I did a little better than I expected at Willow Springs, ending up with a pair of 2nd place finishes in Vintage Superbike and a 3rd & a 4th in Formula Vintage.

I ran my silver Honda on Friday morning, running laps in the 1:42 range. In the first practice session after lunch, I missed a shift into 5th on the back straight and then it popped into gear but started ‘skipping’ into & out of 5th which removed the prospect of racing the silver CB-F the next day. I’m pretty sure I either rounded the gear dogs or bent the shift fork; something about pegging the tach and then going into gear… Anyway, I got the black Honda going and ran it around for the rest of the practice sessions but it felt skittery and less stable so I was pretty sure it was slower by a couple of seconds a lap. However, when I checked my lap times they were better by about second, in the 1:41 range. Friday ended with me knowing I’d be racing the black Honda but I felt okay about it given that it seemed a little faster. Saturday morning - Race Day! I took the black Honda out for a few laps just to help myself get more comfortable and discovered the clutch was slipping! I adjusted the clutch between my only two practice sessions of the day but wasn't able to get rid of the clutch problem. When I came in from the last practice session I removed the clutch from the silver bike and installed it in the black bike. I was hoping it wouldn't slip, and when I rode it around the pits before the race there was a lot of chatter but no slipping.

During the warm up lap the replacement clutch in the black Honda was good with no slipping at all but it still had lots of chatter. I think it has a warped plate in it, but I'll check that out in the garage later. In Vintage Superbike HW I got a decent start and was second off the line. The guy in the lead missed the shift into 2nd on his Z1R, gifting me 1st place. However, it only lasted through turn one and partway through turn two. After that, I was racing by myself behind the Z1R, slowly falling behind. That was pretty much it, except for another person who passed me but was disqualified right after the race due to having a clearly illegal bike – he had racing slicks, which aren't allowed. The Formula Vintage race was all right and I got to race some of my Vintage Superbike competitors and others from other vintage classes. Both I and the Z1R were in this race, but this time the Z1R didn’t miss his shift into 2nd, relegating me to 2nd place which lasted the whole first lap. I was passed by two other bikes (a Triumph 750 triple and a Ducati) coming on to the front straight and it was a pretty cool feeling to have 4 big bikes running nose to tail down the whole length of Willow Springs’ front straight. Once we ran through turn 1 and 2 I fell back a little and the top three went on to have a good battle the whole race, especially between Dave Crussel’s Z1R and the Triumph Triple ridden by Scott Jennings. Dave ended coming out on top in a very close race.

Racing on Sunday was a little better. This time the Z1R and I got off the line pretty close to each other, and we had a good race. The Z1R had a problem, and he slowed and acted like he was pulling off the track in turn 8. I went by him and slowed down a little, since he was making me go a little faster than I really wanted to and I thought he was out of the race. Surprise, surprise! A lap or two later the Z1R passed me in turn 8 while I was stuck behind a lapper. I had made the decision not to pass as soon as I could and wait for a safer, easier pass on the exit of turn 9 onto the front straight. The Z1R went zinging around me in turn 8 and I remained stuck behind the lapper until I could pass him where I had planned to. The Z1R had pulled out a huge lead in those two corners (very, very fast corners) and I worked hard over the next three laps or so to get back on his tail, closing from about 150 feet behind to just a couple of bike lengths, but on the last lap (when I was thinking I could pass him maybe by drafting out of 9) I ended up losing the back end of my bike repeatedly (it kept sliding out) through most of turn 2 and I just backed off. I was afraid I had overheated the back tire and didn’t trust it in turn 8 or 9. No guts, no glory, and another 2nd place finish! In the Formula Vintage race it was an exact repeat of Saturday’s race except Scott Jennings blew up his Triumph triple in the Formula 750 race and didn’t show for Formula Vintage allowing me to do one better than Saturday.

I ended up doing a best time of 1:39.2 (which translates to an AVERAGE lap speed of 90.7mph) on the black bike, over 3 seconds per lap better than my early practice times on the silver bike. I guess the black bike is now my “favorite”… I need to tear the silver CB-F down to fix the tranny. Good thing I've got boxes of spare gearsets. I'll have to fix the clutches on both bikes, too.

Thanks for your support!

Dennis

After the race out in California at the end of April there was some work to do on the racebikes. The silver Honda had a transmission problem and wouldn’t stay in 5th gear, and the black CB-F had a slipping clutch. After robbing the clutch out of the silver CB-F I was able to race the black bike all weekend, ending up on the podium three times in four attempts with a pair of seconds, a third and a fourth. Both 2nd place finishes were in Vintage Superbike, losing out to a ’78 Z1R. The 3rd and 4th place finishes were in Formula Vintage. I tried to fire up the Z1 but it was only running on 2 cylinders, so it sat out the weekend.

