Dave Roper Racing

Dave Roper, the first American ever to win an Isle of Man TT, will be riding a restored 580cc Indian TT model v-twin in the 2011 TT. Roper has a lifetime of achievement in vintage racing, including more than 20 AHRMA national championships as well as his win of the 1984 Senior Historic TT on a G50 Matchless. Support the first motorcycle to ever win the Senior TT on the Mountain Course, the only American marque to win at the event and the only American racer to ever win the Senior Historic TT!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Larz Anderson European Bike Day

In late Sept., I went up to Brookline, Ma., at the Larz Anderson Transport Museum for their European Bike Day. It wasn't a great turn-out as the weather was iffy, and I don't have any photos, but I thought the exhibit in the museum was outstanding.
http://larzanderson.org/visit/exhibits/beauty-of-the-beast/
To me the highlight of the exhibit was the three (not one, not two, but Three) V-8 powered motorcycles. There was one of the replica Moto Guzzi V-8 race bike. I think these were built by the Moto Guzzi factory, in which case maybe they shouldn't be considered replicas. While my preference is for singles, this bike is a technological tour de force. Bill Burke had been to the show not long before and didn't remember seeing the Guzzi and it's not listed on the website, so maybe it was/is only there temporarily. Next to this was the Morbidelli V-8, with the longitudinal motor, and the Australian Drysdale V-8, with a transverse motor like the Guzzi.
There's lots of very early bikes, both American and European, including a Flying Merkel, Emblem, Pierce, BSA, and Douglas. There's a Crocker, a nice display of TZ Yamaha race bikes, an oval piston NR750 Honda, a Hercules rotary, and a Rokon Trailbreaker. And, there's a nice photo display of legendary women motorcyclist including the striking Anke-Eve Goldmann.
The show is on until May, 2016, so if you're in the Boston area, it's definitely worth a visit. The building and grounds are worth a visit in themselves.

Monday, November 2, 2015

USCRA NJMP Lightning

Rob Iannucci decided that Team Obsolete should race a couple of bikes at the United States Classic Racing Assoc.'s mid Sept. race at New Jersey Motorsports Park's Lightning circuit, run in conjuncture with the vintage car racing group, the SRA. It was decided that we would take the ex-Don Vesco BSA A50R and a AJS 7R in a lightweight frame. The BSA had never been raced by T/O, only paraded by Don Emde at Mid-Ohio years ago. I had raced the 7R many times, but not since 2002 when it had a G-50 motor in it; the 7R motor had last run in 2001.

The AJS 7R on the left and BSA A50R on the right with my new van on it's inaugural race in the backround.

We got a little practice Fri. afternoon. I went out on the 7R first, but there was a red flag on the first lap when someone fell on cold tires. I went back out on the 7R when the track was green, not realizing that they had moved on to the second practice group. So I didn't get out on the BSA. The 7R was like an old friend and I had guessed right on the gearing. This bike has a frame designed by Dick Mann, Ceriani 35mm road race forks, 210mm Fontana front brake and a 6 speed gearbox, and 1 1/2' GP carb, up from the original 1 3/8'.

The Team Obsolete AJS 7R LW#1/4830A

Sat. morning practice revealed that the belly pan that we had made for the BSA didn't give nearly enough ground clearance and the gearing was well short. With the new tires scrubbed, I was really getting into it with the 7R. I raised the belly pan on the BSA as much as I could and discovered that the rear sprocket that I had brought, while they looked the same as what was on the 'knock off' spool hub, didn't actually fit.

