nearly as quick.

The 350GP race was again run with F-500, but this time F-500 was gridded more sensibly in front with Classic 60's and 500 Sportsman gridded behind us.  Nick Cole again blasted away from the start with Brian Oakley on a RD 400 based racer a distant 2nd.  Jack Parker led the 350GPs with me in close attendance through the infield.  Jack went way wide going out on the west banking and I went underneath him.  On the 2nd or 3rd lap, Jack stuck a wheel along side me braking for turn #2 but I backed him down.  I was starting to close on Brian Oakley and on the last lap I thought if I could get a good draft off him coming out of the chicane, I might be able to hold Jack off.  But, Brian went too slowly through the chicane and I had to pass him.  Sure enough, coming off NASCAR #4, Jack motored by me and finished less than half a sec. in front of me.  

Peter Lodge's ES2 Norton, which Nick Cole rode to seven wins out of eight starts.

The crate the ES2 came in from New Zealand.  The bike fit in there WITH all those spares and more.

Saturday's race was more interesting.  Nick Cole again disappeared.  Brian Oakley's bike had broken in practice, so he wasn't a factor.  Again, Jack Parker led the 350GPs through the infield; again he went way wide going out on the banking and again I went underneath him.  But this time, first Brad Phillips came by on his 500 BMW Sportsman bike, then Jack came by and we finished the first lap in that order.  On the next lap, Alex McLean on Bob McKeever's 500 Manx Norton Classic 60's bike leap frogged us all and Jack got by Brad and I finished the 2nd lap behind Brad.  On the third lap, I got by Brad and swapped back and forth with Jack and Alex and we finished that lap with the order Alex, Jack, me, then Brad.  More swapping back and forth and we finished the 4th lap: Alex, me, Jack, Brad.    On the last lap, I passed Jack braking for the chicane and Alex in the chicane, but they both came by on the run to the finish and Alex finished 42 and a half seconds behind Nick Cole, with Jack a little over 0.3 seconds behind Alex and me 0.4 sec. behind Jack and Brad 3/4 sec. behind me, less than 1.5 seconds between the four of us.  Good fun.

Jack Parker's very quick DT-1 Yamaha, winner of both 250GP and 350GP races at Daytona.

Nick Cole finally got beat in Sunday's 500 Premiere race by Tim Joyce on Maurice Candy's 500 Manx Norton, his first defeat in the 8 races he was in between Barber and Daytona, and impressive record.