When I got back home I tore into the silver CB-F and found severely rounded engagement dogs and a ruined shift fork for 5th gear. Luckily, I had a stock of used parts on hand and was able to replace the two gears and the shift fork. I also installed an “extra-plate” A.P.E. clutch kit in the silver bike to replace the one I had moved to the black bike out in California. I got the silver CB-F reassembled in time for the next local race in mid-May and moved on to the green Z1 which had only fired on two cylinders. A few minutes of troubleshooting isolated a bad coil, and once that was replaced the green Z1 fired right up. I hauled the bikes out to the local track to race the CB-F in SuperVintage and the green Z1 in Historic Vintage. I didn’t ride the Z1 in either of the two practice sessions thinking that it needed no attention and instead focused on the silver CB-F to make sure it was good to go after it’s rebuild. Everything seemed to be good!

The races rolled around and the Z1 was up first in the Historic Vintage race. We ran the sighting lap, lined up on the start, and took off. I was in first place for about a half a lap when the motor quit running abruptly and made “bad” noises, but thankfully all the parts stayed inside the engine cases. I coasted into the pits and parked the bike. When I was able to look at it later, I saw that it had broken the cam chain!

The SuperVintage race was called and I lined up on the silver CB-F, intending to ‘race-test’ it to make sure it was 100% good to go for the national events in June as the black CB-F was fine after the races in California. I got a decent start and moved into first place around the first corner. I remained first and won the race handily, lapping deep into the SuperVintage field – but since it’s not a displacement regulated class I was moving my 985cc Honda past a bunch of 350s and the like… The Honda ran well, but felt like it had a loose swingarm bolt or something as it seemed to ‘settle’ on corner entry. I checked some items after the race to make sure they were tight, but didn’t find anything. I’ll check it out more before the next race, and pay special attention to the new front wheel I put on it just before the last race.

Road America in Wisconsin and Grattan in Michigan are up next in the middle of June. I intend to run the black CB-F and save the silver bike as a backup if I need one. I’m hoping for a podium in all my races, but I think it’ll be tough in the Vintage Superbike class, and even tougher in Formula Vintage. Road America is long and requires good brakes and a strong motor so I’m expecting my Honda to do well there. I still have some work to do on the Hondas before I head out on June 10th for the long drive from New Mexico (about 1400 miles one-way to Road America, and then further to Grattan in Michigan) and the races are on consecutive weekends so I’ll be visiting family in the Chicago area in between races. The Z1 is having parts swapped around with another race Z1 to make a working Z1 for the local Historic Vintage races.

Road America: Friday practice day (6/12), Saturday and Sunday races (6/13 & 14) Grattan: Friday practice day (6/19), Saturday and Sunday races (6/20 & 21)

Wish me luck! Dennis

Road America was a blast, and at 4 miles long was the longest roadrace course I’ve ever raced on. However, when I first got there and went out for practice laps on Friday my black CB-F was running poorly with a bad miss on top and was geared too low. I changed the plugs (which were probably the culprit) and richened up the jetting beyond my initial guess then geared the bike up, and then it ran fine. I had to add one tooth on the countershaft sprocket from my Willow Springs gearing (the “Fastest Track in the West!”). I was able to pull an indicated 10,500rpm in 5th gear on my CB-F on one of their long, long straights with 17/44 gearing and that is FAST! (Well, for a 28 year old bike it’s FAST!) There was time to rest on the long straights and the whole track was fun to ride, but thankfully it was a pretty 'simple' track to learn. I was comfortable by the 3rd session.

Vintage Superbike on Saturday and Sunday went well with a 3rd place finish in both races. Dave Crussell on his ’78 Kawasaki Z1R won both races and another guy riding a Kawasaki GPz750 (plus a few cc's I hope – it’d make me feel better!) getting 2nd both days. On race starts Dave's Z1R and my CB-F are dead even with about a 1/4 bike length difference or less all the way through the gears before we finally brake for turn one at RA. The race on Saturday wasn't incredibly exciting with us essentially being a train, each of us staying in position but gradually pulling apart once the GPz750 passed me in turn 3. The race on Sunday was another story though. Another great start by Dave and I had us neck and neck all the way down the front straight until we braked for turn one. However, in this race Dave's handlebars were just a bit loose so whenever he would brake hard for the corners the handlebars would rotate down a bit and he'd have to pull them up after the corner. That slowed him up enough to keep all three of us very close together and we traded positions the whole race with whomever was leading coming onto any long straight being drafted and passed by the guy behind him. It was a close race the whole way until the last lap when lappers broke us apart, but all three of us led the race at different times. It was great fun!

