gray ray
Well-known member
I'm not sure that this is the right place for this report, but here goes.
I am a 70 year old, retired Capitalist, from Cleveland, Ohio, who loves to road race motorcycles.
I am 6'3" tall and about 230# (Not exactly a motorcycle racers body). Notice that I said race, I didn't say win.
Winning for me is to finish a race without getting lapped.
Imagine my surprise when I get a letter in early September congratulating me on qualifying for the 44th WERA Grand National Finals at Barber Motorsports park
in Birmingham, Alabama.
I don't know what it takes to qualify but it must be the size of my wallet, not my lap times.
Anyways, I can't find anyone to go with me to pick up my broken body after a crash, (I do that a lot) so I toss the letter out and go on with life.
My wife tells me that this is a big honor and that I must go. she can't come along because she is out of vacation time at work.
I talk to a few of my racing buddies from Cincinnati and they also qualified and are going, and that I should go. If I crash they'll cover for me.
I order a new set of slicks, change the oil, go over the safety wiring, load up all my gear and off I go to Birmingham.
It's about 15 hours towing the trailer. I get there at about 4:30 Wens. It's a Thurs.Fri. Sat. Sun. event. They stage the early birds in one of the many
parking lots. I pull over a hill into the parking lot and holy &*%$# it looks like a NASCAR event. I'm talking Team Honda, Team Yamaha, Team KTM,
and so on. I definitely do not belong on the track with these guys.
We sit around the lot talking and these guys are talking to me like I'm somebodies grandpa. ( Hell I am somebodies Grandpa)
Six o'clock rolls around and they let us into the pits. My pals and I set up on the second level of three levels of pits. (This place is absolutely beautiful
Anyone who has not been here has got to put this place on their must see list) I set up my Easy-up and get all my gear ready for tomorrow's practice.
The next several hours are spent sitting around shooting the bull and talking about the track. How to take this turn, What gear to be in for that turn.
and stuff like that. They also mentioned riding "The Bump". Coming from N.E. Ohio I'm used to riding all kinds of bumpy tracks, so I don't pay much
attention to "The Bump" and I'm still not sure that I am even getting on the track with Team Yamaha, Team Honda, etc..
The guy across from me in the pits name is Younce, He is riding an SV and his practice time is the same as mine on Thurs. Morning.
I tell him that I am scared to death and would he be kind enough to lead me around the track on the first lap, just so I can get the feel of it.
He says, Sure, but it is going to be a bit uncomfortable riding the race line at a slower pace, but once you pick up speed you will know exactly
where you have to be for "The Bump". Great! This is exactly what I am looking for.
Our practice time rolls around and off we go. Younce takes off with me on his back wheel. This is not what I would call a slow pace but I'm keeping up.
Thru turns 1-2-3-4-5 then 6 a down hill, off camber, hair pin, left hander. then an up hill straight to turn 7, a blind right hander, that disappears over
the crest of the hill. Younce is setting up way on the right side of 7, (A blind right hander) kind of strange, but I figure that he knows what he is doing
Around 7 we go, over the crest of the hill and holy $^&% turn 7 a & b are right in front of us and we are going way too fast to make the turn. We are
headed off the track! Bang! Younc's front wheel hits the curb and up it comes, his back wheel hits the curb a split second later and up it comes throwing
his bike over into a downward position, he lands the bike perfectly on the downhill side of 7B and scoots around turn 8 and off to the next straightway.
My bike does the same, but the landing is not so good and off the track I go in the middle of turn 8. I didn't miss 8 by much, but I wound up in the grass
along side the track. I got back on the track after what seemed like a long time, tip-toed around the rest of the track to pit-out, and back to the pits.
I cleaned out my shorts and waited for Younce to return. I'm going to kill him.
Our practice is over and Younce returns to the pits. I run over to him and scream "What in the hell are you trying to do to me"
With a puzzled look on his face he says,"What"
I said "We were off the track"
"Oh that, that's The Bump, you have to ride it that way to save 5 to 6 seconds a lap"
Screw 5 to 6 seconds, My life is worth more then that.
The next practice session I take turn 6 and started up the hill to turn 7. I swing out to the left to set up 7 and in an instant two riders pass me on the inside
both of them hit the curb, just like Younce, land their bikes on the down hill side of 7B, around 8 and off they went. By the time I got thru 7, 7A, 7B, and 8
they were both 200 yards in front of me.
The next practice session I tried to catch a small piece of the curb on the first lap. With each lap I took a little more, until the afternoon I attempted the
whole thing. It did not go well . I ran out of nerve just before the curb, and got off the throttle. The front wheel landed short of the track and I rode a nose
wheelie into 8 and off the track again.
To make a long story longer. By Fri time trials, I finally had it down.
Friday afternoon was my first race. It was going to be a two wave start, with 12 rows of bikes in the first wave and 12 rows in the second wave.
I placed in the 23th row. There was only one guy in the 24th row. WOW! I was actually faster then somebody.
Green flag goes up and away goes the first wave. The one board goes up , then the green flag and away we go. I beat the two guys in row 22 and
the three guys in row 21 to turn one, but that was the end for me, by turn six they all had passed me.
It was an 8 lap sprint, The leaders lapped me for the second time right at checkered flag.
All in all I had a terrific time. It was the opportunity of a life time. I met some great riders, including a 65#, 11 year old kid. on a 390 KTM that will be riding
with Valentino Rossi's race team next year in Italy. (But that's another story, left for another rainy day)
Hope to see everybody at SEOR
I am a 70 year old, retired Capitalist, from Cleveland, Ohio, who loves to road race motorcycles.
