2011 Season Summary:

41 Sprint Races
31 Podiums
15 Wins

Local:

1st – SuperVintage Class Champion SMRI
1st –Vintage Heavyweight Class Champion SMRI
1st –Vintage Middleweight Class Champion SMRI

AHRMA Regional:

2nd – Formula Vintage AHRMA Pacific Crown Regional Series
3rd – Vintage Superbike AHRMA Pacific Crown Regional Series
2nd – Formula Vintage AHRMA Masters of the Midwest Regional Series
5th – Vintage Superbike AHRMA Masters of the Midwest Regional Series

AHRMA National:

2nd – Formula Vintage AHRMA National Series
3rd – Vintage Superbike AHRMA National Series

AHRMA World Championships:

5th – Vintage Superbike AHRMA World Championships
7th – Formula Vintage AHRMA World Championships

Overall Season Commentary:

In thinking about a few of the memorable things I did this racing season I'm aware of the roughly 12,800 miles of driving with gas over $3 (and sometimes $4) per gallon in something that always gets less than 8mpg; sometimes way less! Gas prices that high sound "bad" until comparing 86 unleaded pump gas prices to race gas (usually 110 leaded) which was generally between $9 and $11 a gallon. I went through or to 18 states counting New Mexico - California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi & Alabama.

I blew up one CB-F (literally) and had to build another CB-F race motor from scratch to replace it. I had to rebuild a second CB-F engine with a completely new bottom end including crank, rods and bearings along with a few other things after it starved for oil because of a custom cam chain guide made from the wrong supplied material that came apart. I had to tear a third CB-F motor (the silver bike's) apart just to replace the rod bolts so it wouldn't (literally) blow up like the first one (two, actually - one from last year too...).

I flew home after Road America to work during the week. Because I'd had 5th gear fail on the silver CB-F at Road America I gathered up some spare parts, tools and gasket sealer while I was in Albuquerque to carry on the plane back to Milwaukee so I could try to fix the transmission since only the green Z1 was still running at that point. The TSA left a little note in my checked bag that said my tools and parts had been checked and deemed not to be a hazard. The repair involved pulling the CB-F motor out Friday afternoon in my race trailer to fix the transmission - the fourth time I'd rebuilt or repaired a race CB-F engine this season. That wouldn't have been so bad but I had worked all day Thursday, then drove to the airport, flew out to Milwaukee, arrived about midnight Thursday and drove all night plus most of Friday morning to get to the racetrack in Michigan. I did bring all the parts needed, thankfully - I had to replace a cooked shift fork and two ruined gears - except for gaskets! The complete gasket kit I thought was in the race trailer was actually sitting on my workbench at home. Good thing I'd brought a new tube of gasket sealer!

When the CB-Fs weren't running thankfully the Z1 was. However, the Z1 needs to come apart because it's weeping oil from the base gasket - I think. I've pulled the head off it already and replaced the head and cam cover gaskets but it's not much better. There's a reason the motor is painted black! (it makes oil from leaks harder to see) I guess that's why I haven't been able to pinpoint where the oil leak(s) are...

Lastly, I was able to win a local championship for a class I don't even own a race bike for. Oh yeah - I had to replace the engine in that bike with one I had laying around - the ultimate replaceable unit. I've used up four front tires and eight rears along with a gallon of expensive synthetic oil for each time I had to take any motor apart plus doing regular oil changes.

Both the CB-Fs got new front brakes that work, and now the Z1 needs something better. Racing in 2011 is done. Wow. It was fun, but not ALL the time... Time for planning the work over the winter. And some more upgrades. Right now I'm thinking triplet CB-Fs; two for racing and 1 for a street legal "pit bike" to get around on; all the same silver '82 color schemes. You never know when you might need a part...

Dennis

I had a great time racing AND being a spectator at the Barber Vintage Festival. The Barber Vintage Festival is now in my opinion better than the AMA Mid-Ohio Vintage Days were back before the AMA & AHRMA parted ways. The event was huge – or at least as huge as their property allows them to be! An air show, Kevin Schwantz racing & speaking, other racing celebrities, a huge swap meet, bike auctions, cross country racing, and more. This drew more spectators than the AMA pro motorcycle racing event that was recently held there and over 500 vintage road racing entrants alone. My Vintage Superbike class had 13 entries and Formula Vintage had 17. There were generally 50 or more race bikes in two or more different classes on the track for each race – it made for much more interesting and close racing.

I raced my black Honda CB-F the whole weekend and it's 'new' 1020cc converted CB1000C engine ran great except for one small hiccup toward the end of Friday practice - it developed a miss that I attributed to a kinked fuel line but when I went out for the last practice session of the day I found I was wrong. The bike died on the track (and then restarted) after it’s supposed fix. The real culprit turned out to be the wire powering the Dyna-S ignition. It frayed & broke at the crimped connector. After the bike died and I pulled off the track the jolting of rolling across the grass caused the broken wire to touch the crimped connector ring again and start running. I found the true cause of the problem after the bike got hauled back to the pits by the pickup crew. It was a solid easy fix and the bike ran great the rest of the weekend - except for shredding the brand new Dunlop KR164 rear tire that I had put on for the weekend. More on that later, but luckily I'd also put a brand new KR164 on my silver CB-F too so I swapped rear wheels between the bikes and was set for Sunday's races.

I'm proudest of my 5th in Formula Vintage on Sunday. I managed to get the holeshot for most of the front straight until Jay Springsteen passed me on the brakes going in to turn 1 on his beautiful XR750TT, a road-race version of the Harley-Davidson XR750 flat track bike. Then Dave Crussell passed me around the outside in turn 2 on his Yamaha TZ750 GP bike; a four cylinder water-cooled two stroke making around 150hp and weighing more than a hundred pounds less than my CB-F. A few corners later Peter Politek (he flew in from Europe to compete) passed me on his Ducati 900SS going through the Alabama Rollercoaster by the Barber museum. Peter is fast enough to have gotten a wildcard ride in MotoGP on a 250 GP bike a few years ago before the current Moto2 class started up. I soldiered on in 4th for about 3 more laps when another TZ750 passed me on the back straight dropping me to 5th. I chased him (uselessly) the rest of the race but he kept pulling slowly away and that's where I finished. I finished 3rd in Saturday’s Vintage Superbike race when I got a good start plus Wes Orloff 'broke' and pulled off. Even though 3rd is ‘better’ than 5th it wasn't as exciting for me as the Formula Vintage race although they did grid Vintage Superbike behind a couple of slower classes so I got to pass a ton of people on slower bikes to make me feel fast.

I finished 5th in Sunday’s Vintage Superbike race when I had to back off on the start to avoid running into the back of a 250 GP bike. I wasn't able to get going again and was back in a swarm of bikes for the first few laps. I think I could have finished 4th otherwise, but that's racing. In the Saturday’s Formula Vintage race on Saturday I finished 7th. I already mentioned previously that my tire was shredded. I saw it didn’t look so good after the Superbike race with hardly any tread on the right side of the tire. I didn’t have time to swap wheels between bikes before the next race so I went out for Saturday’s Formula Vintage race hoping the tire would last. It didn’t. I lost the back end in a huge way in the right-hand kink going on to the back straight - knee down around 100mph in 4th accelerating. The back end kicked way out! My first thought was to not get spit off, and then once I was sure I was going to stay on the bike it was still head-shaking really bad but I had enough race track left to damp out the shakes before I ran out of pavement. I was able to point the head-shaking quarter-ton rider-spitting monster-snake with handlebars down the track enough to have it quit trying to spit me off. I did influence the BEARS class win though because the top contenders were right behind me. They went ga-ga over the crash that wasn't and the person who didn't have to back off ended up winning that class.

I recorded some video that I'll post eventually (on YouTube and Randakk’s Facebook page) but sadly no video of any scary events like the head-shaking rider-spitting monster-snake with handlebars was recorded. It’s a good thing those great AMAZING RANDAKK GRIPS were safety-wired on or they would have come off! They not only stayed on, but their great "feel" is the only reason I didn't crash!

Dennis

The local club in Albuquerque worked with the track to change up the course a little bit by adding a bit of asphalt so that a previously unused (because it was unsafe) portion of the racetrack could safely be added. There were another four turns added and 1/3 of a mile of track which made for a pretty busy 11-turn 1.3 mile racetrack. I had loaded up the green Z1, the loaned KZ650 and my silver CB-F for the weekend. The first thing I noticed when I went out for practice was the new configuration is VERY tight and not very fast. Most of the track is in 2nd or 3rd gear now regardless of which bike I’m on.