Formula Vintage on Saturday had Dave Crussell on his Z1R and another guy on a CB750 SOHC Rickman from Formula 750 plus myself in the top three positions along with a ton of other types of bikes. The Rickman-Honda blew by me at the end of the first lap braking into turn one and when I talked to him later he said he was just able to draft me down the front straight and had never gone that fast before. Dave won both days on his Z1R and the Rickman finished 2nd and I got 3rd on Saturday. The Rickman didn't race on Sunday (the last race of the weekend) and I was able to ride home in 2nd behind Dave after another evenly matched drag race to the first corner and then Dave working his way further in front of m e through all the rest of the corners.

Overall my finishes for the weekend were 3rd x 2 for Superbike and a 2nd & 3rd for Formula Vintage.

Grattan is a tough track to do well on and avoid mistakes. It’s 2 miles long, somewhat narrow and has a series of very challenging corners – off camber, blind, decreasing radius, elevation changes and even the odd water spring in the middle of one corner that comes and goes! The weather was both bad and good. Rain and thunderstorms on Friday’s practice day and Saturday morning put a damper on everything, but the track was mostly dry by race time Saturday afternoon and from that point on the weather was great after the dense fog lifted about 9am Saturday morning.

Vintage Superbike on Saturday and Sunday was fun; we were gridded with some modern bikes in front of us including 250cc two-stroke GP bikes and modern twins, including some new Buells. On the start Dave and I did well as usual but had to make our way through some of the slower starting two strokes. Once they were on the boil, some would pass us back but they’re not as quick off the line as the big old superbikes. Dave Crussell and I battled again, but I slowly fell behind and then started hearing a very loud, very big sounding noise behind me. Will Harding was on his monster BMW twin, slowly catching me through the course and loosing a little bit back on the straights. Will and his BMW passed me halfway through the last lap of the Vintage Superbike race by outbraking me into a s low corner. I followed Will for about a quarter of a lap and then watched him blow a corner by braking later than usual to make sure I didn’t pass him back. It worked, but not in the way Will had intended it to. I was so entertained watching his big old BMW wiggle, chatter, wobble, slide and horse around heading for the grass that I forgot to pass him back because I knew he was going to crash. He didn’t, though, and I finished 3rd in that race after I watched him get his bike turned and pointed up the hill to the finish line. I wasn’t able to out-horsepower him because I was busy goofing off watching his antics – but if I’d been paying attention to racing I think I could have beat him! In Sunday’s Vintage Superbike race I was able to run closer to Dave and was actually catching him very slowly after initially falling back until I blew (three times) a shift from 3rd to 4th coming up out of the bottom of Grattan onto the front straight. I don’t think I’d have been able to pass him, but at least I would have shown him a wheel or made enough noise for him to know I was there. Formula Vintage on Saturday and Sunday was essentially a replay of the Vintage Superbike races where Dave and I were out front.

My Grattan finishes for the weekend were a 2nd & a 3rd in Vintage Superbike and 2nd x2 for Formula Vintage.

After driving 3500 miles between New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan and back in not much more than a week I'm ready to stay at home for a bit.

Dennis

It’s been a busy time for me! There were race events with the local club and on top of that I got married and have been working to combine two full houses and garages into one over-full house and garage!

July’s local race was a scorcher with temperatures hovering around 100. I competed in the usual races, Historic Vintage Heavyweight on the Z1 and SuperVintage on the CB-F. Both bikes ran great and I was able to win both races. I rode the black CB-F for SuperVintage and it was a handful around our small, tight track. I only run in first through fourth gears with fifth gear way too tall for this track. In both races I got great starts and led pretty much the whole race so there’s no exciting stories to talk about – other than the fact that we run with modern ‘club sport’ bikes in SuperVintage and I beat a couple of them on my “old” bike. That always gives me a warm feeling…

Dennis

August’s race was much cooler than July and again both bikes ran great but instead of running the black CB-F I decided to take the silver one out for a run around the racetrack. My Historic Vintage race was combined with the modern SuperTwins class which meant I got to race my 35 year old Z1 around the track for a couple of laps in front of a racer on a ‘08 Ducati 1098! After a few laps I decided that I should let him by as he was making me nervous. A new really fast bike with a newer rider following me around always makes me think I’m going to get T-Boned at the apex of some corner when I least expect it. Once he was in front of me I followed him around for a while and then he gradually opened up a small gap.