T/O's ex- Don Vesco BSA A50R

500GP was in the combined first race and I quickly discovered that I still had a ground clearance problem with the belly pan and, as I tried to ride faster, the short gearing became more of a problem, as I had to roll back the throttle very early on the front straight. So I circulated slowly to avoid hurting the bike.
The 350GP was the last race of the day. As I went to start the bike, after pulling it back on compression, when I pulled in the clutch, the barrel came off the end of the clutch cable. I figured that I was done as we were already on third call and, even if I had a spare cable, there was no time to install it.
But, Erik Green came up with an idea: bump start the bike in the hot pit lane and ride without a clutch. I was game, so they pushed me and I kicked it in gear and rode down to pit out while the bikes were forming up on the grid, having completed their warm-up lap. I tried to ride as slow as possible so that I wouldn't have to stop before they threw the green flag and I could just motor out the pit lane onto the track. But, no; they were taking too long to form up and I had to kill the motor. When they finally dropped the flag and everyone took off, I pushed the 7R as hard as I could in neutral, jumped on it, and kicked it in gear. It was slightly uphill and the motor just barely fired but I was able to enter the track after everyone was long gone. I got to chase down a bunch of bikes despite having some problems downshifting and often exiting corners a gear high, and ended up 3rd 350 behind Rich Midgely on Frank Giannini's CB77 Honda with a GS 400 Suzuki head on it, and Jim Jower's Seeley 7R.

Jim Jowers' Seeley short stroke 7R

Midge let us use his solder pot to repair the clutch cable that evening and we were able to enjoy a great pot luck dinner in the pits after.
I decided not to race the BSA Sunday, as it was pointless with the gearing we had. So, I raced the 7R in 500GP race, again in race one. I won the 500GP class and got well up among the Lightweight Supervintage and EuroCup bikes.
I lined up for the 350GP in race #5 pretty confident. But, on the first lap I had a big slide, which I initially attributed to cold tires, but then my foot started slipping on the shift lever. Towards the end of the second lap, I took a good look and saw that my boot was covered with oil. The 'D' shaped cover that gives access to the magneto vernier on the timing cover had fallen off and I pulled off immediately. We found that the threads in the magnesium cover had failed and the 2BA bolts pulled out. But, Jim Jowers had seen something fall off my bike and described approximately where so, after the racing was over, we were able to go out on the track and look for it. After a fair amount of looking and starting to think that we were beyond where Jim had described, I spotted it, on the track with the gold painted side up.

Jim Jowers' 250 Ducati

Randy Hoffman's KTT Velocette in a featherbed frame

Randy's Vincent Gray Flash

Louie Saif and Ralph Stechow arranged for the 7th annual Ducati TT & F1 symposium to be at NJMP

Ralph's TZ750

The ex-Jimmy Adamo/Reno Leone Cagiva GP bike

An odd couple of spectators

A Sunbeam S-8 from the late '40s or early '50s

The well used H-D. Note the 2X4 shimming the battery.

Looks quite original to my untrained eye.

Historic indeed!

Me with my new van, a Ram Promaster 1500 short wheelbase, low roof, the first new four wheeler I've owned.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Bonneville Vintage GP

The day after I got back from the Classic TT at the Isle of Man, I rode my CBR250R 250 miles up to Danvers, Ma. and back to to check out a new van. The next day, I flew to Salt Lake City for the Bonneville Vintage GP at Miller Motorsports Park. As in the last several years, I was racing Mike Bungay's 350 H-D Sprint and Gary Roper's '51 Velocette MAC. I had entered Class 'C' footshift on Velo and both 350GP and 500 Premiere on the Sprint. But, as the 500 Premiere race was scheduled before the 350GP, Mike asked me not to race the former in order to not jeopardize a result in the latter. So, I switched my Premiere entry to Classic 60's with the Velo.

Gary had made a few changes to the Velo, most notably rebuilding the magneto, which had failed at Sears Point, and moving the oil tank to make room for a longer intake tract, which Karl Engellener's dyno had shown made more power.

The latest iteration of Gary Roper's Velo MAC with relocated oil tank

The relocated oil tank allowed a longer intake tract.

Though it now has a 650 Triumph 70mm piston in it, it's still a 370cc motor in a 500 OHV/750 flathead class. The bike worked great right from the first practice.

Mike had Jim Belland check the frame (that Jim had made) after I crashed the bike in oil at Willow Springs and then it wanted to shake it's head at Sears Point. Sure enough, Jim found that the steering head was pushed back and to the side, but he was able to bring it back in spec and straight.

