Weekend at the Races

Most of these Pro events play out through the afternoon and into the evening. Practice and qualifying normally begins around 2:00pm and the main event occurs around 10:00pm. With average lap times of about 30-40 seconds on a mile track, a 25-lap main event takes only about fifteen minutes to run. Track prep usually involves applying lots of water all through the week prior to the race so the moisture runs deep into the soil. Cars and trucks drive around for many laps to pack the soil down. On race day, the track will be watered in the morning and occasionally through the afternoon. The idea is to keep the surface tacky and not too dusty. Calcium chloride may be applied to help the soil retain moisture. As darkness falls and ambient air temperature falls, the moisture in the soil will rise slowly to the surface, keeping the racing line grippy, with fewer water truck visits needed between races. That's how it's supposed to work, anyhow.

The Arizona Mile on May 12 was challenging. Because the Turf Paradise horse track in Phoenix has no lights, the entire event had to be prosecuted in daylight hours. Although it was not as hot as when I was there a year ago, temps were still in the 90s all day and the track baked in the sunshine. There were frequent breaks to sweep off the dust and add water. For reasons I'm unsure of, the organizers were not allowed to apply calcium chloride. This put the whole event far off schedule and it finished just after sunset. The main event was shortened by five laps. Some riders complained that a lack of visibility caused by clouds of dust and growing darkness made it too unsafe. But people were careful, there were no bad crashes and everyone was happy just to get through the day.















 
The Sacramento Mile ran just one week after Phoenix, and it was everything that the Arizona race was not. The weather was perfect, the track was very well prepared and the racing was close and exciting. In the top class for twin cylinder bikes, the margin of victory in the 25-lap main event was only 0.018 seconds. There was a halftime race for vintage machines. Years ago the bikes had no rear suspension and no brakes. The riders had to rely on throttle control and engine braking to set up for the turns. There was an old Indian (6) that especially caught my eye. One of the corner flaggers had a neat Yamaha Mini Enduro pit bike. That was the closest thing to a minibike that I saw all weekend. [MENTION=18286]manchester1[/MENTION] mentioned Dan Bromley in an earlier post. He runs the #62 KTM in the single cylinder class and he finished in second place at Sac. Dan is about a head taller than most of the other riders and the bike beneath him looks pretty small. He's a very pleasant fellow and a recent college graduate. I always like to get some race face photos in the pre-grid area as riders prepare to go on track. Oliver Brindley (24) sure had his face on. You have to look close through his face shield and a stack of tear-offs to see the gunfighter eyes staring back at you. Brindley comes all the way from England to race this series. Here are some photos.

















 
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Last weekend I traveled to Ohio for the Lima Half-Mile race. This is one of my favorites. The "cushion" racing surface is loose and deep. The pea gravel material is not unlike the stuff on the bottom of your aquarium. The bikes sort of swim around in it. There are multiple lines and lots of passing opportunities, unlike the single-line "blue groove" tracks such as Springfield and Sacramento. If you're not out front at Lima you get blasted with gravel and mud. The gravel leaves riders bruised on their arms and chest.

Current champ Jared Mees (1) gave the Indian brand it's first Twins class win here in their second year of trying. This wasn't especially surprising. He has won eight of the ten races so far the season. Mees led the 25-lap main event from flag to flag and has a huge lead in season championship points. The entire 6-wide front row of the starting grid was filled with Indians.

Shayna Texter (52) made history, becoming the first woman to win the Singles class at Lima, and it was the first win for Husqvarna in this sport. It was also her first win of the season. Shayna sits third overall in season points.

The stands at the Allen County Fairgrounds were full of enthusiastic Ohio fans. It's always nice to see a large crowd turn out. A neat feature of this track is that fans line the fence outside the turns. You don't get to do that at most tracks. After a few clouds in the morning the sun really came out. Temps were in the nineties and it was humid. I though that I was going to melt.

The series movs to New York this weekend, then on to South Dakota in early August. I'll skip those meets, and join back in at the Peoria TT on August 18. In the meantime I'll cover some local events.

Here are come pics from Lima.

















 
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I alway like to find some other things to see on my trips to the races.

In Dayton, Ohio, last weekend I visited America's Packard Museum. This was a fine place to spend the afternoon.