The SuperVintage race was fun as I purposely got a slow start so I could follow my friends around the track for a little bit. I was in 3rd place for a couple of laps watching my competition on their GS1000s dice with each other. They were pretty close until the guy in first place ran wide on the turn going onto the front straight. The 2nd GS and I both passed him and then I passed the leader to move into first about a lap later. Both bikes ran great and other than three bald rear tires and rejetting I don’t have anything that I need to do to prepare for the national event at Miller Motosports Park outside of Salt Lake City next month. That’ll give me time to finish unpacking!

I look forward to seeing you and some Randakk customers at Barber!

Dennis

Miller Motorsports Park is a great place to go and enjoy racing. They were having a ‘Bike Week’ event while I was there with modern bikes racing on the west track, motard bikes on their custom-built motard track on the north, and vintage AHRMA racing on the east track along with a bike show on Saturday.

Practice on Friday was pretty good. Both the Honda CB-Fs were supposedly race ready after no problems in their last couple of outings. I intended to race the black CB-F and spent the morning practicing on it. The first practice sessions went okay and I was turning laps in the 1:55 range. However, the first practice session after lunch turned out to be somewhat problematic when I came in at the end of the session with oil all over the front of my motor. Inspection revealed that the blind oil plug in the cylinder head for the top cam chain tensioner had popped out. I parked the bike for the rest of the day and went out on the silver CB-F. DANGIT! When I came in after the practice session there was a small film of oil on the left side of the motor and my boot so I spent the rest of that day chasing where the oil leak wasn’t… After replacing the ignition cover o-ring and side cover gaskets along using some RTV silicone goobering up (a very technical term) the wiring exit from the cover and the upper and lower case seam by the ignition wires I still hadn’t found the source of the oil seeping. Luckily it wasn't real bad, just an irritant.

For our first practice session on Saturday I sealed the electric starter O-ring and resolved the oil seeping problem – hooray! I also had goobered up the missing oil plug seal on the black CB-F that morning after the local Honda shop didn’t have the part I needed to fix it right. My races were back to back plus they were the LAST two races of the day so I spent the time after practice ended in the morning and my races in late afternoon by wandering around the pits and taking in the sights.

Race 10 of the day was the Vintage Superbike event which was combined with a modern “Sound of Thunder” twin cylinder class. The modern bikes were gridded in front of the Vintage Superbikes, and when the green flag flew the guy right in front of me killed his bike on the grid. I had to go around him and needed to wait some for space so I was pretty far back – I think the only guy who didn’t beat me into the first corner was the person who killed their bike on the start! DANGIT X2! I had to work my way through a pack of modern and vintage superbikes to move into second in my class. The infamous Dave Crussell was on my left and made it by the stalled bike off the line, and he was so far ahead of me that I didn’t have any chance to catch him. I did have a slower guy in front of me on a modern twin and I spent the whole race dicing with him. He would pull me a little on the straights and then block me in the corners. It was pretty frustrating, but I did manage to get by him for a whole lap until he passed me back coming out of a corner. Dave Crussell finished first again and I got second. Formula Vintage was the next race and I was lined up next to Dave Crussell on the front row thinking I was going to be able to dice with him from the very beginning. I had a little trouble getting my bike into neutral coming up to the line but thought I had that taken care of while we were gridding up. As the “1” board went sideways, I shifted into first gear and watched for the flag to move. The flag twitched, I had the motor revved up and started feeding the clutch in and was off to a rotten start. Huh? That’s not right! I had found a neutral between 2nd and 3rd and instead of screaming away in first gear I was bogging and almost killing my bike in second! DANGIT X3! Dave got his normal excellent start and I was in 4th or 5th place off the line. I was able to pass and move up into 2nd place but that took a couple of laps and by that time Dave was gone. I finished the race a lonely and distant 2nd.