In the first practice, it steered better than at Sears, but the tach didn't work at all. Mike thought he found the problem with the tach, but in the second practice it still didn't work and when I came in, I noticed that the front brake was dragging. Inspection revealed that the lining was worn enough the the brake cams were starting to go over center. Mike got some aluminum sheet and cut strips of and appropriate length and width to to wrap around the brake cams and shim them up.

Karl working on the front brake of the H-D Sprint

My first race was the Class 'C' which was gridded in the second wave behind 200GP. I quickly got in the lead of Class 'C' and set about seeing how many of the 200GP bikes that I could catch. I got to about the middle of the 25 200GP entrants, but when I came in, it was immediately pointed out to me that I had forgotten to move my transponder from the Sprint to the MAC in the confusion over the brake. Therefore, I wasn't scored in the race. Oh well, it's not like I was in contention for the championship.

I was out again on the MAC for the Classic '60s race, again starting from the second wave. The other four starters in the race. all on 500s, pulled away. However, I closed up on Swiss Neiderberger on his 500 BSA Goldstar and was able to get by. He motored back by and I again got him in a corner. we repeated this pattern a couple more times until I stayed ahead of him for a couple of laps. I figured that I must be clear of him, but on the back straight on the last lap, Swiss motored by again and I finished 5th and last in class. It was fun dicing with Swiss, but a bit of a quixotic exercise.

Immediately following the Classic '60s race was the 350GP. In the earlier race#6, 500 Premiere had been in the first wave and 500 Sportsman in the second. Eirik Nielsen and Steve Hipp, on their CB350 Hondas had come through from the second wave to finish first and second overall. Now, in race #10, I would be on the pole in the first wave in 350GP and Eirik and Steve would be in the second wave in 350 Sportsman. So the challenge was not only to win the class, but to win overall. I pushed hard from the start and managed to lead flag to flag, though the tach still didn't work and the bike was starting to chatter some, and I noticed a change in the exhaust note during the race which turned out to be caused by a broken exhaust pipe.

On Sunday, we went back to the original plan with me riding the Velo only in Class 'C' and running the Sprint in both 500 Premiere and 350GP. In practice, Walt Fulton, who was riding Karl Engellener's sister bike to Mike's Sprint, and I decide to switch bike in practice. Karl prepares both motors and they are a close as possible to identical. The bikes have the same frames, bodywork, rear wheels and tires, but have different forks, front brakes and tachs. Walt and I agreed that Karl's bike had the better front brake, didn't have the chatter, and vibrated less than Mike's. Looking over Mike's bike after practice, we discovered that one of the engine mounting tabs on the frame was broken and another engine mounting bolt was loose. This certainly accounted for the vibration and maybe the chatter. Or, was that simply more worn tires. We decided that we didn't have the time to repair the frame as it would have meant removing the engine. We just made sure everything was tight.

This time I made sure the transponder was on the Velo for the Class 'C' race and I was able to pull away from all the bikes in the class and pass 12 of the 200GP bikes from the first wave and finish 9th overall.

Next up was the 500 Premiere/GP with 500 Sportsman and F-500 & F-250 in the second wave. Based on the previous lap times, if figured that I had a pretty good shot at winning the 500 Premiere, but the question was: could Eirik catch me from the second wave. I got into the overall lead on the first lap, kept pushing, and wasn't passed before the checker flag. The tach worked long enough for me to get my shift points down a little better. Eirik finished 2nd overall, just over 24 seconds behind which had to be largely the delay to the 2nd wave and having to plow through more traffic, as his fastest lap was 0.011 seconds faster than mine.

Eirik Nielsen's CB 350 Honda

While the chatter was getting a bit worse, the bike seemed fully capable of winning the 350GP and we didn't change anything. The 350GP was gridded in front of Vintage Superbike Lightweight in the first wave with 350 Sportsman, 250GP and F125 in the second wave. Again, I led flag to flag and again Eirik was 2nd overall, but this time just over 13 seconds behind. My fastest lap was just over 3/4 sec. slower than in the 500 Premiere race, but Eirik's fastest lap was 1.785 seconds faster. Walt Fulton was again 2nd in 350GP.

There were a couple of vintage transporter at Miller like this International Harvester Metro

The Metro clearly has some history. If only it could talk....