The museum is housed in an actual Packard dealership building that looks tired on the outside but is very nice inside. The single docent present explained to me that the business closed in 1938, and the original flooring, lighting fixtures, and wooden wall coverings remain unchanged and preserved from that time, right down to the plumbing fixtures in the restrooms.

Thirty-eight cars were on display at the time of my visit. The docent said the full collection numbers around seventy vehicles. He said that all are drivable or could be with little effort. Some are restored and some are in original condition. Five or six cars sit in the dealership's paneled showroom. Pre-war cars can be viewed in the service bay area and an equal number of postwar cars are housed in an adjacent building. Some of the cars are on loan from their owners and some belong to the foundation which operates the museum. There are also many period artifacts scattered about and a display of Packard marine and aircraft engines.

One or two of the cars are horseless carriages from the Brass Era. Others from the Roaring Twenties could have been gangster cars. Some are quite sporty, including one that set a land speed record on a Florida beach in 1904. There is a dump truck from 1919, fitted with hard rubber tires. Some of the cars feature custom coachwork from companies such as LeBaron and Murphy. Several more are bloated '50s whales, produced near the end of Packard's run. Nearly all have the same iconic grille shape.

Each car has a plaque that describes its technical details and provenance. I mentioned my appreciation of this to the docent, explaining that the descriptions are much more thorough than those in another museum I visited a couple of weeks ago. He was pleased to hear this and said they are a recent addition, researched and written by volunteers and printed using equipment recently acquired by the local public library.











 
Dayton, Ohio, has no shortage of neat things to see.

Last Friday I visited the National Museum of the United States Air Force. What a place this is. It's huge and filled with displays of military aircraft from the beginning of aviation through present time, arranged in chronological order. By moving quickly I was able to see the whole thing in one day, but to go slowly and absorb it all would take quite a bit longer.

The displays of early aircraft, including a replica Wright Flyer w/original engine and hardware, was especially interesting to me because my wife and I listened to David McCullough's biography of the Wright Brothers when we drove to California last fall and we've been talking about it ever since.

The new Memphis Bell exhibit is very nicely done. I was moved by the experience of boarding Air Force One and standing in the spot where LBJ was sworn in as president in 1963 after Kennedy's assassination. It was also an emotional experience to walk through the C141 "Hanoi Taxi" that brought home the first POWs from Vietnam in 1973.

















 
This weekend's race was in New York and I chose to skip it and stay home. That was a mistake becase one of our Pacific Northwest racers won. Dang.

Anyway, my buddy and I went to see some neat Volkswagens (and one really nice '64 Buick) at the local Krispie Kreme. We were just looking for something a little different to do and I saw the event listed on FB. This was a VW club meet-up. I think the Buick belonged to someone who was just getting donuts. I've never owned a VW, but I like old cars and that old car smell. I wonder if anyone on OldMiniBikes is into VWs? After looking at the cars for awhile we hopped back on our motorcycles and rode about 50 miles to another town for some BBQ lunch. It was a good day.

I took these photos with my phone instead of the big camera that I use at the races. I think it works pretty well.





















 
VW lover. I’ve owned more than I can count. Some pretty rare busses and Bugs. Current project is a 74 Thing as you pictured above...


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Last weekend was The Wild One event in Castle Rock, Wash. If you live in the Pacific Northwest and are into minis, this is the place to be. This event is now in its fifth year. It's a great mixer for the local flat track race crowd and other two-wheel enthusiasts who don't spend much time at the races. There are loads of regular race bikes, minibikes, old school choppers and much more. Minibikes were everywhere.

There was sort of a medieval theme this year. Last year it was clowns. The race director wore a knight's suit all weekend and the announcer was dressed as a bishop. One of the flaggers was done up as Robin Hood in short-shorts. Lots of people wore costumes, ranging from a star spangled onesie to a guy in a Santa Claus suit. With some folks, you weren't sure if they had dressed up, or just went around like that all the time.

The event started on Friday night with a regular flat track event hosted my the Mt. St. Helens M/C. The Castle Rock track is a fast 3/8 mile clay oval. There is an infield TT section with a jump and a right-hand turn. For many years, Castle Rock hosted AMA national championship TT races of great fame. That ended in 2012, when the club fell on hard times. The TT part doesn't get used much anymore, but on this weekend they did put it into service for a jump-off contest.