Sunday was my final chance to redeem myself. I took the black bike out for practice and turned identical times on it as on the silver bike so decided that I’d stay with the silver bike for the weekend. Again I had the late morning and early afternoon to wander the pits and visit, so I did. When my races rolled around I suited up and headed out, thinking that it would be better than Saturday. Well… Race 10 was the Sound of Thunder modern twins, Vintage Superbike and they added in a class called “Super Mono” which is modern motard bikes. For some reason (I can’t think of any good excuse) I got a poorer start than I expected and was swarmed in the first corner by all the motard bikes, vintage superbikes and some modern twins. I was stuck in that pack for about a third of a lap until we strung out enough to move around a little, and when I had passed the other vintage superbikes and some of the motard bikes Dave was again way out in front in the superbike class. DANGIT X4! I soldiered on but was pretty much riding by myself some distance back. As I was racing, I missed the shift from 3rd to 4th and though I didn’t have any massive failure the bike felt like it had a tooth on the 4th gearset nicked or something and was vibrating whenever I was in 4th gear. I shortshifted through 4th for the rest of the race and when it was over I rode to my pits and grabbed the black CB-F because of my concerns about the silver bike’s gearbox. I headed out to the pre-grid, and then turned around and went back to get my transponder off my silver bike. Oops and DANGIT X5! We went out for the sighting lap and I rode somewhat aggressively to try and warm my tires up before the race started. In case you didn’t know, my rear tire gets to a little over 190F and the front runs about 150F. Anyway, I lined up for the last race of the weekend on a bike I hadn’t hardly ridden with cold tires thinking about how Dave was gonna run away again. DANGIT X6! The “1” board turns sideways, I snick the bike into first, the green flag flies and I get an excellent start! I’m first into turn 1 and lead the first lap. HOORAY! However, one ‘bad’ thing about riding the black bike after the silver bike is the bikes are geared different; the black bike is slightly higher geared. I’m in 2nd coming out of turn 1 on the second lap and my bike bogs really bad which allows Dave to squeeze by me on the exit. DANGIT X7! I chase him for the next two laps and stay fairly close behind him. Suddenly, Dave slows and throws his hand up. I’m thinking to myself “Yeah, he’s done this before at Willow Springs. He thought he had a problem, then the bike ‘fixed’ itself and he passed me when I was taking my time passing a lapper. He’s just goofing off…” I went by him and led the rest of the race, winning my first national even of this year after a ton of 2nd place finishes. HOORAY X2! It felt great! When I saw Dave in the pits after the race I asked him if he pulled in early so he could start packing for the drive back to California, but the real answer was that he lost the cap of his front brake master cylinder during the race and the brake fluid naturally was streaming all over him. He stopped racing because he was well on his way to having no front brakes, and that’s not good!

My finishes for the weekend of racing were a first and a second in Formula Vintage and a pair of seconds in Vintage Superbike.

The next race up is my home track. I should do well there as I have “the home track advantage”!

Sandia Classic AHRMA National Event

Since Sandia Motorsports Park is my ‘home’ racetrack I chose not to participate in Friday’s practice day. Given that I’ve raced on the track about every month during racing season for the last seven years I had pretty good knowledge of it and because we had just finished the event at Miller the week before I knew my bikes were all good to go. I planned on showing up Saturday morning, registering, taking each CB-F out for one session to make sure they ran right and then waiting on the races to roll around.

Saturday I showed up bright and early about 6:45am to set up my pits, register and check the bikes over one last time. I ran the black CB-F in practice first and all was well. I took the silver CB-F out and went about two laps when the clutch cable broke on a downshift and the bike went into neutral. Luckily ‘pit-in’ was coming up so I signaled I was exiting the track and coasted in, not sure what had happened exactly. Once I was able to look at the bike instead of where I was going it was clear that the clutch cable had snapped at the lever and there was nothing seriously wrong with the bike.

Turnout for the races was very light. Sandia is a very small, tight track and tough to ride quickly on a ‘big’ bike so there were few competitors in my classes. We ran our races combined with other classes and I was able to turn pretty quick lap times. In fact, given that I had the seven years of track time on this track I was able to turn the quickest lap times of all the vintage bikes regardless of class! The two races each day were essentially the same. I got off to a good start for every race and was able to lead right off the bat. I set a goal for myself to run quick and consistent laps to try and was able to run20in the very low :59’s. My lap times had me catching the other bikes in about 5 laps so I started lapping them pretty quickly and it made for interesting racing. I won all the races I entered with two firsts in Vintage Superbike Heavyweight and two more in Formula Vintage.

