Garage Band Racing

Dropped the old girl off at the Garage Brewed Motorcycle show.

Here's a race report for Carolina Motorsports Park from last weekend.

Ok. Time for a race report. I think the final video will post before I post this. Got a GoPro finally and I got a new one (mini11) It's really sweet but it films in 4k so it takes forever to upload a video.

Becky Jordan and I headed to CMP to race with AHRMA (American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association) for my usual 1st race of the season. My brother Jim Jordan came down, hung out, helped in the pits and got some inspiration for his bike build. Not going to go into details but my camping/pit situation was kinda messed up. We dealt with it but I pitted all the way in the back which will factor in later.

Friday practice went ok. I didn't go out for first practice (a little cold) and second practice got red flagged after a half a lap. Because of clean up time they cancelled that practice so I only got 1 good practice in after lunch. It started raining right before the last practice so I stayed in. I know CMP pretty well so I was pretty confident about race lines. I knew going in who I would be chasing.

I had 2 races each day. My regular class Vintage Superbike Heavyweight and my bump up class Formula Vintage. FV was race 1 and VSH race 3. Will Brint on the Tim's CBX CBX would be the guy I was chasing both races. Will is fast, experienced and knows CMP well. I was hoping to latch onto his rear wheel and at least learn from him. Wes Orloff was supposed to race VSH also but the bike had a mechanical issue.

Rained hard for a good long time Friday night/early Saturday morning. Went out for both practices and I could see the track was drying up pretty well even though it wasn't that warm (upper 40's). I figured after lunch when racing started the track would be fine. Green but dry.

Race 1 Saturday went well. Started outside 2nd row (no points this year). Got a decent start. I'm trying to be a little more conservative with my starts. I'm pretty decent at hole shots but with the clutch mods I've done it's grippy. Chatters sometimes and hooks up before I want it too and it will stall. So I've been slipping the hell out of it to try and make sure that doesn't happen. Got off about 5th and proceeded to pass the guys in front. Got around Allan Perry 1st lap which is big for me. Allan is an experienced, fast racer and knows how to make his bike very wide lol. Got into 2nd place behind Will on his X and went to school. Got close to him once or twice and thought about passing him but I'm not gonna stuff anybody. It's club racing and most of us have to go to work Monday. Traffic kinda got in the way also. Kevin Rammer came flying up with us on his 600f2 he has this year. Got in between us for awhile and then got around Will and there just wasn't enough time to try and catch him and pass him before the checkers. Finished 2nd and learned some about where Will was faster than me. Also about where I was faster than him lol. Ran my fastest lap of the weekend in this race (1:50.6) which is over 2 seconds faster than my previous best at CMP.

Race 3 (my 2nd race) was very similar to race 1. Allan went down right in front of me in turn 5 on the out lap for no apparent reason. It looked like someone just yanked the bike out from under him. We were just cruising on our out lap to grid up. He thinks it was cold tires and I tend to agree with him. Started middle of 2nd row. Another decent hole shot. Got by the Guzzi and a Kawasaki on the first lap and went after Will. This time I spent a lot more time close to him but we ran into a lot of slower traffic from the first wave which was the premier class for year Formula 750. Will got through the traffic alot better than I did so he gapped me a few times and then the race ended early with a red flag so I ran outta time. Learned more and worked on getting faster in the places where Will was faster than me. Finished 2nd again and I have to say I was very pleased. The red flags would continue all day though. Lots of guys on the crash truck.

Went to check on Allan. Found him in pretty good shape but his bike was done for the weekend. Saw Will talking to Allan as I walked up and had a good conversation with him. We had met at Barber years ago and we'd say hi to each other at the track but we really never got to meet each other. Found out he was having transmission issues. Which sucks in a few ways. One he's got a really cool bike and he knows how to wheel it around. But also I want him at full strength. He's fast and if I'm keeping up with him that's cool lol. But I also got a little confidence I could get around if I could get some clear track running behind him.

Put a fresh rear on Saturday night, scrubbed it in during the one practice Sunday morning. Sunday started a little weird. For one thing it was dam cold. Low 30's. They called the riders meeting 15 minutes early because they had to run the last race from Saturday first on Sunday. Too many red flags Saturday. They even shortened the last 4 races to 4 laps Saturday to try and get them all in but had a red flag with a bunch of clean up at the end of the next to last race so they had to postpone the last race till Sunday. Moved practice up a half hour to 8:30. I went out and while it was still cold I had good grip. And I kinda liked the idea of another class going out before so I could see if they were tip toeing around or not.

Race 1 pretty much sucked. I wasn't paying attention to the tach and stalled it on the start. Guess I was distracted or maybe I was just a little too hyped I don't know. But I finally got it started and used it as a hot practice session. Got lapped by the overall winner which hasn't happened in a long time but whatever. Worked on getting faster. Finished 3rd of 3 in class but I didn't finish last overall lol. Stalled it hot pit coming off the track and the battery wasn't strong enough to start it. Dave Roper and some guys were standing there and tried to give me a push start but it wouldn't start. Probably from all the cranking after I stalled it at the green flag. So I started pushing it back to the farthest corner from pit in where I was pitted thinking there's no way I will make my last race. My brother came looking for me and found me about half way. He offered to push it back so could get back and so I jumped on that. I got back to the pit, found that there was nothing I could really do to help get ready so I ran out to help him push it the rest of the way. We got the bike on the stand, hooked up the charger and put the warmers on just in case I could make it to my last race. Then on the track in turn 3 (right where we were pitted) a bike went down. He put some oil on the track which meant they had to clean it up. Low and behold we had some extra time for the charger to do it's work.