Saturday was the big day and there was stuff going on all afternoon. It started with informal minibike races on a large concrete pad. Winners were rewarded with cases of beer. Safety rules were not enforced and most folks rode in shorts and no helmet. There were a few scrapes but no cracked noggins. At the same time there was a bike show going on in another area, and a vendor row got down to business.

The campground was packed, and kids and grownups rode around and around on all sorts of bikes. No one seemed to mind the huge clouds of dust that got stirred up and there were smiles all around.

When the minibike races ended everyone moved into the race track infield for the jump-off. Around a dozen riders showed off for the cheering crowd. Top prize went to the guy who did a no-footer on a a clapped out old Yamaha Enduro. His prizes included a real chain mail suit and a great big bottle of Jack Daniels.

Saturday night's races had classes for minibikes, choppers, pro flat trackers, kid flat trackers, three-wheelers and others. It was also a round of the Roland Sands Design national Super Hooligan series. That class sees pro racers on track-prepped cruisers from Indian, Harley-Davidson, and Triumph plus a couple of other brands.

Getting back to the medieval theme (and I think this is the best part) at halftime they had minibike jousting. Yes, real jousting. Organizers provided two electric minis decorated as horses, long stiff poles tipped with pads, and each rider also was given a shield. They lined up about thirty feet apart on the race track's front straight and ran directly at each other. One fellow took it right in the kisser and was swept off the bike. But he got back up to try again. The winner was given more beer or whisky or something.

The super hooligan main event was won by Joe Kopp, a former AMA grand national flat track champion who lives in Washington. The minibike class was one by a DB30 with a predator engine that absolutely barked. It was a hot machine.

When the races were done everyone moved to a large barn for the trophy ceremony. Only about half of the people who earned prizes showed up to claim them because minibike races had started up again outside the barn. A live band began to play and a food truck handed out free fried chicken. The party went on nearly until sunrise. It was wild.

I took more than 1,000 photos. I'll post a few of them here, starting with minibike jousting. More to come later.





 
The Wild One started and ended with minis and small dirt bikes racing on a small course on an old concrete foundation pad. Everyone was welcome to join in and it as pretty hilarious watching them all go around and around. Race winners were given beer trophies.





















 
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Cool three-wheelers at The Wild One. In spite of touching the ground at three points, these bikes are anything but stable. Another foot or two of wheelbase might calm them down, but then it wouldn't be quite as spectacular. :laugh: :thumbsup:

The KTM 300 two-stroke machine (1) was finished just a few days before the race. It ran to a close win over the more experienced Honda 750-powered rig (5). Look at the shorty pipes on the Honda. It howls. The KTM got a big holeshot in the main event when the Honda clipped another bike coming off the starting line. The Honda was faster on the straights but the KTM would gain ground in the turns. After six laps they were nose to tail at the checkered flag. Two other bikes with smaller engines couldn't match the blistering pace, but they were still fun to watch. Check out the steering mechanism on the #4 rig.











 
Here are some shots from the jump-off contest at The Wild One. I did not take the photo of the young man doing the no-footer on an old Yamaha, but I did get a shot of him later with his prizes of a chain mail suit and a giant bottle of Jack Daniels. Funny choice of prizes. This is not a hard drinking crowd. Beside him is his brand new wife. Happy newlyweds.









 
Last weekend I traveled to Peoria, Ill., for the 72nd annual running of the Peoria TT. This is always one of my favorite events. The track runs up and down the bottom of a small valley. Instead of the usual flat oval that most of these races are held on, the back straight on this half-mile circuit has a big jump that ends in a dogleg left-right-left turn.

Henry Wiles (17) won the class for twin cylinder bikes. It was his fourteenth Peoria win in a row. They call him the King of Peoria. Henry does OK on the flat ovals- he's running second in season points -but at this track he's unstoppable. His bike had a Kawasaki engine in a custom frame. Indians have dominated the series this year and Kawis have really fallen out of favor. The Japanese machine worked fine here, however.

Heavy rain in the days before the event left the track a muddy mess. These bikes really need a flat hard surface. Caterpillar Inc. is a longtime event sponsor. On the morning of the race they were hard at work with huge earth moving equipment. They scraped off the top few inches of soil from most of the track, tilled what was left to air it out, and then smoothed it back down. Not satisfied, they fluffed it up and packed it back down again once more. This made the event start about two hours late. But with careful trimming of the schedule and careful attention to moving things along it ended just a few minutes later than originally planned. Everyone was pleased with how the organizers handled it all.









 
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