The first race up was Historic Vintage Heavyweight on the Z1. I got a decent start and was racing with some modern bikes. The track was an equalizer as there were limited places that the horsepower advantage of the new bikes could be brought into play and it was tight racing for the whole 8 laps. I had a go with some modern twins and was mixing it up with those guys while leading all the vintage bikes. It was a workout on the tight layout and my legs were cramping when I came in after the race – but I had won the vintage class and beat a few modern bikes as well. Next up was Historic Vintage Middleweight, and for that I was on the loaner Kawasaki KZ650. A class called “SuperStreet” is lumped in with us vintage bikes in that race, and those guys are people who are just beginning to roadrace and can be on pretty much any type of bike. Generally since their experience level is pretty limited they’re usually pretty cautious and slow but there are some who have either a lot of talent or racing experience in other types of motorcycle competition and they’re pretty quick. I got to ride in the middle with the slower batch of new riders and did okay, winning Historic Vintage Middleweight. Throughout the race day there were many wrecks plus red-flagged races to clean up crash debris so the last race of the day was very late. Combined with the high winds and huge amounts of sand and dirt in the air, hardly anyone showed up for the SuperVintage race – it was just me and one other rider. The other rider happened to be the guy who loaned me the KZ650 and he asked if he could ride it in the SuperVintage race. Since the bike belonged to him, I said sure (duh) and we headed out onto the track. We lasted a whole 3 laps before he pulled in and handed me victory on a platter because he was tired and the KZ650 felt ‘different’; he wasn’t comfortable racing it.

I packed up in the middle of a sandstorm and headed on home. I was tired and very dirty from a long (in hours) day of racing and though I’d won the three classes I was in it didn’t feel as meaningful because many racers pretty much gave up because of the long delays, nasty weather and went home.

Then again, I used to ride dirt bikes a lot so riding around in a sandstorm was kind of like dirt biking instead of road racing. I enjoyed it regardless, but was ready to go brush the sand out of my teeth and have a cold drink at home…

Until next time,

Dennis

After breaking the transmission in my silver CB-F at Road America I had to race the Z1 plus leave before my last race in order to make my flight (the last one of the day) back home to work the week between the races in Wisconsin (Road America) and Michigan (Grattan). The good part of that was I was able to gather up a complete transmission out of my spares including both shafts, all the gears, shift forks and drum and a couple of tools and treat them as checked baggage on my flight back to Milwaukee.

I arrived at the Milwaukee airport, gathered my luggage up and threw it into my rig so I could head out to Grattan. However, due to the parking lot’s “operator error” I needed spend about 30 minutes trying to get my rig out of an unattended airport parking lot that wouldn’t accept the fact that they had kept my parking ticket because I took up two spaces instead of one. Once a person finally showed up, that person couldn’t get the computer to accept the fact that one person wanted to pay for two spaces, and after many attempts and another 20 minutes I finally ended up paying for a single space and got out of there… but then, due to my “operator error” my GPS system sent me into downtown Milwaukee instead of toward Chicago. Once I took a good look at the route and discovered my GPS was trying to get me on to a non-existent ferry at 1am I told the GPS I wanted to go to Chicago instead of the racetrack in Michigan and progress out of Milwaukee finally began.

I arrived at Grattan Raceway well after my 8:30am estimate, having lost a couple of hours trying to leave the airport and Milwaukee. I pulled in to the Grattan pits at 10:30am and took a nice, long nap after eating. Once that was done, fun in earnest started. I emptied the trailer and set up my pits with just the silver CB-F left in the trailer. I gathered up the parts I’d checked as baggage (along with a nice note from the TSA saying they’d looked over my stuff and found it not a threat) and began working on the silver bike. I had to remove the bodywork, pipe and carbs, drain the oil, and pull the motor. Once that was done I shoved the frame & wheels off to the side and flipped the motor upside down to begin the transmission work. I split the cases and sure enough, the dogs for 5th were badly rounded off along with the engagement slots in 5th gear and the shift fork was burned to a crisp on the side that kept 5th engaged. The spares I brought were short a thrust washer so I had to completely disassemble both input shafts along with removing an end bearing to get the missing washer and then reassemble the replacement shaft. Once that was done, the old shift drum & forks were replaced by my new-old spares, both ‘new’ transmission shafts went in and the motor got put back together.

When I was assembling the clutch I found a couple of stretched bolts retaining the clutch springs so I tore apart my “bought on the way to Road America” e-bay CB1000C engine for its clutch bolts. I stuffed the motor back in the frame, added oil & a new filter, put the carbs, pipe and bodywork all back on and called it a day at 8:30pm, six hours after starting the repair. The track has a rule about “no race engines after 5:00pm” so I’d have to wait to see if it ran until Saturday morning, Race Day!

The weather was supposed to be awful all weekend, and it had rained off and on during the Friday practice sessions, but never very hard. Saturday dawned bright blue and beautiful, and it stayed that way all weekend. As soon as we were able to start our race engines I cranked over the silver CB-F and rode it up to get it inspected for the races. Needless to say I made sure to shift up and down several times from first to fifth. All seemed well.

Going out for practice revealed a miss (again) and leaning the bike out some plus advancing the timing cleared that up. I was running okay in practice, glad that I wasn’t riding the Z1 with its more cramped peg position. The first race for me that day was Vintage Superbike, and we were gridded behind some slower bikes on the start. When the flag was thrown for the start most all of us Vintage Superbikes swerved to the right side of the track to pass the other bikes that were in front of us. I ended up at the first corner in 5th and wasn’t happy about it; I considered my start pretty bad. I had slotted in behind another racer on a silver CB-F just like mine. However, he didn’t have the same corner speed or braking points I did but there wasn’t an opportunity for me to get by him right away. After a few corners I had decided to wait until a short semi-straight section before the last couple of corners to make my move.

On our way there the CB-F had a little trouble, though. He misjudged one apex in a slow corner by starting entry too early and had to adjust his line. I think he may have been still thinking about the last corner when he got to the next one because he did the same thing – he apexed way too early and literally rode off the inside of the corner onto the dirt and crashed. When he crashed, he plowed a bunch of dirt onto the racing surface. Since I was right behind him I rode through it and lost the front end pretty bad, but as soon as I came out of the dirt the front end came back and I was able to keep on going. On the next lap another rider crashed in the dirt and caused a red flag, halting the race. The race was restarted after some cleanup of dirt and bikes. I got a little bit better start, getting off the line in 4th place in Vintage Superbike and that’s where I finished.

Formula Vintage was the last race of the day and I got a good start in that race, leading off the line for a couple of gears until getting passed by Dave Crussell on his Kawasaki H2R roadracer. I chased Dave around and had was passed by a Yamaha 650/750 twin for a lap or so. I was able to pass him back on the straight and once we got into lapped traffic he was held up worse than I and never really challenged me again. I never challenged Dave on his H2R; I was way too far back to do that but I did end up finishing the race in 2nd place and was satisfied with that.
Sunday was as beautiful as Saturday. In Vintage Superbike they moved us in front of the slower class so that we didn’t have to pass them on the start and that worked better for me. I was able to run in 3rd for a couple of laps – and led for a short bit on the start too – until Joe on his CB-F passed me a couple of laps into the race. Shortly after that, another rider went down and the race was red-flagged and declared over since more than half the race had run. I ended up with another 4th place in Vintage Superbike behind all the same people as on Saturday.

Formula Vintage was the last race of the weekend. We lined up for that and I got another good start, beating Dave Crussell off the line but then getting passed before the first corner. I chased him around for the rest of the race without getting close enough to cause him any worry and not getting any challenge from anyone for 2nd either – which is where I finished.

I packed up and started the long drive back to New Mexico, glad the CB-F had worked well.

Dennis

Event YouTube video (Part1):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52TrC4JWRyI

Event YouTube video (Part2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v24vTVe6pA

Road America is a great track... 4 miles long, easy to learn and FAST! My trip was somewhat problematic. I had my favorite black CB-F blow up at Willow Springs. When I rode the silver CB-F out there I did okay but it had an issue with the front brakes that turned out to be a bent rotor.

Since the black CB-F had broken a 2nd stock 900F rod bolt (and destroyed a cylinder, set of cases, a rod and piston) I decided that I needed to upgrade the silver CB-F to stouter 1100F rod bolts which required removing the motor and replacing the bolts. It just wasn’t worth the risk to leave the old bolts in and see what might happen! I also moved over the black bike's front brake rotors and did some clutch work to try and get rid of chatter.