Sandia Local Event

The third of three back-back-back race weekends arrived with me looking forward to finishing this weekend and taking a couple weekends off from racing! My bikes were good to20go after replacing the clutch cable on the silver CB-F. The green Z1 hadn’t run in a month or so and it was good to get back on that bike for both practice and racing. Practice on each bike was uneventful with everything working the way it was supposed to. The only little thing was that since the brakes are not quite as good on the Z1 as the newer Honda CB-Fs it was unnerving on the first couple of hot laps to enter the corners and not have the Z1 brake as well as I anticipated. It didn’t take long to get familiar with it’s behaviors again, and when I went out and raced the Z1 in Historic Vintage Heavyweight I did very well, winning AND setting a lap time quicker on the Z1 then I did on the CB-F the previous weekend in the national races. Okay – I was only quicker on the Z1 by fifty-one one-thousandths of a second at 59.027 versus 59.078, but personal best is personal best and the thirty-five year old Z1 did great! I rode the silver CB-F in SuperVintage and won that race as well, but was turning lap times about a second slower than the Z1 for some reason.

I’m off to Barber’s for their Vintage Festival in a few days. The event is growing every year, and Randakk’s GL1000 (along with Randakk) will be there participating in the vintage cafe racer bike show as well. I’m hoping the weather is dry (I really don’t appreciate racing in the rain) and I’m looking forward to meeting Randall face to face. I think we’ll both be in the pits though Randall will likely be doing some traveling around Barber’s seeing the sights and sounds while I will be racing. Friday is a practice day only with Saturday and Sunday carbon copies of practice in the morning and racing starting about noon. I’m in the 9th and 11th races – of 11 total – so I’ll be racing pretty late in the afternoon, probably starting around 4pm. In race nine Vintage Superbike Heavy will be racing with a class called Sound of Thunder which is comprised of modern (and vintage) twins so there might be a Buell and Ducati or two out there in front of me.

See you at Barber’s!

Dennis

Of all the places I’ve ever raced at none offer a bigger event with more things to do or see than Barber’s Vintage Festival. If you haven’t been to a vintage race and pick only one to go to in your life, Barber’s should be your choice. The biggest motorcycle collection in the United States (and perhaps the world), an airshow, vintage motocross, vintage roadracing, vintage cross-country, a swap meet, bike shows, rally gathering points and a beautiful facility with friendly people all add up to make going to this event a no-brainer. They’ve had five years of experience putting it together and keep adding and expanding every year.

It’s almost 1300 miles to Birmingham from my house. I made it in 24 hours with a short nap along the way, and the weather forecast for the weekend wasn’t looking good. Rain was likely every day with thunderstorms a possibility. It had been raining off and on Thursday and Friday dawned cloudy but dry. I ran the whole practice day, which consisted of five sessions on the track each lasting about fifteen minutes. The bike was well geared for the track and ran okay except for a top end miss which has been plaguing me all season. New sparkplugs will eradicate the miss for most of a race weekend. I have plans to replace the ignition, but that project managed to always remain on tomorrow’s list of things to do. I had managed to get my lap times from the 1:55s down into the 1:50s and was pretty happy with that. The black CB-F ran very well otherwise, but rapid tire wear forced me to put a new rear on at the end of Friday's practice day along with new plugs.

Saturday dawned wet and rainy. I made the decision to not go out for practice even though there was only one session that day because attempting to race (or practice racing) in the rain isn’t very enjoyable. I spent the time hanging out with Randakk talking about racing and other items of interest until racetime rolled around at about 3pm. From a distance, the track looked damp. When we went out for our sighting lap, it really looked damp, but it seemed to have decent traction though. We lined up and I got a decent start, ending up 2nd in my Vintage Superbike class after the second corner or so. I rode cautiously for two laps because of the dampness and my doubt about my tires sticking. Even so, I was able to stay with the leader in Vintage Superbike. After a couple of laps to let my tires warm up and ‘test’ the traction limits I decided that I could run faster than what I had been. The track’s surface had great traction, though it still looked damp or even wet in spots. I cranked it up, and caught up close to the guy in front of me. He was riding a Suzuki GS1000 of about ’80 vintage, a fast and stable platform. For seven laps of the eight lap race I was right behind him, checking here and there to see if I could get by. I found a couple of possibilities and then stayed put, usually about a bike-length or so, hoping he’d get distracted and make a mistake so I could ride on by without having to work too hard for it! On the eighth lap he ran wide in a 180-degree hairpin corner and I was able to move up on the inside of him for the pass. He didn’t catch me after that, and after he led the laps that didn’t matter I finally got the lead on the lap that did matter – the last lap. I won, and thoroughly enjoyed the race as we got to dice back and forth quite a bit. Formula Vintage was the last race of the day, and turnabout was fair play. See if this sounds familiar… I was in the front in Formula Vintage, leading every lap from the very beginning. I led seven laps of the race, and then on the lap that mattered I got passed by the guy who was running in second place. He deserved the pass as he braked very late going into turn one after the front straight and I thought he was going to run off the outside of the track but he was able to hold his bike on the pavement. He had run so wide into the turn that when we started turn two, a long right hander, my front wheel and his rear wheel were even, but he was on the inside of the corner and I wasn’t going to be able to ride around the outside of him so I fell in behind him. He was riding on the ragged edge! There’s a characteristic of handling called “chatter” and it’s caused by the traction twisting the tire carcass and loading up the suspension in a turn, kind of like winding a rubber band – the tire – up. The tire ‘unwinds’ and slips, then grabs traction, then slips, and it does this repeatedly and very fast. It’s like putting your head in a gallon paint can shaker! His bike was chattering and hopping all the way around the corner, but he held on and finished that last lap in front of me, winning the race and relegating me to 2nd. After watching him go around turn two like that, he had earned the win in my book. Who was it? NOT the guy on the GS1000 I had beaten in the earlier race, but a young kid out of Europe on a ’72 Ducati Sport who also races modern bikes ‘over on the continent’. He’s fast and dedicated!