I am 6'3" tall and about 230# (Not exactly a motorcycle racers body). Notice that I said race, I didn't say win.
Winning for me is to finish a race without getting lapped.
Imagine my surprise when I get a letter in early September congratulating me on qualifying for the 44th WERA Grand National Finals at Barber Motorsports park
in Birmingham, Alabama.
I don't know what it takes to qualify but it must be the size of my wallet, not my lap times.
Anyways, I can't find anyone to go with me to pick up my broken body after a crash, (I do that a lot) so I toss the letter out and go on with life.
My wife tells me that this is a big honor and that I must go. she can't come along because she is out of vacation time at work.
I talk to a few of my racing buddies from Cincinnati and they also qualified and are going, and that I should go. If I crash they'll cover for me.
I order a new set of slicks, change the oil, go over the safety wiring, load up all my gear and off I go to Birmingham.
It's about 15 hours towing the trailer. I get there at about 4:30 Wens. It's a Thurs.Fri. Sat. Sun. event. They stage the early birds in one of the many
parking lots. I pull over a hill into the parking lot and holy &*%$# it looks like a NASCAR event. I'm talking Team Honda, Team Yamaha, Team KTM,
and so on. I definitely do not belong on the track with these guys.
We sit around the lot talking and these guys are talking to me like I'm somebodies grandpa. ( Hell I am somebodies Grandpa)
Six o'clock rolls around and they let us into the pits. My pals and I set up on the second level of three levels of pits. (This place is absolutely beautiful
Anyone who has not been here has got to put this place on their must see list) I set up my Easy-up and get all my gear ready for tomorrow's practice.
The next several hours are spent sitting around shooting the bull and talking about the track. How to take this turn, What gear to be in for that turn.
and stuff like that. They also mentioned riding "The Bump". Coming from N.E. Ohio I'm used to riding all kinds of bumpy tracks, so I don't pay much
attention to "The Bump" and I'm still not sure that I am even getting on the track with Team Yamaha, Team Honda, etc..
The guy across from me in the pits name is Younce, He is riding an SV and his practice time is the same as mine on Thurs. Morning.
I tell him that I am scared to death and would he be kind enough to lead me around the track on the first lap, just so I can get the feel of it.
He says, Sure, but it is going to be a bit uncomfortable riding the race line at a slower pace, but once you pick up speed you will know exactly
where you have to be for "The Bump". Great! This is exactly what I am looking for.
Our practice time rolls around and off we go. Younce takes off with me on his back wheel. This is not what I would call a slow pace but I'm keeping up.
Thru turns 1-2-3-4-5 then 6 a down hill, off camber, hair pin, left hander. then an up hill straight to turn 7, a blind right hander, that disappears over
the crest of the hill. Younce is setting up way on the right side of 7, (A blind right hander) kind of strange, but I figure that he knows what he is doing
Around 7 we go, over the crest of the hill and holy $^&% turn 7 a & b are right in front of us and we are going way too fast to make the turn. We are
headed off the track! Bang! Younc's front wheel hits the curb and up it comes, his back wheel hits the curb a split second later and up it comes throwing
his bike over into a downward position, he lands the bike perfectly on the downhill side of 7B and scoots around turn 8 and off to the next straightway.
My bike does the same, but the landing is not so good and off the track I go in the middle of turn 8. I didn't miss 8 by much, but I wound up in the grass
along side the track. I got back on the track after what seemed like a long time, tip-toed around the rest of the track to pit-out, and back to the pits.
I cleaned out my shorts and waited for Younce to return. I'm going to kill him.
Our practice is over and Younce returns to the pits. I run over to him and scream "What in the hell are you trying to do to me"
With a puzzled look on his face he says,"What"
I said "We were off the track"
"Oh that, that's The Bump, you have to ride it that way to save 5 to 6 seconds a lap"
Screw 5 to 6 seconds, My life is worth more then that.
The next practice session I take turn 6 and started up the hill to turn 7. I swing out to the left to set up 7 and in an instant two riders pass me on the inside
both of them hit the curb, just like Younce, land their bikes on the down hill side of 7B, around 8 and off they went. By the time I got thru 7, 7A, 7B, and 8
they were both 200 yards in front of me.
The next practice session I tried to catch a small piece of the curb on the first lap. With each lap I took a little more, until the afternoon I attempted the
whole thing. It did not go well . I ran out of nerve just before the curb, and got off the throttle. The front wheel landed short of the track and I rode a nose
wheelie into 8 and off the track again.
To make a long story longer. By Fri time trials, I finally had it down.
Friday afternoon was my first race. It was going to be a two wave start, with 12 rows of bikes in the first wave and 12 rows in the second wave.
I placed in the 23th row. There was only one guy in the 24th row. WOW! I was actually faster then somebody.
Green flag goes up and away goes the first wave. The one board goes up , then the green flag and away we go. I beat the two guys in row 22 and
the three guys in row 21 to turn one, but that was the end for me, by turn six they all had passed me.
It was an 8 lap sprint, The leaders lapped me for the second time right at checkered flag.
All in all I had a terrific time. It was the opportunity of a life time. I met some great riders, including a 65#, 11 year old kid. on a 390 KTM that will be riding
with Valentino Rossi's race team next year in Italy. (But that's another story, left for another rainy day)
Hope to see everybody at SEOR
