Group W Racing

There’s WMRRA racing at Pacific Raceways this weekend.  I’ll be there on Sunday for sure.  Looking forward to it – see you out there!

Michael

Got some cool new shots from Bones. He is the MAN when it comes to making me look fast!

TimO’s “Blue Rocket” bike built for Aaron Frank to ride at the Sounds of the Past weekend August 8/9 at Pacific Raceways has been purchased by F-160 lister Wick, and will be ridden by Doug Polen in the Lemans start F-160 race at Miller Motorsports Park during the Bonneville Vintage GP weekend (see http://www.bonnevillevintagegp.com/).

This bike has all the Bateman Racing go-fast goodies and knowledge built into it.  It’s a virtual copy of TimO’s green bike and includes all the things we’ve learned in developing TimO’s bike (exactly as described in the “engine specifications recommendations” article in the Tech section of the Bateman Racing website.

When describing the thrash to get the bike together in the weeks before the SOTP race both Tim and Michael have been heard to mutter “we will never, ever do that again and if we even mention the idea smack us…”

Michael

There are a bunch of new rider profiles up now thanks to the efforts of the Frog – check ‘em out on the rider profiles page(s).   Frog has been creating and keeping rider profiles longer than I’ve been racing – he’s a fantastic resoure on our racing and racers for many years and it’s much appreciated.  Thank you Frog!

These are the folks we race with and they’re quite a diverse and interesting bunch – enjoy reading about all of us.

Also of note:  The Frog has been working at a small high quality independent  shop in the very south Seattle area, Jim’s Southend Motorcycles.  They’re sponsoring Tim O’Manony this season, and they’re good folks.  Plus – there are not many shops around not only willing but able to do quality service on older bikes.  If you have needs for parts or service, please consider giving them a shot.

Shop website is:

And the address is:

Jim’s Southend Motorcycles
10840 Meyers Way South
Seattle, WA 98168

206-244-4111

website: http://www.southendmotorcycle.com/

Michael

Brandon Bones (Studio 819 Photography) has the photo proofs from both Saturday and Sunday’s action up on the Studio 819 website. Check out studio819.smugmug.com/wmrra for fantastic professional photos of the weekend.

(Click twice on photos for larger versions – all photos Copyright 2009 Studio 819 Photography)

If you like the photos Bones took of you at all please show your appreciation and purchase some from Brandon and let him know what an awesome  job he does.  He made a special trip up from Texas for the race weekend as he’s moved this year, and on top of that took special effort this weekend to take a whole lot of pictures of us on both Saturday and Sunday. It’s only $55 to buy the whole gallery of pics for a day, and if there’s fewer than 10 pics in your gallery he’ll make you a deal on what is there.  See the Studio 819 faq on the WMRRA forums at http://www.wmrra.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1024 for more information on pricing and how incredibly reasonable Brandon’s pricing on the photos is.

Every time I came out of a corner there he was in the line of fire – taking great shots of all of us.  Much appreciated Brandon!

Also  - TimO has quite a few good photos of the weekend’s festivities posted at http://community.webshots.com/user/darmah78.

Michael

Here’s a great video Mike Polkaba shot of the F-160 race action in the first heat race on Sunday:

(it may take a minute to come up on the page – be patient…)

It includes the warm-up lap, gridding for the race, start and the entire race.  Quite a bit of good close racing in the video.  Notice that Mike uses all the available track (not much) to pass David Fallon (#44) on the left going into turn 5 on the first lap.

You can also get a good feel for how much the draft matters on these little bikes.

Aaron Frank ends up winning (barely) at the line – look for the wheel to the left on the checkered flag lap. I got a flat, so ended up not finishing this race, though I was there in the mix for most of the race.

If you right click on the video  you can switch it to full screen – looks great!

Michael

Here’s a few photos of the track action – more can be seen in Ian’s gallery posted below.  The weekend was a fantastic success all around.

Michael

Ian Johnston’s photos of the weekend:

Kart Track pre-SOTP action:
www.obairlann.net/reaper/motorcycle/racing/20090809/kart-track/

SOTP Racing:
www.obairlann.net/reaper/motorcycle/racing/20090809/sotp-race/

Darren Beatty also has photos up from the weekend:

http://darrenbeattyphotography.smugmug.com/WMRRA

Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association Sounds of the Past weekend
Pacific Raceways August 8/9, 2009

The August 8/9 round of WMRRA racing at Pacific Raceways hosted the annual Sounds of the Past Vintage racing series. Vintage racers turned out in force, travelling from as far away as California and Canada to participate in the annual event, Formula 160 class bikes making up 26 of the approximately 33 vintage entries.

Group W Racing and Bateman Race Engineering sponsored development rider Tim O’Mahony dropped the F-160 lap record several times with the mighty Honda CBR175RR over the weekend while battling with Canadian rider Mick Hart who also broke the lap record several times over the weekend. In the end Tim O’Mahony walked away from the weekend the record holder at 1:55.508, racing on Bridgestone BT39SS tires with newly installed YSS shock absorbers.