The Metro had vintage A/C

This Studebaker pickup also sported a Thermador A/C

Dave Pierce rode his 300HP supercharged Kawasaki H2R in practice. Carefully.

The H2R's header pipes. Titanium?

And speaking of exh. pipes, the Highwayman Motor & Pipe fabricated pipe on Dustin Johnson CT1 Yamaha

A Centurion folding scooter

And, at the other extreme of pit bikes, Paul Germain's LS1 Yamaha.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

2015 Classic TT

A day home from Mosport, then off to the IOM. The flight was early arriving in Dublin, but late leaving Dublin, due to a hanger fire that stopped all incoming traffic for a while. My dear friend Sue met me at the airport and drove us to Douglas where I got a SIM card for my phone and we had some lunch. The she drove us to the the rental car agent where I picked up the Ford Transit van that we would be using for the week, and I followed her to her home in St. John's.

Our Ford Transit short wheelbase, high roof, 6 speed manual diesel

We loaded some bicycles on the back of her car and first drove a little ways and took a hike up South Barrule in a strong wind coming off the Irish Sea. Then, we drove through Peel to Kirkmichael where we parked and unloaded the bikes and rode up the former rail line to spectate the evening practice at Rhencullen, a spectacular series of bends just out of Kirkmichael. We sat on the bank and watched Michael Dunlop come through first and stand his X-R 69 Suzuki right up on the jump. After 15 or 20 minutes, there was a red flag due to a crash at the 13th milestone and about 7 or 8 bikes pulled up right in front of us. One of the riders was Ian Lougher. Ian finished 2nd to me in the '84 Senior Historic TT, in only his 2nd race on the Mountain circuit, having finished 3rd in the previous year's newcomers race, then gone on to race in an incredible 141 more races at the TT, including 12 wins. Ian chatted with the other riders there at Rhencullen and a few of the spectatators sitting on the bank. After a while, he recognized me and we chatted a bit. Then, the fellow next to me on the bank, turned and asked me if I still had my 250 Moto Guzzi. Surprised and wondering how this fellow would know I had this bike, I replied 'Yes' and then realized it was Paul Smart, who I had met on a Moto Giro in California in 2008. What are the chances that the three of us would be together at this spot in all of the 37 3/4 miles of the Mountain Circuit on a Wed. evening practice? But, the Isle of Man is like that.

After spending the night at Sue and her husband, Peter's, house , I drove the van the next morning to the Airport to pick up Mike Gonteskey, a long time friend, former vintage road race competitor and current Moto Giro competitor. Mike had volunteered to be the Official Team Obsolete whipping boy and gofer. We checked into the Regency Hotel on the northeast end of The Queens Prom in Douglas. We then went up to the Paddock and unloaded the crate with the Team Obsolete 1954 AJS E-95 Porcupine.

photographer unknown

This was only the second time that an E-95 Porc had appeared at the Isle of Man since the Works last raced them. In 1964, Mike Duff rode Tom Arter's E-95 one lap of practice, but it developed mechanical problems and it wasn't raced. We shared a tent right behind the grandstand with Ken Mcintosh, who had brought the very first Featherbed Norton Manx, a bike that Geoff Duke debuted in New Zealand in 1950. This bike was featured in a number of tributes to Geoff Duke, who died last May.

Ken McIntosh on the left with the first ever Featherbed Manx

The Porc uncrated, Mike and I went for a tour of the paddock. The National Motorcycle Museum had a huge display of Nortons spanning everything from the Rem Folwer bike that won the inaugural TT twin cyl. class (but let's not forget that Charlie Collier won the single cyl. class and overall on a Matchless), through Manxes, JPN Commando based racers and the Cosworth engined Challenge, through a whole gaggle of rotary racers. There was a big display of Kawasakis and there I saw Hurley Wilvert. I chatted with Ollie Linsdel, who's remarkable Royal Enfield racer had been the fastest single in the previous evening's practice. Chris McGahan had some remembrances of the Porc from when he lived just down the block from where Mike Duff stayed in London when he was riding Tom Arter's Porc. I caught up with Bill Swallow, who was racing along side of his son, Chris. And we visited Dave and Lorraine Crussel and Scott Clough, who was looking after Dave's TZ750. The Mike and I went for a lap in the van. We stopped at Tony East's A.R.E. Museum in Kirkmichael. I paid particular attention to Tony's Greeves Sport Twins, a model with which I've recently become enamored.