When I got to Road America for Friday practice in the first session I found the silver CB-F was overgeared and missing on top. I dropped a tooth on the counter and rejetted for the next practice but the miss was still present. Gearing was good, though. Prior to the 3rd practice I changed the plugs and that fixed the miss so the bike was good! Except – I ran about 3 laps and then on the back straight 5th gear turned into a ratchet. Except for no 5th gear all the bikes problems had been fixed. Naturally, it got parked.

I drug the Z1 out and regeared it over the lunch break so it was good to go. Compared to the silver CB-F the brakes were awful (they were better than they used to be, but the new 320mm floaters on the CB-F are just awesome!) and the pegs were a little higher giving my stiff left leg some trouble.

I ran the Z1 in Vintage Superbike & Formula Vintage on Saturday and Vintage Superbike only on Sunday after the morning practice sessions. The practice sessions revealed some minor oil leaks but the catch bottle had filled and was blowing oil on the back of the bike so I fixed that.

I led every race I was in, but it was only for a short period between the start and the first corner. I managed to get passed pretty quickly by Dave Crussell and Wes Orloff and then a little later by Joe Pethoud on a Honda CB-F. No drama, no dicing, just me riding around as best I could. I did get to pass some slower bikes when we started into lappers the last couple of laps and that was a little redemption for me, but not much. I ran 3-4 seconds slower per lap this year than I’ve been able to run previously at Road America; I would hope that it's the bike and not me but I don't think that's the case. Since I’m not yet properly limber I can’t move around well on the bike like I want to. All in all I did okay and left Road America with two 4th place finishes in Vintage Superbike and a 3rd in Formula Vintage. I had to leave early to catch my plane back home, and left my rig in the Milwaukee airport parking lot.

I'm taking transmission parts and tools out to fix the CB-F at Grattan on Friday and am skipping the practice day to do that. If I decide I'm running the Z1 in Michigan I need to find out where the oil is coming from and do something about it. I also need to replace both tires on it; I didn't expect to be running it at Road America and the tires had too much tread left to change them out but not enough left to last two weekends. Work work work. Good thing it's all for 'fun'!

Dennis

Event YouTube video (Part1): http://youtu.be/TGNWAba3TOM

Event YouTube video (Part2): http://youtu.be/4SElMDe1F_I

I drove out to Willow Springs for 3 days of quality motorcycle time. The weather was very windy from the time I left home until I got back. I fought a headwind the whole way there, and on one tank out I got an abysmal 6.5mpg, down from my normal rotten 8+mpg and had to drive in 3rd instead of 4th. And the gas prices! Luckily I didn’t need to buy gas at Needles where regular was $4.99!

I drove into the Willow Springs paddock at 9:30pm Thursday and found a spot to park. Friday morning dawned and I set up my pits after registering. I took both the black and silver CB-Fs down for tech inspection at the far end of the pits from me by bump starting them and riding down. I was hoping that would be all the running the silver bike did since I wanted to concentrate on the black CB-F. I had already geared up to 17/44 and when I went out for practice it seemed to be close to perfect, maybe just a little ‘over geared’. I hadn’t raced at Willow Springs for two years, and I was hoping I’d be able to get fast enough over the course of Friday to have my gearing spot-on when racing started on Saturday. The black bike ran great and I was able to pull 10Krpm down the front straight in 5th and shift no lower than 3rd for the Omega turn at the top of the hill before the back straight. There was an independent film maker out there who was filming Yoshi Kosaka and Tony Foale on a Honda SOHC 750 based custom-built mono-shock frame with an “odd” front suspension on it; it looked similar to a modern version of a leading-link front fork setup. There was a lot of interest in the bike and it’s riders. Even though I felt like I was going faster throughout the day, my times stayed pretty flat around 1:41, slower than 2 years ago by about 2 seconds. I looked at Dave’s lap times and he was 3-4 seconds slower than a couple of years ago so maybe it wasn’t just me…

The film crew rigged my black CB-F with two cameras for the Vintage Superbike race because I’d be racing with Yoshi. This is the race that I posted on Youtube, but I used my own camera. The race was set to run in two waves; first the modern bikes go and then about 20 seconds later we go. I got a good start from the front row and ended up in front before the first turn. I led until the beginning of turn 9 which leads you onto the front straight. I was passed by two light single-cylinder racebikes; one was a fully faired GP style bike with a big single in it and the other was a motard bike. I passed them back down the front straight, and then got passed by Dave Crussell on his Z1R halfway down and again by the same two single cylinder bikes in the first and second corners. There was a bit of traffic for the first couple of laps. So far only Dave had passed me in Vintage Superbike so I was still in 2nd place for that class. The race continued on that way for a few laps and after I got passed by two more modern bikes toward the end of the race I pretty much rode around by myself, finishing a lonely 2nd in Vintage Superbike with Dave way in front and another Honda CB-F some ways back. Formula Vintage was the last race of the day and when I rolled to the line there weren’t too many of us there. There were two modern Ducatis and a Buell 1125R lined up in front of me and Dave Crussell on his infamous TZ750 was on my left. The flag flew and I got a decent start, not falling behind the Ducatis too much and actually passing the Buell when he bogged on the start but he passed me back quickly. I followed the three modern bikes through the first turn and then Dave passed me in the 2nd turn on his TZ750. I tried to stay with Dave and the Buell and followed them onto the front straight when my bike died. I thought it was perhaps a cam chain or something else ‘terminal’ because the whole bike just quit abruptly. I coasted off the right end of the front straight scoring a “DNF” in the process. I have video of that I’ll get posted on Youtube & link of Randakk’s Facebook site. I spent the evening after the races fixing the black bike. What had happened was the stud that bolts into the end of the crank and holds the ignition advance mechanism sheared off. I had to drill the sheared stud shaft out of the crankshaft, clean up the threads and then replace the ignition components. That took about 3 hours, including a trip down the road to buy some easy outs and a hamburger.

Sunday blew in, and I mean blew! Even though it was windy on Saturday it was nothing compared to Sunday and it only got windier the later in the day it got to be. I went out on the black CB-F and all was well. We had only two practice sessions and I debated whether or not to go out for the second one. I decided to do it because I wanted to see how much the wind would blow me around on the incredibly fast turn 8 and down the front straight. While running the last practice my motor blew up – a rod bolt broke on #4 and the rod peeled itself off the crank and stuck the big end out the front of the motor. This is not good! The way the bike acted it felt like I threw a chain; the bike was jerking badly as I suspected the thrown chain was catching on the sprocket nuts while the wheel was turning and I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t crash if the wheel locked up. I rode off the left side of the track and as I continued to slow with the clutch in I discovered that the jerkiness of the bike didn’t change. When I looked down I saw my right leg covered in oil and the motor was still running with the big end of the rod sticking out the front! Luckily, I had a spare bike – the silver CB-F had run one time each day from my pits down to tech inspection and back. It hadn’t been on the racetrack once this trip. I re-geared it to kind of match the black CB-F (16/40) and lined up for the race after checking the oil, tire pressures, gas and battery. Once the flag dropped for Vintage Superbike it was essentially the same as Saturday’s race except I didn’t lead much this time. I got a good start and was first into the first corner but it took me a few laps to scrub the tires and trust the bike. I fell into 2nd place in my class and 4th in my wave pretty quickly and essentially stayed put. All the same guys who passed me Saturday passed me again on Sunday and all those guys I caught and passed Saturday got passed by me again on Sunday. Dave Crussell was riding his Z1R on a worn-out rear tire and towards the end of the race I pulled to within 20’ of him but once he saw me he sped up enough to stay in front of me and win while I rode across the line in 2nd place. By the end of the race I trusted the silver bike to behave the way I wanted it to. Formula Vintage was the last race of the day and I expected the same results as Saturday – chase the modern bikes off the line, get passed by Dave on his TZ750 a couple of corners after the race starts, and then ride around as fast as I can and end up in 2nd place for Formula Vintage. It all happened the way I thought it would, except that the wind was blowing so hard that I was able to brake VERY late going into turn 1 because as soon as I came into that corner I’d hit a wall of wind and lose about 20mph. I’d get blown down the back straight very fast, get blown left and right in the very fast turn 8, go around turn 9 into a headwind and could pick if I wanted to run in 4th or 5th down the front straight because of the headwind. In case it didn’t sound like fun, it still was.

When I loaded up and headed home that headwind became a tailwind and my first tank of gas from Rosamond, CA to the Arizona border averaged over 11mpg, WAY up from 6½!

