Heartland Park

Towards the end of May, I drove out to Heartland Park in Topeka, Ks., for the AHRMA race there. I had raced there twice before, in 1990 and 1993, but I had little memory of the track plus it had changed somewhat since then. The road course used to incorporate the drag strip and the last corner came out over the launch area, which was trecherous in the wet. Now, the front straight runs parallel to the drag strip but doesn't use any of it. It's a good circuit, 2.5 miles long, very smooth, with a fair amount of elevation change and a good mix of fast and slow. I brought my CRTT and ERTT, though the ERTT was just for back up as Karl Engellenner brought his and my sister bikes from Roseville, Ca., picking up Walt Fulton on the way in Montrose, Co. I got there Thursday afternoon and was able to ride a bicycle around a couple of laps. I had been told by a couple of riders who raced there in 2019 that the gearing should be like Barber or a little taller like Carolina M/S Pk., but on the bicycle, it sure seemed much faster than that. As it turned out, my 350 Sprint had the gearing on it that we used to win 3 of the 4 races I was in at Laguna Seca last year and that proved ideal at Heartland. I signed up for half day practice on Friday and set about relearning the circuit. In the first practice on the 250, my plug lead came off the spark plug and cut my session short. But, the motor wasn't running right and it didn't want to rev over 8,000 rpm, where it should do 10,000. Over the weekend I richened the jetting and reduced the ignition advance a bit, but it made little difference. I finished a distant 2nd in the 250GP both days to John Scales who had a fresh Hall brothers built motor in his 175 Honda twin.

My '67 CRTT in the garage. Karl had the 350 running great and I don't think we changed anything on it all weekend except adjust the front brake. From the practice lap times, I decided that I could at least annoy the front runners in the 500 Premiere class, so I post entered that race, which ran before the 350GP. I fairly quickly worked my way up to 4th behind Wes Orloff, Andrew Mauk (both on Honda twins) and Tim Joyce making his debut on a Dutch built 500 BMW boxer in a custom chassis. On the last lap, Wes got into the chicane too hot and went straight onto the sopping wet grass with sheets of water flying from the heavy rain on Thurs. I was sure that he was going to go down, but he kept it upright and came back on the track pushing Andrew wide and allowing Tim to get by. Wes got well off line and seemed to wait to get any mud off his tires before gassing it up, and I was able to get by too, finishing 3rd. My final race Sat., was the 350GP. While waiting at pit out to start the warm-up lap, the motor stalled and there was a roller started there which got the the bike running again and we were almost immediately let out on the track. As I was climbing the hill that leads into turn#1 the motor died and decending the other side I wonder if the fuel tap was off. I coasted straight on the extention of the drag strip rather then blend right into turn #1 as I fumbled around trying to find and turn on the fuel tap. Just as I was coming to a stop the motor caught and I got it running. Now I had to enter the track at the apex of turn #3. Most of the field had already gone through so I didn't have to wait long to find a safe gap to re-enter the track. I was oh so close to not starting the race. 350GP was gridded behind Vintage Superbike Lightweight and I followed Mat Joy on his VSL Suzuki twin the first lap. I got by Mat in turn #1 starting the 2nd lap and led over all to the finish. Mat had a slightly faster fastest lap on the last lap but it was enough to make up the gap I had built. My fastest was more than half a second faster than I had gone in the 500 Premiere race.

My 350 Sprint in the foreground with Karl Engellenner's, which Walt Fulton rides, behind. In Sunday's 500 Premiere race, I never got by Tony Read on the B-50 BSA and, while Wes Orloff over shot the chicane again on the last lap when distracted by Andy Findling crashing in front of him, he got back on the track before Tony or I could get by, again baulking Andrew and allowing Tim to get through. I the 350GP, I again got in the lead, but I could hear a bike right behind me, which I assumed was Alex McLean. On the 4th lap, my bike jumped out of 5th gear and I shifted it back in. On the penultimate lap, exiting the chicane the bike went 'bang' and I lost all drive and I couldn't shift it. I thought something in the drive train broke and I coasted into te pits. Karl found on subsequent examination that it was a selector problem, not the actual drive train. I was scored 4th as Tim Joyce retired before me and we had several DNS, and my consolation was that I had my fastest lap of the weekend in this race.

The garage we shared with Tom Pillsbury (XS 650 Yamaha) and Gary Roper ('51 Vellocette MAC)

Hiroshi Murata's TA 125 Yamaha

Keith Martin's freshly restored Vincent Black Shadow