A Greeves Eastcoaster at Tony East's A.R.E. Museum in Kirk Michael

As we were leaving, we bumped into Mick Grant, who had ridden the T/O Porcupine at Cadwell Park in 2001, and asked me if it still vibrated so much and I allowed that on the dyno at 8000rpm it was buzzing pretty hard.
We drove on around the course to the Bungalow and got out and made a pilgrimage to the Joey Dunlop memorial there. Then we almost finished the lap, but turned left at Governors Bridge and drove through Onchan and the back roads to Hillberry to watch evening practice. Hillberry is one of my favorite places on the course, a very fast right hand bend at the bottom of a long straight decent from Brandish, where the bikes sweep out towards the wall as they climb toward Cronk ny Mona. Marshaling there was Les Trotter, a Senior Manx Grand Prix winner and someone I'd gotten to know racing in the Classic Manx GPs in the 80's. It was great catching up with him and especially fortuitous as my pit neighbor the previous weekend at Mosport, Ron Kalaquin, had asked me to say hello to Les if I ran into him. After practice, Mike and I had dinner at a very good Thai restaurant oddly named New Manila.

A Norton featherbed with a Velocette motor we saw at Hillberry

The steering damper knob on the 'Velton'

Fri. morning, I went to the airport to pick up Rob Iannucci, major domo of Team Obsolete and the man who had tracked down and bought the Porcupine. There, I ran into Bill Haas from Rhode Island, who regularly marshals at the Manx GP. He was there to pick up Gordon Razee, a motorcycle dealer from R.I., and entourage. Rob arrived, but his luggage didn't. Also on the plane was an Aussie, who recognized me from racing in OZ, and we gave him a lift to Douglas. After we got Rob checked into the hotel, we went up to the paddock and I went and fetched some Super Unleaded petrol, which we mixed with Avgas. With this, we fired up the Porc in front of a very appreciative audience. We saw Dean de St.Croix, a very fast classic racer from Canada, who had just come from a classic race in Most, Czech Republic and who was laying the ground work for a return to racing at the IOM where he raced in 2000 Classic Lightweight MGP on Henry Hogben's 250 Ducati.
I ran into John Cronshaw, who had come over on his original Goldstar road bike and was there helping his good friend Sandro Baumam, from Switzerland. Then I saw Jim Redman, who Rob had re-united with the Team Obsolete RC 163 Honda six which Jim had raced when it first appeared at Monza in Sept. of 1964 then paraded many times in the late '90s. At age 83, he's still looking good and participating in many events in Europe.
Mike and I took off to watch evening practice. We drove to a spot that I remembered spectating at many years before between Ballaspur and Doran's Bend. This involved walking through a culvert under the course to get to the field on the other side. But, the marshall there told us the farmer who owned the field no longer allowed spectating there, so we drove on to Cronk-y-Voddy crossroads. We watched there for a while, but the wind finally forced us out before practice was over.
Sat., I drove Rob to an appointment in Peel and had some time to kill, so I drove along the coast road almost to Kirkmichael where I saw an intriguing path that went to the beach. I found a place to park the van, then walked back to this path. An oncoming motorcyclist passed and waved and I waved back, thinking just a friendly biker. After a moment, he turned around and came back, stopped, and said 'Dave, are you stuck?' I told him that I was just taking a walk and thanked him for checking, but I was amazed that someone who I did not recognize, would recognize me while riding by and turn around and check if everything was OK. But, the Isle of Man is like that.

The ford at Glen Mooar

I walked down the path, crossing a ford, to the beach which was deserted except for a Dad doing some 'civil engineering' with his two young sons in the sand. I walked up the beach until the sea was crashing into the cliffs.