Wish me luck and fair winds – I’ve got at least one motor to build from scratch before Road America in early June and a local race in late May!

Dennis

Event YouTube video: http://youtu.be/08hEx14cT6g

This was the season opener for our local series. For the first time since I can remember, there are no conflicts between the local race series and the national series so I should be able to compete in every race which is good for me! Another change is that a friend of mine had a ‘spare’ 1977 Kawasaki KZ650 sitting around and offered it to me to race this season until he sells it. It sounded like a no-brainer so I said OK. The bike was ready to go but I wanted to change the handle bars from clubmans to low superbike bars. I started that, and after changing the bars (and levers, grips, front brake master cylinder, throttle housing, front tire and rear tire plus going to a dual front disk setup, different calipers, changing the front ride height and rewiring the bike) it was done!

I took the KZ650, my green Z1 and both CB-Fs out to race. I rode practice twice on the KZ650 to try and get used to it plus took the black CB-F out to see if the clutch work I had done after Texas was okay. Everything seemed to work so I waited for the races to roll around. First up was Historic Vintage Middleweight on the KZ650. We were gridded with a class called “Super Street” and is the entry-level class for people just coming out to see what racing is all about. Those guys have a huge spread in skill level and I was able to beat a few modern bikes. I didn’t get a really good start and ended up 2nd in the middleweight vintage bikes chasing a highly modified Honda CB350. Troy Runck has been riding the bike for a couple of years and it’s tuned by a former factory racer and mechanic from the ‘70s, Hurley Wilvert. I got through a cluster of bikes and found myself about 100’ behind Troy. He was riding the bike hard because he could hear me coming, and I could see the bike twitching with his aggressive shifting and braking. I kept closing on Troy at a consistent 15-20’ per lap, almost like I was crawling up behind him. I looked at the space left to go and the laps left to catch Troy and wondered if I’d be able to pull it off. It was very close, but on the last lap I was able to get by him and beat him by a few feet. If I had made any mistakes it would have been a different story.

For Historic Vintage Heavyweight I raced my green Z1. I’d been chasing a small oil leak on it and thought I’d finally found the culprit in a new cam cover gasket I had put on. When you’re running the bike hard the oil tends to get blown all over the motor and I’d looked several different places before I decided to check the new cam cover gasket. Thankfully, the oil seep was fixed with the new gasket and I had a pretty uneventful race. The Z1 seems to always run well and it’s brake upgrade (better calipers) helped too. The wind was awful and the race went well with me getting a good start and leading from start to finish in the Vintage class. We were gridded with modern twins and I had passed a couple of them to find myself behind a Honda RC51 1000cc twin. I chased him for three or four laps before I was able to get by on the brakes going into the first turn; I expected to be passed back right away but wasn’t. I stayed in front of him until the end of the race a few laps later.

In the SuperVintage race we were gridded with another race to save time – Formula Femme, and all-“girl” class. They’re on modern bikes and regularly beat many of their male competitors. A friend of mine mounted a tiny thumb-sized video camera on the back of my bike and the video results are posted on Youtube. You can see the video by searching for “Super Vintage and Formula Fem” or copying this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08hEx14cT6g ; the black thing flopping around in the video is the camera’s holding strap that didn’t get taped down. Edda Tully is riding a new BMW S1000 sportbike and is behind me during the sighting lap before the race starts. Once the race started with us vintage guys at the back of the grid I enjoyed passing some bikes on my way to the front of the vintage group and getting into 2nd on the track behind Edda on her new BMW. She’s good and there was no way I could catch her but I did chase her around the track the whole race. I lapped a couple of the vintage guys on their small bikes, and passed a couple of other racers (that just happen to be women) on their modern bikes as I was chasing Edda.

Dennis

Motorsport Ranch, Cresson, TX

My visit to the Motorsports Ranch track in Cresson, Texas for the first race of the season went okay. The track itself is pretty long and fairly fast except for one section by the paddock that's single file and very slow. They could almost use it for a chicane within a chicane. Pavement seams were a concern along with a couple of potholes in key areas, like where your line would be if you wanted to get a good drive coming onto the front straight. In trying to learn the fast way around the track I got pretty out of shape running across the seams when they ran in the direction I thought I needed to go and happened to be where my bike was. It took a while to adjust my lines to avoid them where possible. There were several blind corners; the end of the straight was a real fast blind corner, a blind start to a triple apex corner, a blind downhill off-camber corner, and a double blind (that’s where you can't see the corner, then you crest the hill on the track and discover you still can't see the corner until you crest the next hill) double apex corner. All in all, the track was okay. It was one of the harder tracks to learn for me because of all the blind corners and all the months away from racing over the winter.

I ended up racing in 4 races; Vintage Superbike twice and Formula Vintage twice with 3rd place finishes in every race. I finished behind my nemesis Dave Crussell who won and Wes Orloff on a big old MotoGuzzi who got second in every race I was in. I did have some good races with guys in other classes, mostly Triumph Thruxtons and newer Ducati twins. I had a battle with a guy on a 999 for a couple of laps who looked to be about 5' tall and had a habit of running way too wide into corners after braking too late. It scared me to be in front of him because I could visualize him bouncing off me during one of his late braking moves on the wrong line and ruining my day. He never did, though.

Besides his Kawasaki Z1R (that he said is even faster now) Dave Crussell brought along his “new” old Yamaha TZ750 GP bike – you know, the 4-cylinder water-cooled two-stroke mono-shock Gran Prix bike that absolutely dominated racing for a decade from the late 70’s to the early 80’s. It also happens to be legal for Formula Vintage. I’m proud to say I beat him when he was riding that bike. However, it was only at the start of the Formula Vintage race coming off the line. I stayed in front of him all the way through 3rd gear or so, and then he left me for the finish line.

Now that I've been to Cresson I'd go back. For me the track was tough to learn because of the blind corners and I never got a real good feel for entry markers; I'd brake too early, then get on the gas and brake again, or sometimes brake and then coast until the right spot to brake finally showed up. That is far from the fast way around the track. I graded myself a C+ for this race; I was using my new big brakes too soon too often and never had the speed I needed in a couple of blind corners. I also was a bit of a sissy when it came to passing people. I waited until I had LOTS of room and never really pushed. Over the season I’m sure everything will fall back into place though.

Wish me speed and talent for my next races! The first one is a local event and then I head out to run at Willow Springs in California, also known as “The Fastest Road in the West”!

Dennis

To paraphrase; it was the best of races and it was the worst of races.

Well – not the absolute worst! I didn’t crash, blow up my bikes, or have anything really bad happen. And not the absolute best either, because I didn’t win.

The 1275 mile drive to Alabama from New Mexico was uneventful. When I arrived at Barber’s fabulous racetrack Thursday afternoon I thought I’d have my pick of spaces but the paddock was already filling up and I was lucky to find a corner up on the third level in the far corner so that my generator exhaust wouldn’t blow onto anyone pitted next to me. I set up camp, registered, got my bikes tech’ed and retired for the evening in anticipation of the race weekend starting early Friday morning.

I woke Friday morning rested and excited. Barber’s is my favorite track by far and has many other activities beyond “just” the vintage roadrace event. There is a dirt track event a few miles away and on site besides vintage roadracing they have motocross and trials events along with a huge swap meet, bike shows, skydiving, an air show and many other exhibitions.

On to my part!

I got on the track for the first time around nine. The black CB-F ran well and needed no adjustments besides going down one tooth on the countershaft sprocket to gear it to run more in 5th and perhaps avoid a shift or two around the track. I took the silver CB-F around for one session and left everything as it was. On the next session of practice it was back to black to determine shift points and decide if the gearing change was ‘better’.

The second practice session with the black CB-F told me that my gearing was now good. However, one problem I had was a lack of traction. I broke the rear end loose toward the latter part of the first practice session a few times and the bike stepped out a little but it wasn’t any big deal; I thought the track was still cold because it was early in the morning and my tires hadn’t heated all the way up. In a later session I had been out for a few laps when a TZ750 Yamaha came into view in front of me. I had slowly caught up to him as we were warming up our bikes and bodies, and after about 3 medium-paced laps we both started putting a little more effort into the session. I was catching up mostly on corner entry as he was riding his bike like it was worth $30,000, give or take. And – it is. Probably a lot more… He wasn’t taking any chances throwing his bike away so he was fast in the straights but slow into and through the corners. He was blocking me too much in the corners for me to get benefit from the session. I decided I’d pass him on the inside of a right hand corner going onto the back straight by doing an early apex and getting on the gas before him, after which I’d be able to outbrake him into the left hand corner at the end of the straight and stay in front.

