A work in progress with two links for videos: More when I get it.
The last day of June and the first day of July can be some hot fun time, at Barber Motorsports Park. Great turnout as all love everything about Barber. Back at the finest campus we go to race at, and for that very special time of year as well. Happy Independence Day America!
Starting off with only a few hours sleep the night before, the Saturday morning ride was pretty much uneventful. At Barber, all four tiers were full of activity, except for the helo-port section, which never got used, thankfully.
Barry made his first Barber event which was all but a full house. He had his newly mounted and balanced tires on the rims he’d laced and trued. Having purchased a new canopy, he was the shade mister in our pit, having lost two myself, in the past year, I’ve been holding off. We looked over his bike and made a list of future considerations for when budget allows, a missing screw here, a cotter pin there, and we cleared up as many of the obvious aesthetic issues, you know, the longer you stared at it kinda discrepancies.
His Conti bias tires looked like they were ready for almost any type of terrain, although chosen for their rain grip tread pattern. The after-race conversation about evaluating the performance of the new tires came down to a misreading of the tire pressure, one more experience not to be repeated.
One item to note is that Barry’s first “tag” on the track was not recorded as I had, in all the circling round pit out area to keep cool, had not started the camera till after the first half lap. We had heat, we had a delay after we had headed out of our canopies while wearing full leather suits in the direct sun, or… in the shade with absolutely no breeze to speak of. Leaving the “Hotlanta” area only to find North Alabama in the see you, and raise you one mode, was fun, but not so cool.
Others of the last few remaining Vintage smaller bike racers in WERA included: Jerry Duke (Ducati 350 single), DC Clark (V3 class on a Yamaha RD400, David Hurst (V1/V3 class on his Yamaha DS7) I saw Harry Vanderlinden’s name on the results for having not started. He’s an AHRMA guy who takes control of the Vintage Superbike Middleweight class on his 550cc powered bike in a class that goes up to 1000cc. Hope to meet him someday.
500GP was the 14th race of the day, so after practice was over, we spent the day keeping track of what race was in motion at the time. By the time we got the track it was hot and bone dry, however, just an hour or two before, the racing was called on rain, I assume for standing water on the track??? After a short delay and clearing skies, racing resumed.
The 500GP saw 3, count them, 3 bikes in the grid. Barry’s and my Honda 350 twins and Jerry “Champ” Duke on his Ducati 350 single. We were in the back of the pack for our grid… however, as we had discussed before the race, there were those two pesky Ninjas behind us that we were both supposed to make sure they had room to get by, if they hadn’t passed us by turn 1. Barry left no room at turn 1 as he all but clipped the white line and met one of the Ninjas in turn 1. No harm, no fowl and two had the opportunity to learn on the same event.
By halfway around the track, the breeze of the race speed began to cool things off, I realized I hadn’t turned on the camera, before the second zig-zag. Hitting the power button confidently, I waited till after the second zig-zag, at a much faster pace, I hit the start record button just before the last turn set. So, be prepared to see a race as if, “returning to our regularly scheduled program” midstream.
I’m leaving the two videos to speak for themselves and back to working on the KZ440 for its next race. FYI, yes, the titles of the videos are one day off from actual dates recorded.