The beach at Glen Mooar

The Island has changed a lot since I first came there in 1974, with more houses and traffic, but there are still absolutely gorgeous spots to enjoy.
Then it was back to the paddock where Cathy and Frank Smith tracked us down. They were with their Scottish friends who they had been staying with before coming over to the Isle. We walked down to St. Ninian's crossroads to watch the Senior Classic race. There we saw Pat Mooney and Gordon Razee. The race was dominated by replica Italian exotica with Dean Harrison leading from start to finish on a MV-3 chased by Ian Lougher on a Paton. Last year Lougher was penalized 30 seconds for speeding in the pit lane, but overcame this disadvantage and still won the race. This year Lougher was again penalized 30 seconds for speeding in the pit lane. He put in the fastest lap of the race, but ended up 26 seconds behind Harrison with the 30 sec. penalty. There was some thought that Michael Dunlop might have a shot at the win on the Molnar 4 valve Manx since he could go the distance without a pit stop, whereas the multis would have to stop for fuel, but he ended up retiring with a mechanical issue.
After the race, we loaded up the van with the Porc, fuel, tools and spares, to head to Jurby in the morning. That evening we went to Ballasala for dinner at our old friend Paul & Sue Barrett's house. Paul was the one who arranged my first ride at the IOM and taught me the course and, years later, moved to the Isle. With us was Dave Arnold, winner of the 1973 Lighttweight MGP, and Chris Bladon a former MGP competitor and renowned Aermacchi tuner, now involved with developing mini gas turbine motors.
Sunday morning, we drove up to the north of the Island for the Jurby Festival. There's a WWII era airfield there which now has a short circuit race track on it and for the Festival, bikes of all different eras and sizes lap the circuit. There's no racing, just unrestricted parades. There are two sessions for the Lap of Honour bikes and it's a good opportunity to shake down the bikes before doing the lap on the Mountain Circuit the next day.

turn #1 at Jurby, sorry, don't know who to give photo credit to.

I was out there with a bunch of Norton rotaries, but for once I wasn't on the oldest or smallest bike. Glen English was riding a 50cc Itom and someone was on a KTT Velocette. We had very little time on the Porcupine, which makes one a little anxious, but the bike just seemed to get better the more we ran it.

exiting turn #1 at Jurby, again, don't know who took the photo

It was another beautiful day and there was a huge crowd.
That evening, we went to a memorial for Geoff Duke at St.. Ninian's Church. Sammy Miller and Bill Smith gave remembrances of Duke and the event ended with what has to be a first in the history of the know universe: a 500 Gilera 4 cyl., of the type Duke raced, was fired up in the Church and ridden out. But, the Isle of Man is like that.
From the memorial, we went to the embarrassingly named 'Heros Dinner'. The TT winners are distributed around to different tables to have dinner with the paying public. We had 4 Aussies, an Italian, and an American couple, he competing in the MGP as a newcomer, at our table, all keen enthusiasts. Charlie Williams, an 8 time TT winner, was M.C. and he introduced all the 'Heros' then got Bruce Anstey, John McGuinness, and Michael Dunlop up on the stage for an interview.
Monday's schedule was the Junior Classic race first, then the Lap of Honour, then the F1/F2 Classic race. But, when we got up to the paddock, found there was a communications glitch and Race Control couldn't speak with the marshals. The Junior Classic race was postponed, then postponed again, then again and again. Most of the participants figured that the Lap of Honour was going to be scraped or put off to Tues., and the weather forecast for Tues. wasn't so good. And some, like Mat Oxley, couldn't stay the extra day. Finally, nearly 3 hours late, it was announced that the Jr. Classic was going to be shortened to 3 laps and Lap of Honour and F1/F2 race would follow. I didn't get to pay much attention to the Jr. Classic race what with scrutineering and getting ready for the lap myself. I started #14 and was passed by many faster bikes, but did pass a few myself.

lining up on Glencrutchery Rd. to start Lap of Honour, photographer unknown

the Launch

At Quarterbridge, Alan Lygo photo

rounding the Gooseneck on the Lap of Honour, photographer unknown

Somewhere after Ballaugh, Alex George came by me on a Norton rotary and I was able to follow him for a good ways as he slowly pulled away. I lost sight of him in Ramsey, but then saw him again at Brandywell and closed on him into Windy Corner. He was clearly having a problem and I passed him before I got to the 32nd. Afterwards I talked to him and he told me that he ran out of petrol and that he coasted all the way down to Hillberry where he knew someone would have some fuel. Sure enough, he was able to get some and restart the bike and finish the lap. I finished the lap trouble free and was able to ride at a pace that kept it interesting, but I didn't scare myself once.