Or so I thought…

I was going around the corner around 90mph with a knee on the ground when I got on the gas (there’s the apex – gas it!) and the back end broke WAY loose! The rear stepped out enough to kick me out of the seat, but luckily all those years of racing an underpowered bike on dirt tracks had me conditioned to reduce throttle instantly. The bike started a vicious headshake after the near-highside which made me run wide out of the corner and pointed me toward that beautiful, expensive, carefully ridden TZ750 gem with a big, heavy, headshaking out-of-control 460 pound street bike. Thankfully I was able to damp out the headshake and get the bike turned well before I got near the TZ, and then got on the gas again, though with a little less verve.

Another thing is that racing a bike is a lot of physical work. As part of staying (semi) fit and (kinda) trim, my wife insisted that I get a cardio heart monitor and wear it while I exercise to track how well I’m doing. I started wearing the heart monitor at the last race because of the ‘work’ needed to race and had on it during this particular event. My normal heart rate while racing seems to be about 155, and it’s all displayed in a nice time graph that looks like hills (practice & racing) and valleys (resting between sessions). The “hill” for the session when I got pointed at the TZ was going along just fine around 155bpm (beats per minute) when a radio tower – a big vertical spike in my heart rate to 176 for about 20 seconds – got drawn on the graph as I thought my headshaking beast of a bike was going to punch the TZ and throw me on the ground in one easy step.

After that, practice was just practice but the whole day I kept having the back end slide out going around corners, but not as severe as that one time. It was really slowing me down. I tried lowering tire pressure a little to heat up the tire more but it made no difference in traction. At the end of Friday’s sessions I still hadn’t figured out any solution and my lap times suffered by about a second.

Saturday dawned and I was ready to race, but not quite happy. Since I hadn’t figured out any solution to my traction problem I’d just have to ride it that way. Vintage Superbike was called in early afternoon and I was hoping that the warmer track would help. Because I hadn’t pre-entered the event I was back on the last row of my class. I usually get pretty good starts, but when you’re on the front row everything is SO much easier. Nobody gets in your way because they’re either not there to start with, or if they pass you it’s because they’re faster than you and they’re STILL not in your way! I was probably around 10th or so into the first corner and not happy. I had a lot of work ahead of me if I wanted to do well – which for me is to finish on the podium. I was able to slowly and methodically work my way past several bikes in my class up to 4th place but it took the whole race and I never trusted the rear tire; it was continuing to break loose and give me grief. I missed out on my goal of a podium finish but felt like I did the best I could. We ran out of time in the day because of crashes in other races and they weren’t able to run my second race so that was it for Saturday.

Sunday dawned sunny and warm continuing the unbelievably wonderful weather. After suffering from a lack of traction all day Friday and Saturday and still lacking traction in Sunday morning’s practice sessions on a whim I swapped rear wheels between my silver and black CB-Fs. The tire brand, compound, wear and pressure were pretty much the same but I knew if I did nothing, nothing would change.

I went out for the Vintage Superbike race and after doing the sighting lap I lined up on the third row again behind everyone and waited for the start. I got a poor one, running around 10th into the first corner when the bike started running badly. I pulled in after the first lap and saw a plug wire had fallen off the coil, dropping a cylinder. I was able to get the wire back on in the hot pit area and went back out, but it fell off again right away and I had to pull in again after another very slow lap. The fix was as simple as crimping the wire clip a little with a pair of pliers, but my race in Vintage Superbike was over.

Formula Vintage was called and with my fixed and tight plug wire and rear tire change I had pretty high hopes. The bike ran fine for the sighting lap and we lined up for the start. I got another poor start, running into the first corner about 8th or so. I was “feeling” how the bike was behaving for the first lap or so. The plug wire was staying on and the bike was running well. I was going about the same pace as when the tire was sliding before but now it was sticking just fine. I slowly increased my speed and throttle openings in the corners for the first three laps and all seemed to be well. I had worked my way up to 4th and was catching 3rd when his bike blew up. Bang (pun intended) and I’m in 3rd! Not 2 seconds later, the leader (who was riding an early ‘70s Ducati sport model) had his bike blow up, and bang again – I’m in 2nd. The guy that was now leading was only about 50 yards in front of me, and I was catching him. I made a huge effort in the next two laps and caught him. Now all I had to do was get around him! He was on a 750 Yamaha twin, a much lighter and more nimble bike than mine. He had the advantage in corners and also braking into the corners but my larger 985cc displacement (slowed some by my MY larger personal displacement) still had the edge on acceleration. I passed him on the back straight, got passed going into the final corner, passed him on the outside in the carousel leading onto the front straight and had a good run to the finish line, beating him that lap. He was able to outbrake me into turn one and held the lead when we caught some slower bikes that we were lapping. He made it through cleanly and I had some difficulty so he led the 2nd to last lap. I had managed to catch up to him going into the first corner. On the last lap we were neck and neck going into the last series of corners and again caught up with some slower bikes we were lapping. He made it through just a touch easier than I did, but as we passed through those bikes there was another gaggle in front of us. This time he got slowed up enough that when we broke through those bikes and finished the corner coming onto the front straight he had only a few bike lengths lead on me. I got on the gas and tried to beat him to the finish line with my quicker bike. I was catching him slowly, but when we flashed over the finish line I couldn’t tell who had got there first.

That race was a blast; we must have traded places 6 or 7 times those last four laps. When the results were finally posted, I saw that he had beat me by 0.012 seconds – 12 THOUSANDTHS of a SECOND! Darn it; it would have been good to win, but having our dice back and forth was worth all the money and time I had invested in the whole weekend. It was the best 2nd place finish I think I’ve had!

The season is winding down, and I’m ready to take a break from racing. Only two more events remain, a local race in Albuquerque and a regional in Phoenix to finish off the season.

Wish me luck!

Dennis

Miller Motorsports Park,Toole, UT

Miller was tough.

Racing – that part wasn't so tough. I felt slow because I hadn’t ridden with any of my AHRMA buddies since the beginning of May. The national level of competition is a little faster, and I didn’t feel like I was riding well. I ended up with a 2nd & 3rd in Vintage Superbike and a 3rd and a 2nd in Formula Vintage on Saturday and Sunday. The sad thing was that both of my Sunday finishes were also “last place” finishes! It was a very light turnout. I had some good dices with a Buell, SV650, Aprilla RS250 GP bike and a smattering of others. That wasn't tough.

The tough part started back at home… Once I got my silver CB-F on the bench to check out I found an oil leak. I think it’s a cylinder head stud, but I didn’t have time in the few days before Miller to troubleshoot it. As I mentioned in the Sandia writeup, the only problem with the black CB-F after the rebuild from it’s broken rod was that one of the spark plug wires had come off the coil terminal. Whew! I re-jetted the black CB-F for Miller and did the same on the green Z1. I left for Miller with just one CB-F and the Z1 instead of the preferred 2 CB-Fs; having two of the same bike is good for changing parts when things go bad.

Then, as I was driving down the highway to Miller a Prius pulled up beside me with its owner madly waving his arm at me. I rolled my window down and he said that one of my trailer tires was coming apart. I thanked him and pulled over in EXACTLY the same place where last year I had another tire blow up, but last year I had a nice view of the sunny area surrounding me while I got rained on the entire time I was changing the tire. This year it was sunny while I changed the tire but otherwise the story was the same; no more tread on the tire, no spare anymore and many miles to drive before the day was done. I stopped in the next major city and bought two new tires to replace the shredded tire and one of the worn tires on the axle, continuing on my way after a couple of hours delay.

I arrived at Miller and set up my pits. The next day at 7:00am I was registering and getting tech’d. Everything looked okay so I went out for a round of practice on my black CB-F. During the 2nd practice session the Honda started missing so I went out on the Z1 to see how it was behaving. Other than feeling very spongy, it was fine. I started troubleshooting the Honda and it only got worse over the course of the day. I had a huge voltage drop whenever the ignition was on and it seemed to be one of the pickups was drawing the battery down. I kept isolating the components one by one and didn’t really see anything. I gave up finding a root cause late in the evening (and darkness) and went to dinner.

