Group W Racing

After much effort we now have an operational sidecar. Eventually the sidecar will go onto a 1968 Honda 175 but for now it is fun to ride around.

For those of you that missed out on the weekends fesivities, you blew it BIG TIME!

Bradford threw the all time 160 party at Pat’s Acres. And it was GREAT! I heard several of the riders present comment that they had never had more fun on a motorcycle in their lives…

For starters, the track was a treacherous piece of work. Tight, slick, and nasty, with a liberal dose of dry sweep in a few corners. A fast lap was a real challenge. Supermoto on your knees was the order of the day. Slippin’ and slidin’, backin’ it in…I rode until I couldn’t ride no more. Then I threw my bike down in a successful effort not to punt another rider. Bobby would have been proud!

Chef Bradfords grub was world class, and we all ate till we were blimped out. Then we sat around and told lies, just like in Spokanistan. Sarah and Michelle got to put in a bunch of laps on their street bikes. And the neighbors even put on an impressive fireworks display for us.

I sure hope this becomes an annual event. It was WAY too much fun. Thanks again to Bradford and crew and the great folks at Pat’s Acres for hosting us. And special thanks to Bret for the 4 hour masterpiece repair to my fairing after I threw it onto the track!

TimO

Here’s a very nice shot of Tom Deem at speed in Spokane.

Cogs forwarded this link to the F-160 list:

http://www.ahrma.org/features/getting_on_track.htm

Check out the great article Anne Stark has written about getting out on the track. Very nice writing Anne - keep it up!

Michael

Testing an upgrade of the software image inserting.  It’s still a bit cumbersome, but at least it does work now.

This image was uploaded directly to the blog instead of being hosted somewhere else and pointed to.  Someone else try to add an image please and let me know if it works for you.

Michael

Tim O’Mahony was on a tear this last race weekend - working hard to set a personal best lap time. And he did that - dropping the F-160 lap record to 1:56.6.

Way to go Tim!

Michael

Froggly Pondscum forwarded these photos of our illustrious founder and keeper of the rant, the one, the only, Tim Fowler, Esquire. 

Here’s Tim showing off the latest in High Tech vintage racer cold weather riding gear - the race program under the leathers. Works great - cost is right.

“Have another bowl of slow flakes punk. Move over - vintage racer coming through”

Ian Johnston has written a race report chronicling his first race weekend at Pacific Raceway.  The report is here:

http://www.obairlann.net/reaper/motorcycle/racing/20080329/

Michael

Good grief…what a weekend.  Actually what a last couple of weeks.  Trying to get back out after 2 years off plus prepping up another bike for Tamra to race proved to be a helluva lot more difficult than I would have imagined.  Tamra and I purchased the old Ben Semer-mobile, stripped it dowm to the quick and built it back up again.  It should’ve been done in ample time but…you know.  I just Sam Spade-ed the problem a day or two ago:  a pinched compression ring on the left side blowing 40% leaky-downee.  I relieved the ring land and made sure the ring spins freely .  All should be well now…

As for the actual racing, practice was spotty due to unforseen dipshittedness (read: no gas, ass), but ole Kid Banty pulled hard down the straight.  My closing speeds are like nothing I’ve had before–nifty! Also,  the new B-stones and the addition of a steering damper and fork brace made for some rather good handling. 

I finished 2nd in the 1st race and 5th or 6th (who knows…scoring is always jacked up) thanks to, *ahem* more fuel pickup issues (ran an entire straight on about 2/3 power–looked down and switched to “Res”, and got the power back).  Eesh…  The Banty has never gobbled up so much fuel, so I guess I’ll have to recalibrate my eyeballs.  The real shitteroo was that Lavallee (who is a mighty fine racer I might add) won the race (thanks to Timo’s blow-up) and I had passed him at the line to get that 2nd in the 1st race–I coulda been a contenda.  Lavallee and I are still using the old 160 platform, so it’s nice to know it is still a viable package to win races (as long as TimO’s rig grenades!) Anyway, for almost bagging out, it was a great Sunday, and I’m really happy to be back at it again.   The “sketchy guy” returns.

Cogs #40