The flyscreen after the Lap, photographer unknown

I talked to Les Trotter after the lap and he said that after he did the jump at Ballaugh Bridge, he got a shock every time he touched the clutch lever on the RG 500 Suzuki that he was riding. Not wanting to abuse the gearbox of this valuable bike, he dutifully used the clutch for each shift, but the anticipation of using the clutch was a bad as the actual shock. They found after that the fuel tank had moved down when he landed from the jump and a spark plug lead was grounding on the tank and electrifying the clutch lever. I spoke to Steve Parrish the next morning at the hotel and I mentioned that I thought they were going to cancel the Lap. He told me that he thought so too and that he got the word that it was going ahead while he was in the Beer Tent. He was sure that the beer helped him on his lap on a Molnar Manx, the first time he had ridden a Manx at the Island. Monday evening we had dinner with local friends at a restaurant on the quay in Peel.
Tuesday, Mike and I crated up the bike and tools and spares. I had some time to kill in the afternoon, so I took a ride to Laxey. By the time I got there, the Laxey Wheel, a huge water wheel that was used to pump water out of the lead mine, had closed, but I was able to wander around some of the other old mining structures and see the train come through town on the Electric Railway. It's a charming trip back into the Victorian era.

The Laxey Wheel

a flathead Norton outfit I spied at the Laxey Wheel

the leaf spring on the Norton sidecar

We had a very amusing dinner with John Cronshaw and Sandro Baumann that evening. Sandro's English isn't so good (though it's far better than my Italian), but John's Italian is very good, and they're both very funny. Rob knows a bit of Italian and Mike speaks pretty good Spanish, which Sandro also speaks. So the dinner was conducted in three languages and lots of hand gestures and was great fun.
Wednesday morning it was off to the airport to fly back to New York via Dublin and so ended another wonderful trip to that magic Isle.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

VRRA's Vintage Festval

It was up to Mosport, Ontario for the first time in three years. For the last several years, the VRRA Vintage Celebration at Mosport has conflicted with the Classic TT/Manx GP, but this year there was a week's gap and I was able to do both. The Vintage Festival is always a great event and this year, with perfect weather, there was perhaps a record entry with over 200 riders and over 400 entries.

I had picked up my 350 Sprint ERTT motor from Bill Himmelsbach, who had replaced the broken and damaged gears with a mixture of new repro and used OEM, on my way back from the MotoGP at Indy, and installed it in the chassis the next weekend.

Sat. morning, I had some trouble starting it for the first practice. Mosport (or Canadian Tire Motorsports Park as it's officially known) has a big, long hill in the paddock, which is great for starting. I flooded the carb and pushed it down the hill, but it didn't fire. So, I tried it again; still no go. So I flooded it some more and tried again; no good. I flooded it a third time and still no fire. Now I'm approaching the bottom of the very long hill. I realized now that I must have over flooded it and I turned off the fuel taps and opened the throttle all the way and pushed one last time and at the last moment, it cleared out and fired up.

The VRRA just divides practice for solos into Slow, Medium, and Fast, with the riders deciding which group they want to be in. There had been some admonition that everyone shouldn't choose Medium as the default, as it tends to get very crowded. That, and the fact that Medium goes out first, followed by Slow, then Fast, caused me to choose Fast. But, these days there are some very, very fast 'vintage' bikes--GSXRs, 888 Ducatis, and 2000 something RS 250s. So maybe I was being somewhat presumptuous going out with them on a 1970 air cooled, pushrod, 350 single. But Mosport is a big wide track and I don't think I got in anyone's way.

My bike ran strong on the top end, but in the rough corners it would misfire and not carburate cleanly. It wasn't a huge problem as, when I'd straighten up, it would run clean.