Race day arrived with me working on the black CB-F first thing. As I was troubleshooting my voltage drop and had removed the entire ignition from the circuit I discovered that the only item left in the circuit was my little incandescent oil light. When I disconnected that, the voltage returned to normal. The battery was dead! After kicking myself, I put it on the battery charger. The battery charger said it was fully charged! OK – the battery charger was bad! I pulled a good battery out of my street bike, put it in the black CB-F and promptly had an ignition pickup smoke and melt. Since I had converted the Honda to the same ignition as the Z1, I pulled the entire ignition system, wiring and coils off the Z1 and put ‘em on the black CB-F. It started right up and ran fine. My troubleshooting had taken the entire morning and I had missed all the practice sessions but I had fixed the problem in time for the race.

Racing was more fun than working in the pits. Vintage Superbike was gridded with the modern twins – pretty much the same type as I was racing with in Albuquerque – and started off. I felt slow; real slow, and was running 3rd in my class when the guy in 2nd ran off the track gifting me 2nd place, which is where I finished. In Formula Vintage which was the last race of the day we had a pretty large grid and I was able to finish 3rd while not feeling as inept as earlier in the day. I was a happier with my 3rd than the 2nd place finish just because I rode better. Saturday ended and I was off to buy a new battery and battery charger to resolve my “ignition” problems.

Sunday everything was back to normal, or so I thought. I had charged the battery, the bike was running well, I got to practice and everything was back to plan. About the only ‘bad’ thing was my wife either broke or dislocated one of her toes on my bike stand – we’re still waiting on the X-rays to be read as I write this. Vintage Superbike was called, and I went out for the race. This time the guy that ran off the track on Saturday stayed on-track and though I led briefly on the start both he and my nemesis Dave Crussell on his Z1R got by me during the race. I motored on to finish 3rd, but as the race wound down my bike started running terrible with a bad miss. So much for normal…

The first thing I thought when I was in the pits was that since I had been messing with the ignition something I had done went ‘wrong’, and sure enough when I looked I found it was an ignition problem but not what I expected. My Dyna ignition uses a Z1 backing plate which is held in place with three set screws in the Honda alternator cover. The set screws which center the Z1 part properly had come loose and the whole assembly was bouncing around. I tightened everything down and the problem was fixed. Formula Vintage was again the last race of the day, but everyone except Dave Crussell and myself had literally packed up and left for home. It was only Dave and I in our class along with more modern twins including several Buells, a Ducati 1198, RC51, an Aprilia RS250 GP bike and some others racing in another class. I beat Dave off the line, he passed me in the first corner, and then for the rest of the race I was in a mix of the bikes from the other class and had a race-long duel with one Buell and the RS250 GP bike. I got my 2nd in Formula Vintage (which was also ‘last’ in my class) and was ready to head on home to rest.

I got gas just outside the racetrack, and when I pulled around a work truck and parked the driver sidled up to me and said “You’re about to have a whole heap of trouble.” I was wondering why he wanted to pick on me, and said “Why is that?” He pointed to my trailer and said “You’ve got a bad bearing on that wheel.” I was grateful for two reasons. The first is that nobody wants to get in a fight at a gas station, and the second was that I had not noticed the failed bearing. If he hadn’t pointed it out I would have made it only another few miles on the interstate before loosing my entire wheel assembly and being truly screwed! Guess who had a spare wheel bearing for the trailer? Me! I was able to fix it and get back on the road after about another hour delay. I still have the black grime from the grease and brake dust lingering on my hands that I can’t get out.

And so ended my trip to Miller… Whew!

Dennis

My last race was just a single event where I raced my green Kawasaki Z1. Practice on both the Silver Honda CB-F and the Z1 was uneventful but the skies looked pretty bad and it was threatening to rain. My first race was the fourth race scheduled and they started putting us Vintage Heavyweight Superbikes with another class called SuperTwins. Big new Ducati Twins like the 1098 and 1198, Honda RC51s, Suzuki TL1000s and Buell 1125Rs were out there. They were all lined up in front of the Vintage bikes, and at the start some got off the line well and others didn’t. I and a two other Vintage bikes were in a clump of twins and got to dice the whole race with them. Sadly – in my eyes – one of my friends from Phoenix on a nice Yamaha 650 twin based vintage bike was able to move through the cluster of modern twins easier than I and managed to beat me! He won, and I came in second in our Vintage class after battling all race long with those modern bikes. It was some pretty close racing, and a well deserved and excellent win by my friend.
And then the rains came…

If you’re familiar with the term “gulley washer” then you might have some idea of the amount of rain. Here in Albuquerque the rains many times are of great amounts, but very short duration and given our high heat and dry climate (usually) the rains come, then 15 minutes later everything is dry and ready to go. Sadly, that wasn’t the case this time. The rains stayed heavy for a few minutes as was normal, but every 20 minutes we would have a 5 minute rainstorm. We gave up and called the end to the races after about two hours.

As far as my bikes go, I’ve had a lot of. At this last race, my green Kawasaki Z1 gave up the ghost on 2nd gear; it wouldn't stay engaged when I let off the gas. The black Honda CB-F blew up the previous race and when I tore it down I found that it had broke a cylinder liner, the top case and bottom cases, ruined the primary chain, slipper, and jackshaft along with ruining the crank, rod and piston.

I decided to take the good undercut transmission I have out of my OTHER blown up Z1 (it broke the cam chain) and put it in my green bike and send the green Z1’s transmission out for undercutting. That was the fast route to a running racebike on the Kawasaki front and I got that accomplished in early August, and then moved on to the Black CB-F. I ordered a couple set of cases off of e-Bay. The first set had holes in the top and bottom case and oil galley courtesy of a broken rod; it wasn’t quite “serviceable and in good condition” as their writeup stated but the next case set I bought was fine. I gathered up the parts I had and ones I heard about which meant that all I had to buy ‘new’ was one big-bore CB-F piston. It showed up last Tuesday, and I finished up the black CB-F on Saturday night, twelve hours before the next race.

I hope it works!

Dennis

I had a great time this weekend racing after my two month ‘medical hiatus’!

I spent some time in the garage these last two months working on improvements to my black CB-F. It and the silver CB-F have ignition woes with the stock Honda triggers that causes an intermittent misfire at high RPM after an hour or two run time on the plugs. I can fix the misfire by installing new plugs but changing plugs every 150 miles isn't a good long term solution. I've been wanting to 're-try' grafting a Kawasaki Z1 Dyna-S ignition back onto the bike. I had to cut down the alternator side crank stub and mounted up a Z1 ignition advancer and Dyna-S triggers. This has the added benefit of moving the ignition pickups out of hot engine oil. The bike fired right up after all the grafting so I pulled the stock ignition and starter clutch off the left side of the bike, installed my super-trick AHM "Special Products" left engine cover and waited for race day to arrive.

In the first practice session the black CB-F was running excellent. I caught another vintage rider in a hairpin corner and went to pass him on the exit up the inside of the following short straight. However, when I started my pass the motor went “BANG” with no warning! The only thing that ended up passing the other rider was a thumb-sized piece of my lower front engine case bouncing like a ball down the track across his path. A quick look back in the pits leads me to think the bottom end of the #3 rod failed catastrophically. No oil got on the track thanks to the AHRMA bellypan and I punished the bike by having it ride back in to the pits on the crash trailer. I’ll send along pictures of the failure once I tear the motor down; the pictures are usually interesting.

I drug out my silver CB-F, hoping it would run with no problems since I hadn't fired it up since a practice stint in Portland on May 1st. It fired right up and all seemed fine. The bike ran okay, but was jetted rich for our 6,000 foot altitude since I hadn't rejetted it after its trip to sea level in Oregon. I couldn’t do anything about the jetting because I left my jets sitting on my workbench at home. Once I knew the silver CB-F made smoke & fire I started the green & white Kaw Z1 which I hadn't run since its last race in April. It fired right up and ran well too but was also jetted fat in case it was needed in some capacity for AHRMA's Portland event.

The remaining practice sessions finished without incident and the races were next. My green 1974 Kawasaki Z1 did very well against the modern bikes in our combined Novice 1000cc event and Historic Vintage Heavy Weight race. I was purposefully a little slow off the start to let the faster modern bikes get out front but there was only one that did. Once we went around a corner or two with me in 2nd place overall I decided that I might be able to make a race of it with the modern bike leader. I chased him for a few laps, but then he threw his hand up and pulled over coming out of the (infamous bike-blowing-up) hairpin for some sort bike problem which put me in the overall lead! I continued riding the race until it was over while waiting to be overtaken by one of the modern bikes, but thankfully the race ended while I was still leading. The best part was that I got to beat all the modern bikes on my 36 year old, 460 pound, 100 horsepower vintage bike with skinny treaded tires.