Sunday rolled around dry but overcast. I decided to run the silver CB-F in the only practice session that day, and it was acceptable but slower than the black bike. If I needed it, it would work. Race 7 came around and Vintage Superbike was off and running. I didn’t get a great start and was in 4th place off the line but improved my position rapidly on the first laps. I passed the infamous GS1000 of Saturday's Vintage Superbike battle in the same corner as Saturday’s Vintage Superbike race, and then another GS1000 that was in front of me broke and coasted off the track moving me into second behind – yes – the ’72 Ducati! I think he fixed his handling problem from the day before though as I couldn’t catch him. He motored away from me, leaving me to ride around in 2nd place with no challenges which is where I finished. In Formula Vintage, the last race on the last day of the festival, we lined up for our last chance for a shot of glory. I was on the front row where I got a decent start and was off the line in 3rd place with the ’72 Ducati and an even older and smaller bike ridden by one ridiculously fast guy in front of me. Those two raced away from me having their own battle with each other and turning lap times in the 1:41s. My lap times were in the high 1:46s so I managed to fall behind them pretty quickly, and finished my day with a third, way in front of the guy that got 4th.

It was a great weekend, in spite of the weather. I enjoyed the airshow, the museum, the grounds, meeting Randakk and especially the racing. I ended up with a win and a 2nd in Vintage Superbike and a 2nd and a 3rd in Formula Vintage. This was the season ending race with ARHMA, and I finished 2nd nationally (also known as “first loser” in racer parlance) in both Vintage Superbike and Formula Vintage. I did win an AHRMA regional series called the Pacific Crown for Formula Vintage, narrowly edging out Dave Crussell who won both Vintage Superbike and Formula Vintage Championships with AHRMA.

There are now only two races left in my '09 racing season. In my local series, I can lock up the class championship in SuperVintage with a decent showing next Sunday, and in November if I do well in Phoenix I’ll also be able to win the regional class championships in SuperVintage and Historic Vintage – but that remains to be seen!

Thanks for a great season so far!

Dennis

My last local race went very well. I won the SuperVintage class on my Honda CB-F and the SuperVintage class championship for the season. I rode the Kaw Z1 to a win in Historic Vintage Heavyweight but the two DNFs I had in the first two races of the season limited my season results to second in that class. The two races on my big bikes were uneventful with me leading from start to finish. The Kaw ran very well and I think it has motor on the CB-Fs, but it doesn't handle as well. This current Z1 (I blew the other one up at the beginning of the season) has a stock rear swingarm and I can feel it moving around; I think it's twisting some in every turn. I rode the black CB-F in SuperVintage and it was very crisp. My personal mission at my home track is to achieve a lap time of 0:58.999 or better, and so far I've been off 2, 5 and 7 hundredths of a second in the last three races. So close, yet so far away – at least I’m consistent! I was told that I need to lose weight to gain those couple of hundredths and after considering going on a strict diet I’ve decided it’s too much work!

I accepted a free ride on a friend’s little Honda CB-400F in our local lightweight and middleweight Historic Vintage classes. The bike had just been put together the evening prior to the race and had a few things that still needed attention, including rejetting as it was lean and had a top end miss. It was really ODD riding a little bike. My lap times were about 7 seconds slower so it felt like I had was lots of time to look around and see what was going while I was waiting for the next corner to arrive. I was riding in a crowd with another CB-400F and a CB-350F so there was lots of racing, but it felt like it was slow motion. I found that I shifted the bike a lot - up, down, whatever - and found that even though I could get the motor to make different noises the bike didn't go any faster or slower no matter what! Riding the little Honda 400 four-cylinder was fun, and I finished 3rd in the lightweight class and 5th in the middleweight class.