Congratulations go out to Group W Racing/Bateman Race Engineering guest rider Aaron Frank of Motorcyclist Magazine. Aaron was fast all weekend, constantly improving his times and learning rather quickly how to go fast on the challenging F-160 bikes. Aaron achieved the first race win of his career in Sunday’s first F-160 heat race, barely getting pipped at the line in the second heat race by BRE sponsored rider Mike Polkaba, who took second to Aaron in the morning heat. With that result Mike Polkaba ended up the overall winner in Formula 160 on Sunday, with Aaron taking an overall second place finish and silver medal for the weekend.

This weekend also marked the return to racing for Group W Racing co-founder and Bateman Race Engineering owner Michael Bateman. Michael did well, earning several podium finishes in the weekend’s many races, improving his times and learning how to ride on the fantastic Bridgestone tires now being raced on by every one of the F-160 competitors, as well as adjusting to his new Glass from the Past fairing and newly assembled 175 engine.

Many other Group W Racing /Bateman Race Engineering member and/or sponsored riders did well for the weekend, including sweeping the 500 vintage podium with F-160 class bikes.

In addition, a fantastic barbeque was sponsored and hosted Saturday evening at the track by Group W Racing’s Marcea Kato.

The weekend turned out a complete success, and a good time was had by everyone involved.

Many thanks to everyone involved, including: Les Barker of The Vintage Advantage/Little Engine Service (engine parts, advice, service), Glass from the Past (fairings and bellypans), YSS Shock Absorbers, Troy at Pennell Powersports (Bridgestone Tires and service), Twinline Motorcycles (class sponsorship), The California Contingent and travelling circus, Marcea Kato, the racing talents of Mick Hart, Aaron Frank, Motorcyclist Magazine, Studio 819, Peter Hirtle/Puget Sound Greyhound Adoption (race sponsorship), South End Motorcycle, Scott Dau (fantastic vinyl), Smarty Pants, Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association, Pacific Raceways and the vast empire of Tim Fowler, Esquire.

Results for various Group W Racing/Bateman Race Engineering riders:

Sounds of the Past Puget Sound Greyhound Association Formula 160
(Lemans start endurance race)
1. Tim O’Mahony (Hon CL175)
2. Mick Hart (Hon CB160)
3. Thomas Deem (Hon CB175)
4. Michael Bateman (Hon CB175)
5. Joel Crabtree (Hon CB160)
6. Aaron Frank (Hon CB175)
7. Troy Knapp (Hon CB175)
10. Todd Kalimar (Hon CB160)
12. Mike Polkaba (Hon CB175)
13. Wallace “Mike” Riddle (Hon CB175)
14. Mark Etheridge (Hon CL175)
16. Don Marr (Hon CB160)
17. Arash Nadershahi (Hon CB160)
18. Tim “Fats” Fowler (Hon CB160)
22. Ian Johnston (Hon CL175)

Sounds of the Past 250 Vintage
1. Tim O’Mahony (Hon CL175)
2. Mick Hart (Hon CB160)
3. Thomas Deem (Hon CB175)
4. Michael Bateman (Hon CB175)
5. Michael Polkaba (Hon CB160)
7. Troy Knapp (Hon CB175)
8. Joel Crabtree (Hon CB160)
9. Mark Etheridge (Hon CL175)
10. Arash Nadershahi (Hon CB160)
11. Tim “Fats” Fowler (Hon CB160)
13. Don Marr (Hon CB160)
15. Ian Johnston (Hon CL175)

Sounds of the Past 500 Vintage
(combined results)
1. Tim O’Mahony (Hon CL175)
2. Mick Hart (Hon CB160)
3. Michael Bateman (Hon CB175)
5. Michael Polkaba (Hon CB160)
6. Arash Nadershahi (Hon CL160)
7. Mark Etheridge (Hon CL175)
8. Tim “Fats” Fowler (Hon CB160)
9. Don Marr (Hon CB160)
10. Aaron Frank (Hon CB175)
18. Ian Johnston (Hon CL175)

Twinline Motorcycle 160 Vintage
(combined results)
1. Michael Polkaba (Hon CB160)
2. Aaron Frank (Hon CB175)
3. Tim O’Mahony (Hon CL175)
4. Thomas Deem (Hon CB175)
5. Wallace Riddle (Hon CB175)
6. Troy Knapp (Hon CB160)
7. Mark Etheridge (Hon CL175)
8. Todd Kalimar (Hon CB160)
10. Arash Nadershahi (Hon CL160)
12. Michael Bateman (Hon CB175)
13. Tim “Fats” Fowler (Hon CB160)
14. Ian Johnston (Hon CL175)
19. Don Marr (Hon CB160)

Complete results are available at www.wmrra.com

Hi all -

It’s been quite some time since anything’s been posted here – hopefully we’ll start using it again.

I’ll start – what a great weekend.

This last weekend I returned to racing from the sidelines and had a great time.  It was our annual Sounds of the Past weekend, with huge amounts of racing and track time.  Aaron Frank from Motorcyclist magazine came out and rode with us, and managed to win one of the heat races on Sunday, making him second overall in the combined F-160 results.  Fantastic result for having never raced F-160 before.  I managed to put it on the box in several races despite being out for 5 years – a quite respectable showing by my standards.  I ended up third, 4th, 4th and 12th in the combined results (12th due to a flat in the first heat race on Sunday).

Look out – Bateman’s back!!!

Michael