The VRRAs format is to run shorter heats on Sat., and longer finals on Sun., except for a couple of classes that have no heat, only finals. My first race was one of these classes, the Masters light weight. Scott Mackenzie took off and disappeared, followed by Doug Forbes and Antonio Reis. I was was chasing my old sparing partner, the evergreen Stan Nicholson on his TD2 Yamaha.

Stan Nicholson's Yamaha TD2

I got ahead of Stan regularly braking into turn #5, but he'd come back by me on the back straight. I got by Stan once braking for the last turn, #10, but he motored on by on the start/ finish straight. We were closing on Forbes and the four of us finished in tight order: Rios (in 2nd), Forbes, Stan, and me in 5th.

While the mid corner and exit misfire wasn't a big problem, it was annoying and certainly didn't help. I figured that it must have to do with the remote float dancing around, so I wired a piece of foam rubber between the float and the carb to stabilize it. But then, I noticed that the bolt was missing from the positive battery lead and the lead was just resting against the post.

I don't know if replacing the battery lead bolt or stabilizing the float cured it, but cured it was and the motor carburated cleanly for the Period 1 350 race, which ran with the P1 open class and the Pre-65 500s and I won my class and finished 4th overall behind three P1 Open bikes. And, my fastest lap was a little faster than in the Masters race.

This gave me some hope that I might have something for Stan and Rich Midgely in my 'bump-up' race, the Period 2 Light Weight. But, on the contrary, they both pulled steadily away and I finished a fairly distant 3rd in class. My fastest lap was a good deal slower than in either of my previous two races, which surprised me as the bike didn't seem any slower and wasn't showing any less revs anywhere. Which leave the conclusion that I was slower. Why? At least I had the consolation of watching the Stan & Midge scrap, with Stan just pipping Midge.

Stan also raced his Greeves Silverstone in the P1 250 class

A shower, dinner with Nancy & Len Fitch, and a beer with Doug Macrea, Brad Monk, and Herb Becker eased my troubled mind and I had no trouble sleeping Sat. night.

The Jim Jowers/Ellen Yamplonsky pit with Jim's 250 Ducati, short stroke Seeley 7R, and their Norton outfit

Sun. Morning , the wind had changed direction and become more of a tail wind for the long back straight so, after practice, I decided to gear the bike up by taking a tooth off the back. When I took the rear wheel off, a mangled washer fell out of it and I saw that the snap ring retaining the brake shoe on the pivot post had broken allowing the washer between it and the shoe to fall off and foul the hub. My

pit neighbor, Ron Kalaquin, came up with a suitable washer and snap ring and that crisis was resolved. Then, Erik Green noticed that the nut that holds the gearbox sprocket on had backed off. I replaced the locking tab washer and tightened the hell out of it.

On the first lap of the P1 350 race, someone went down on oil in Moss' corner, Turn #5 and I saw the red flag in Turn #1 starting the 2nd lap. This caused a lengthy delay as the rider was attended to and the oil, which went at least to Turn #6, was cleaned up, so the restart was shortened to 5 laps. I again won my class, but my fastest lap was about 2.5 seconds slower than I had done the day before. Alright, the cement dust on the oil in the racing line in Turns #5/6 probably caused everyone to go slower, but 2.5 seconds is a lot.

This left the P2 final, and Midge really nailed the start and this time prevailed over Stan. I didn't get a sniff at either one of them and finished a distant 3rd, in a race that was shortened to 6 laps because of the previous delays. My fastest lap was a little better than in the P1 350 final, but still 1.5 secs. slower than I had gone Sat. Was I losing confidence in the tires, which had lots of miles on them? Was I thinking about leaving for the Isle of Man in two days? That bothers me some, as one should do one's fastest lap on the last lap of the weekend, but, on the whole, it had been a great, and largely trouble free event. In fact, it was probably the first trouble free weekend I'd had all year. Beautiful weather on a superb race track with good competition; what more could one ask for?
While the VRRA, like other vintage racing organizations is catering to more and more modern 'vintage' bike, Mosport still had a wonderful representation of pre-war racers.