Phoenix is up next, and then its inspection, modification and rebuild fun for a few months before next season.

Thanks for the support! Dennis

Phoenix went well for me this year and I was able to cap off a great season with a pair of wins. I was also pleased because half of my career’s worth of roadrace crashes have been at Phoenix and I stayed up the whole weekend! I’ve gone down four times since 2002, twice at Phoenix, once at Barber’s in Alabama and once at Thunderhill in California. Both times in Phoenix were on cold tires on the out lap (also known as the first lap) for the first practice round. Even though I was positive I was going w-a-y s-l-o-w it wasn’t slow enough as each time I fell in the 2nd or 3rd corner when the front end washed out.

The track we ran on in Phoenix (called Firebird Main) is strange. The real long front straight (I’ve heard it’s 5/8ths of a mile) gives you time to rest and see how fast your bike can go, and the back section runs through a huge flat paved area reminiscent of a parking lot because that’s what it is during drag race events. The entry into the back section’s series of turns starting out being pretty fast and then as you keep going through the left / right / left / right / left / right turns they get slower and slower followed by a 180 degree “tower” turn onto the front straight which doubles as a drag strip.

The only problem I had with the track was that in the tower turn the four lanes they use for staging on to the drag strip have painted dashed lines designed to keep you in your lane and are similar to highway striping only the stripes are about 10' long with 10' spaces. I kept losing the front tire cornering through the painted lines, but once the tire slid across the paint and got back on real pavement it'd stick again. After several laps of that I finally found a line that allowed me to cross from the 3rd lane into the 2nd and then the 1st coming onto the front straight by using the spaces between the lines so the front tire could be used for steering instead of plowing! That just left the back end stepping out every couple of laps on the white line marking the end of the staging area and the paint strips in the middle of the drag strip. I decided to halfway coast in a semi-straight line across those and the problem went away.

Once that was all figured out I ran some 1:20s on the Z1 and 1:18 - 1:19 on the Honda CB-F. It was interesting in that the Kaw felt way faster, being perfectly geared for the track AND I was able to do some cool power wheelies in 3rd gear over a bump in the back section of the track when you start to enter the 'parking lot'. The silver CB-F would redline in 4th down the front straight, or I could short-shift to 5th if I wanted but I decided not to change the gearing. It didn't seem as quick as the Z1 when accelerating but I guess I was wrong as it was consistently 2 seconds per lap faster than the Kawasaki. On Saturday in practice I rounded the dogs on 5th on the black CB-F for the 2nd time this season so I had to park it as it was jumping out of 5th on the front straight. I will have to get my CB-F transmissions undercut to get rid of this problem – the Kawasaki Z1s used to do this too but not quite as often. This is either the 4th or 5th transmission rebuild on the CB-Fs in the last 5 years which is about 3 or 4 too many!

I hoped I would get to dice some with the modern ULW Superbikes (SV-650s) but it didn't turn out that way. I held back some on the start to let the SVs sort themselves out a little. If they had some inter-class rivalry and competition going on, I didn't want to get in the middle of that and ruin their class standings by coming between competitors. Once the race was off it rapidly became apparent from my position in 5th overall on the track at the start that there were a couple of faster guys, some slower guys and one guy in the middle who I thought I could dice with. I passed the last (first?) slow guy in front of me and followed the middle-fast SV650 rider around for a lap or so until I passed him. The two front guys were gone; I think they were 6 seconds or so a lap faster than me! I ending up riding around by myself halfway waiting for the middle-fast SV to come dice with me but I guess the noise of my bike was enough to deafen him and he stayed back far enough to not damage his hearing.

When we rolled out for the Historic Vintage race I got a great start on the Z1, leading into the first corner. I distanced myself pretty far out in front of 2nd place and kept on riding as well as I could. It’s hard to slow down off of “race pace” as my mind starts wandering and that could be dangerous because of missing brake markers or lines. All the Historic Vintage Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight bikes were in this race and I caught up three lightweight bikes that were very tightly grouped and having a great race. I used my 3x displacement advantage to pass them quickly and set off after other small vintage bikes to see how many I could lap. The race was over quickly, and my racing season came to an end. I ran in 40 sprint races this season, and was glad to arrive at the winter break!