The SuperVintage race went pretty quickly too. I bogged on the start and knew my nemesis Steve Brown on his lightweight vintage bike was going to smoke past me and I'd never catch him. That made me pull the clutch in, rev the bike back up and try hard to not get beat badly off the line. I was in 2nd once I finally got rolling after my bog on the start and moved into 1st before we got to the first corner. I spent the first batch of laps running around not seeing or hearing Steve but I was convinced he was riding in my blind spot and right on my tail. Since my silver CB-F is so loud I can't hear his bike either. I kept an ear and an eye out for him, but when I finally saw him he was back a ways and I'd been riding 'quick' for no reason. I kept motoring on along at the same pace to avoid lapses in concentration and finished in 1st.

There were a few odd things about the weekend. It was hot – around 100 – and the green Z1 kept breaking loose in the back. I had a big power slide coming out of the (still infamous) hairpin and the back also slid pretty good a couple of times in the two fastest corners on the track. After the race the rear tire was shot, and the bike also felt 'soft' and kind of pogo-ish on the suspension, moving around a lot more than my CB-Fs do. It could use a good front brake upgrade. The black CB-F will need a lot of work. I already have a replacement case set coming from e-Bay and another crank and rods plus bearings are sitting on my shelf so I'm hoping it'll be repaired pretty quickly. I just hope nothing else was damaged when it blew up – there’s a good chance the cylinder liner for #3 is damaged and a slight chance the transmission could be damaged too. The silver CB-F ran well but I was slower by about a half-second or more from my previous lap times, and I was faster on the Z1 than the CB-Fs. That's not "normal" either; usually the newer Hondas beat the older Z1 by about a half-second per lap at my home track. Hmmm....

Dennis

Portland International, Portland, OR

It was a pretty nice day in Albuquerque after several days of fairly cold weather. In practice, I was able to ride each of the three race bikes once and check them all out. All were working great and I chose to race the silver CB-F in SuperVintage and save the black CB-F for Portland. The green Z1 is my only "legal" bike for the

The first race of the day for me was Historic Vintage Heavyweight on my green '74 Z1. We vintage riders lined up behind some modern twins and waited for the race to start. For some reason, good starts are not a strength of many roadracers and rather than get in front of some modern bikes and then have them pass me back right away I hold back a little bit to try and let them clear out before we get to the first corner. The downside is that when some of my vintage competitors get good starts they are in front of me. The race started without much drama and I followed the modern bikes around, slowly falling behind them but pulling ahead of the vintage bikes I was racing with. This was the first time on the local track after they did some pavement repairs, and I was curious if how the changes in the surface would affect the outcome. Happily, the repaired seams and replaced asphalt were all good and there were no problems. I ended up winning by a decent margin and wasn’t challenged by other vintage bikes after the first corner.

The SuperVintage race is a showcase of all the vintage bikes whose riders care to come out and race a second time plus allows slightly “newer” vintage bikes. My Honda CB-F is the pick for this class and about 10 bikes were gridded with my CB-F being the biggest and fastest! That always helps, and when the flag dropped I got a decent start but was in second place, moving into the lead exiting the first corner. Steve Brown is one of the local fast vintage riders and he was out there on a CB350 that he’d beat me on in the past. The excuse I would offer is that Sandia is a very tight, slow track and my 3x displacement advantage and accompanying extra 200 pounds (the bike weighs 460 pounds) over the CB350s nimbleness doesn’t guarantee anything. With the new asphalt and seam repair I thought I might be able to improve my best ever lap time (a 59.019, I think) and hit my goal of breaking into the 58’s. I was sure Steve was right on my tail and I wanted that elusive 58:999 second lap time so I rode hard. I did win, but I missed out on my goal with a fast lap of 59:252, just over a quarter second too slow. Steve finished second.

I finished the day with a pair of wins, and had confidence that my bikes would run well in Portland.

Dennis

Firebird East, Phoenix, AZ

My roadracing season has finally started again! Well… Perhaps finally is a stretch. It seems like the winter downtime was pretty short and only a few of the plans for the bikes over the winter were completed. I'm still down to one race Z1, but the two Honda CB-Fs are alive and well. The silver CB-F needed just an oil change and routine maintenance and the black CB-F got a new transmission and shift forks after ruining the dogs and fork for 5th gear in Phoenix for the last race of 2009. The big brakes for the black bike are an unassembled pile of parts on the workbench and my 'backup' Z1 hasn't been touched since blowing up early last year.

I headed out of Albuquerque Friday night towards Phoenix and got to drive through some snow flurries which is always disconcerting if you're on your way to a race. I arrived in Phoenix at an ugly 3am and slept in a casino parking lot in my little RV, waking up bright and early at 6am. I drove to the track and got set up. The day was warm and I couldn't wait to get started. The Phoenix track is "Firebird East", and pretty small and tight. My bikes are a handful because of their weight around many tracks, and Firebird East is one that keeps me working hard most all the time.

Once the track was open for practice I went out and was immediately comfortable except for one small thing. I've got a pinched nerve in my neck that I'm still seeing a doctor for, but the problem is that my right arm and hand go numb if I bend my neck 'back' - exactly what you need to do if you crouch down on a bike and try to go fast plus look where you're going! I had to do a lot of sitting up and cranking my neck sideways to try and relieve the pain. The bad part is when my hand goes numb I can't put any strength into the front brake, and slowing down is important! I spent most of the day figuring out how to ride my bikes and ended up looking like I'm going to the grocery store for eggs and milk, sitting very vertical and looking goofy.

I did fall once, but that didn't count because I put my full-face helmet on in the trailer, remembered that I left my gloves at the front and turned to go get them. With my full-face helmet on I can't see anything unless it's more than three feet tall and I had forgotten that I moved a couple of storage bins. I started toward the front of the trailer and took a header over those storage bins when I walked into them! I'm not saying I fell hard, but the vintage guy who was pitted next to me ran into my trailer because he thought a bike fell over and my bikes weigh 460 pounds! I fell hard on my left hand and tweaked a finger, so now not only was I having trouble putting the brakes on, I couldn't grip very hard with my left hand which was pretty swollen. And my neck... Have you noticed when people get older they seem to talk more about their physical ailments? Let's talk about riding and racing instead!

The rest of the practice day went well, and all the bikes ran very well. The Z1 is fast, maybe faster than the Hondas but it doesn't have their better brakes or stability. The Silver Honda was running great but the black bike was stumbling a little bit because I was moving from filters to velocity stacks and didn't have the carburetion quite dialed in. I decided to race the silver CB-F and leave the black one in the trailer to work on jetting another day.

Sunday was another great day of weather, just like Saturday. Highs were forecast to be in the upper 70s (cool for Phoenix) and cloudless with little wind. I rode one round of practice on the Z1 and another on the silver CB-F. Both bikes were perfect and I was up on the green Z1 in race #1 with all the other Historic Vintage bikes. The called the first race and all the vintage bikes lined up behind the modern "Ultra Light Weight" Superbikes, which really means mostly Suzuki SV650s. The green flag dropped and we all took off. I got a decent start and caught up to the back of the modern bikes. One of my vintage competitors looked pretty quick on his Yamaha XS-650 so as I was riding around behind a couple of SVs that were dicing with each other I kept an eye on him to see if he'd catch up to me while I was waiting to see how the two SVs in front of me would deal with each other. It was interesting to watch as the rider on the bike behind was quicker than the guy in front but couldn't figure out how to pass him.

After a few laps with nothing changing I decided to pass them because they were slowing me up a little and making it more difficult to ride because I couldn't set my own rhythm. I passed the guy in back on the brakes and around the outside going into one of the 180 degree corners on the track and then a few corners later I passed the other SV by squaring a right hand corner off and getting on the gas before he was even done braking. It was fun because I passed him on the exit of the corner with quite a bit of speed advantage and then entered a couple of left hand corners where he would be on the inside and have the opportunity to take the position back. He didn't move up on me to contest the corner and I went on for the rest of the race in front of those two guys, and they both were turning faster laps times after I got in front because they had someone to follow which helped them settle down and take better lines.

The second race for me was #9 on the schedule so I had a long lunch break. This time I went out on my silver CB-F for SuperVintage and we were gridded with a modern bike class called "Thunderbike" which was dominated by - guess what - yes! SV650s! The class is a mishmash of many different types of bike but proves to be popular for V twins and there was a nice Ducati 999 out there. We all lined up and the vintage bikes were back a bit from the modern bikes. The flag dropped, I got a good start and there I was behind - guess - yes! The SAME two SV650s as in the first race. However, that nice 999 Ducati was riding with them too; he was positioned between the SVs and me.

