AHRMA Roebling Road 2019

The 2019 vintage road racing season began as is traditional with the first AHRMA round at Roebling Road Raceway in Bloomingdale, Ga., near Savannah.  I arrived Fri., 22 Feb., set up my pit and heat cycled the motor on my ERTT H-D Sprint, but didn't practice.

Darleen Drehmel photo

 I did a lot of deferred maintenance over the winter.  Bill Himmelsbach went through the motor and replaced the rings and wrist pin, got the cylinder liner Nikasil plated, put in a bigger exhaust valve for better seat contact, trued the crank and replaced the gearbox mainshaft which had started to fret.  I sent the brakes to Vintage Brakes and had the shoes relined (which had last been done in 1983).  I replaced the fork seals and swing arm bushings, and had the rear shocks rebuilt.  When I greased the swing arm after replacing the bushings, I discovered a crack and welded it up.  And, my friend Steve D'Angelo repaired and painted the fairing.
Saturday was a bit cooler than Friday's mid 80's, but still very nice, probably mid 70's.  I spent the first practice breaking in the fresh rings and bore, and the new brake linings, and picked up the pace in the 2nd practice and the bike seemed to run very well.  The 350GP was the 2nd race of the day and we were gridded in the 1st wave with 350 Sportsman being the 2nd wave.  Alex McLean got the jump at the start on his Drixton Aemacchi, but then missed the 1st to 2nd shift and I got ahead and led into turn #1 and stayed in 1st into the 7th lap, though I could hear a bike close behind.

Leading the field exiting turn#4.  #122 Alex McLean, #950 Don Hollingsworth, #2 Jonathan Hollingsworth.  Etech Photo

 Alex came around me exiting turn #4 on the 7th lap and I followed him onto the front straight and drafted by him  fairly easily after taking the white flag starting the last lap.  I was a bit surprised how easily I motored by him, as I think of his bike as very fast, and wonder if he had rolled off a bit in some kind of last lap strategy.  But, we came upon some backmarkers approaching turn #5 and I was able to get by, but they may have balked Alex and I won the race by 0.68 seconds.  We talked after the race and Alex said that he hadn't rolled off at all and in fact had tried to draft by me in earlier laps but, when he pulled out of the draft, hadn't been able to pass.

At Saturday's award ceremony.  Ron Melton photo

I bumped up to 500 Premiere which was gridded behind Formula 500 and 500GP in the 2nd wave with Sound of Thunder 3 in the first wave.  I got a good start and finished ahead of all of the 500GP bikes, 5 of the 8 F-500 bikes that started and 4 of the SOT3 bikes.  My fastest lap was a little slower than in 350GP as my rear tire was getting pretty worn and I wanted to save some for Sun.
Sun., it was decided to do just one round of practice and have a few races before lunch (ostensibly because of a threat of weather), which was fine by me as I was only going to do a few laps to conserve my tires.
In the 350GP, I beat Alex off the line and led the first lap.  On the second lap, Alex came by in a corner and I followed him onto the straight where, like Sat. I motored by.  But, Alex went really deep in turn #1 and slowly pulled away.

Alex McLean on a Drixton Aermacchi leads through turn #5.  Etech Photo

 I finished more than five and a half seconds behind him in a race shortened to 6 laps, he going faster than he had Sat., and me going slower.
We did get some rain during lunch and 'quiet time', but hardly the severe thunderstorms that were predicted.  The sun came out and the wind picked up and the track largely dried quickly.  There was a huge delay cleaning up an oil spill and all the remaining races remained 6 laps.
The SOT 3/F-500/500GP/500 Premiere finally got under way, but there were only 20 starters overall as  opposed to the 26 on Sat., as many people left because of the threat of rain or just fed up waiting out the long cleanup delay.  By now, my rear tire was really shagged and the track was slower because there were the odd damp patches, esp. where the cleanup had taken place.  again I got ahead of most of the F-500 bikes and a couple of the SOT3 bikes.  Coming out of the last corner, Alex McLean passed me on his 500 Norton Manx and out dragged me to the finish line, beating me by less the 0.2 sec.  So, I beat Alex (he on two different bikes) twice Sat., and he beat me twice Sun.

Getting the word from Art Kowitz.  Darleen Drehmel

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Tim 'Merciless' Mings gets a autograph so he can hawk it on eBay.  Darleen Drehmel photo