I waited for a lap or two to be courteous since I'm not in their class and if I get between them there was a chance I could screw up their plans for points and glory in their class. After a couple of laps with nothing changing I decided I didn't want to just follow the train of bikes around and started to set up a pass on the VERY QUICK 999 by outbraking him into a series of two very sharp left-right corners. I think he heard me moving up on him because he promptly ran off the track the next two corners in a row. Since it's very hard to get a good drive out of a corner when you're off the track and trying to accelerate in gravel my "old" bike was able to out-accelerate his newer 999 and I easily moved up on the back of the two SVs. I passed both bikes in the same places I did the race before and I'm sure they were frustrated to have that happen to them again. However, when I squared the right-hand corner off and drove out sooner to pass the SV in front this time he decided he'd be able to pass me back through the two lefts where he'd be on the inside. I just kept the gas on because in every previous lap he braked very early for the second sharper left and I trusted that even if he broke 'late' that it would still be earlier than I would. It worked out exactly as I anticipated (otherwise he would have t-boned me!) and I was able to stay in front and pull away some. It was a good race for me, just like the first one.

I ended up first in both races by a pretty big margin. I didn't fall except in the trailer and didn't crash except for my computer which is why these updates are late. I'm getting ready for Portland now and really looking forward to the race. I've been roadracing vintage bikes for eight years now. My middle son lives in Washington and doesn't travel much so it'll be the first time he's seen me roadrace. I also have some sisters that live in Washington and my daughter and brother live in Oregon so they'll head on over too. It'll be a lot of fun. Wish me luck!

Dennis

Practice Day:

After racing only one event in the last ten months it was great to get back out on the track. In Phoenix's regional event I raced my DOHC 985cc Honda in SuperVintage and my 1015cc Z1 in Historic Vintage Heavyweight. Both bikes are heavyweights, tipping the scales at about 460 pounds. I had just rebuilt the Honda, replacing the crank, rods and associated bearings. It hadn't been on a racetrack in over a year so it received a thorough checking over. The Z1 had a few minor issues that I had to fix, like a broken cam chain tensioner and cleaning off some sticky residue on the carb slides caused by race gas evaporating. It had last run in September and was on the verge of needing new tires, but I was hoping to nurse the ones on it now through this race weekend.

Phoenix weather was awesome with a light breeze and temperature in the middle 80s both days. The race pits are located in the middle of the race track, and the track itself is on the small side at 1.25 miles total length with 10 turns. Average speed for one lap on the Z1 was just over 71mph and lap times were just into the 1:10s. The Honda was faster, with lap times around 1:07 and an average speed just under 75mph. The 3 second per lap difference is huge, and after only 8 laps would translate into nearly a half lap difference on the track! The Honda is clearly the weapon of choice if choices are allowed but its too new for the Historic Vintage class and the Z1 is my only legal entry.

I took the Honda out for practice to get some time on the motor and see how everything shook out, including my riding. The Honda ran well except for a slight miss about 10,000rpm. Brakes, tires, suspension all felt good. The cobwebs in my head didn't seem to be as thick as I suspected they might be. The Z1 is a push-to-start proposition, unlike the Honda which still has an electric starter. There's nothing that'll get your heart (and sweat) going like pushing a 460lb bike down pit road in full leathers, boots, gloves and helmet, trying to leap gracefully aboard, jam it in gear and have it start on the first attempt without sliding to a stop or forgetting to turn on the ignition. The good thing is that bump starting these bikes are so much work that you very quickly get in the habit of making sure the ignition and gas are both on before you start any running or leaping! I only did two practice sessions on the Z1 in order to save what tire life I had left for the race on Sunday. The Z1 felt good, but doesn't pull as strong in the midrange or have brakes that work as well as the Honda. I rode every practice session for my group that day and was glad when 4pm rolled around, ending practice. Both bikes ran well and I didn't fall which means it was a good day.

Race Day

Race Day started bright and early with another beautiful day in store. We had two practice session before racing started and I took the Z1 and the Honda out for one run each. Both were fine, so I waited for 10:30am to roll around and racing to start. Luckily my Vintage races were scheduled early in the Day. The SuperVintage was gridded in race 1 and Historic Vintage was race 4, all before lunch!

When I went out on the Honda for the SuperVintage race we were lined up on row 11. Way, way up in front of us they had gridded the ultra-lightweight modern superbikes and 125GP classes in the first four rows! The 125s were all Honda two-stroke GP race bikes weighing in at ~157lbs and making 43+ horsepower. The ultra-lightweight superbikes were mostly SV650s. We all lined up and got ready to go. They threw the green flag and I got an excellent start, quickly outdistancing the other vintage bikes gridded with me. When we got to the first corner (which was partway through third gear for me) I was in the middle of a buzzing bunch of 125s and had passed a couple of the modern bikes too. I ran a few laps in this mix of bikes, but when a 125 passed me to do battle with the 125 that was in front of me I slowed just a little so I didn't interfere with their race. Those little 125s with their incredibly light weight are very fast in the corners and I felt like a bull in a china shop riding close to them while they were fighting for position. Once one of the 125s had broken clear, I passed the slower guy and took off after the faster one. I was able to catch up to him, but I wasn't able to pass him. I did show him a wheel once when he slowed a lap or two from the end but once he knew I was there he sped up again. Like any racer, you want to finish in front of whomever you can, regardless of whether or not they're in your class! It was a fun race for me, and I won my class comfortably.

The next race was a combination of three classes of Historic Vintage bikes - Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight. The lightweight bikes included 350 and 450 Honda twins, a Ducati single and some other bikes. The middleweight bikes were included a couple of Honda fours in 550 and 650 displacement and a Kawasaki 750 twin. The Heavyweight class had a Suzuki GS1000 and Honda CB750 on the front row along with me and my Z1. The green flag dropped and the CB750 Honda and I got a good start, running together through most of 1st gear until the power of my much larger engine let me get in front. I lead from start to finish, and began lapping some of the new riders on their lightweight vintage bikes after 3 or 4 laps. The race was uneventful but fun and that win left me with a perfect start to the season.

Next up is a local race in Albuquerque on the same bikes in the same classes as Phoenix, followed by a trek the following week out to Willow Springs in California with my DOHC Hondas to race with ARHMA. Willow Springs is billed as "The Fastest Road in the West", and I will say that turn 8 (which is flat out in 5th gear with your knee on the ground) sometimes makes me wish I was at home watching reruns of "I Love Lucy" in my easy chair! Stay tuned!

Dennis

This weekend's races with my local club were "OK" but could have been better.

In Historic Vintage Heavyweight on my Z1 I was (yeah, past tense) leading by a decent margin. We have one left hand corner on the local track we call "The Hairpin"; a very slow first gear corner. On lap 6 I went too far to the inside and caught my toe on the vertical edge of the rumble strip, and while the bike and most of the rider continued on, my toe, boot and foot decided to stay put for a bit, breaking off the rearset and shift linkage and leaving me in first gear. I was able to get the bike into third after a couple more corners by kicking the whole tangle of linkage and thought that maybe riding the next four laps in just third I might be able to win, or maybe just finish on the podium. It wasn't to be, though. The whole shift lever linkage and footpeg assembly was trailing off the motor like a bunch of fishing tackle being drug behind a boat. Race officials decided to "black flag" me because there was a concern about me leaving debris on the track and that was the end of my race. I ended up with a DNF along with two very sore toes and one messed up boot.

The SuperVintage race on the DOHC Honda went way better. I was able to get into the front by the end of the first corner, and led every lap until the end, winning handily. I wasn't ever challenged for the lead, and all in all there isn't much of a story to share about that race. Lap times varied only a few 10ths of a second for the whole 10 lap race except the final lap. I slowed then to keep from lapping any of my fellow competitors. I chose to that because I had a huge lead over second, and if I lapped any of them I'd 'steal' a lap away from their race since the race would end when I crossed the finish line.

Results:

Historic Vintage: DNF - broken peg mount and shift lever linkage along with some sore toes

Super Vintage: 1st

I'm continuing to debug and improve the 'new' black DOHC Honda. Right now the silver DOHC Honda seems to handle and run just a little crisper. I don't know if the silver bike is "better" or its just that I'm more used to it. The black Honda needs to have the ignition timing tweaked some more and the carburetion cleaned up some plus the suspension front and rear seems to be sprung too stiff. I'll continue to work on the black bike, and when race day comes I'll ride the one that works the best. Now it's off to Willow Springs with the Hondas for Vintage Superbike and Formula Vintage!

Dennis