So I make it to race 3. Needless to say I'm hungry. Not really mad anymore cause of the relief of making the grid but I'm ready to go. Got my best hole shot, caught Will pretty early in the lap and started looking for opportunities to pass. Got an excellent drive out of 14, drafted him down the front stretch, hit the brakes a little later going into turn one and got around Will. Put my nose down and tried to hit my marks. Never really heard him come up behind me but his bike is pretty quiet so I didn't know if he was right behind me or I had a gap. He never caught me. I won my first AHRMA Vintage Superbike Heavyweight race. Pretty dam cool. Winning is not something I've obsessed about. My biggest focus has been to just get faster. To be able to race with these guys. To earn their respect and trust on the track. I'm 55 years old. I shouldn't be out there doing this anyway lol.

The thank you's. First my beautiful, wonderful, patient, extremely helpful wife. No way I could do this without her help and support. She's the best pit wife in the paddock. Cook's, takes care of me, Tank and anyone else who's with us. I love you Becky. Thank you babe. My brother Jamie who from the beginning of this racing deal I have wanted to be involved as heavily as he wanted to be. He raced this bike before I did. We learned a lot together that first year. No way I win Sunday (or the race at Mid Ohio last year) if he was not there to help. Thank you dude. I love you. Get your bike built! The guys who weren't there; Jeff McKinney ( Mac NinetyFour ) who has been a great friend, mentor and overall good guy to bounce ideas off of and learn from. And not just about racing and bikes lol. Get that Honda going and let's race at Mid O this year! Love you man. Dennis Parrish who was my first mentor and is still giving me good advice. Miss you my friend. Hope to see you at Barber. Jim Sawtell who, even though he's busy as hell keeping the JES BUILT guys going out west, always answers questions and bounces ideas around with me. Without all of you I wouldn't be able to do this. Thank you. My success is yours.

Dam I love racing motorcycles! Thank you Lord for blessing me with this. Unbelievable.

We're getting ready to head south for my usual first race of the season at Carolina Motorsports Park next week. A few small changes from last year (built another pipe, new Domino throttle) but nothing major. The pipe is pretty dam loud so I have a packing kit with me in case they want me to quiet it down lol. Can't wait to get to the track!

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus....

Gift Certificate 2023 Fast Line Track Day on Sunday, January 1, 2023 - Friday, December 1, 2023 at Fast Line Track Day, Goshen, Ohio - Purchase Fast Line Track Day Gift Certificates in any denomination. They can be used for any events Surprise a loved one! Gift certificates can be purchased in the amount of $100 and $500...

I built a pipe.......

This motor has been low on power in the midrange and had a stumble at 6500 since I built it. I've tried a bunch of different things to fix it. CR carbs (originally used stock), degreed the cams, programmable ignition to play with timing/curve, none of it worked. One day I'm talking on the phone with Bill Moeller and he asked me "What pipe are you using?". Hit me me like a skillet to the head. We proceeded to discuss different pipes and collector sizes. The pipe I've been using is a period Yosh race pipe. Center hung, no oil filter access and it has a 3" collector. After we got off the phone I swapped the race Yosh for a street Yosh that I have which has a much smaller collector. Stumble went away. Still wasn't a torque monster but it was obvious what the problem was. I started researching exhausts. Back in the day there was a company called Denco that made a pipe that was called a "Tri Cone". Another engine building/tuning buddy Jim Sawtell (JES Built) built a pipe awhile back and recommended a cone style merge collector like he used on the pipe he built. I won't go into the details but Cone Engineering makes collectors and mufflers that are if not based/copied from Denco's are very close to that design. So I bought a collector kit, an old beat up Vance and Hines street pipe and some exhaust tubing. What I came up with, while not very pretty, has proven to be very effective. No stumble, a noticeable gain in mid range power and it sounds nasty as hell lol. I'm running faster lap times at Gingerman than I ever have and that's in practice. Granted I've made other huge improvements to the bike also (suspension and carbs) but this pipe has woken this thing up even more. We'll see how I do the next couple of days.

Off to Gingerman.

Version 5.0? Maybe 6.0 lol. Always trying to make it better and be a faster/better racer. Headed to Gingerman this weekend.

I guess I need to do a recap of Vintage Days. Every year in the middle of July the American Motorcycle Association rents the Mid Ohio Race Course and lets 150,000 or so maniacs race, sell, buy, abuse, talk about, admire and learn about all types of 2 wheeled conveyances...... but mainly it's about old bikes. From 100+ year old bikes to relatively young (40 years old) bikes like mine and everything around or in between. Every July for the past 30 years it has been the Mecca of motorcycling for the Midwest. And I finally got to race there.

WERA runs the road race portion for the AMA as the AMA does not have an RR program like their moto cross/off-road programs. This was my first time racing with WERA and they do a good job. Thanks to Sean and Evelyn for organizing and putting up with the rest of us kids wearing adult clothes, doing things our parents and spouses wish we would not do.

On to the racing. I did a track day with Jim Jordan and Jeff McKinney ( Mac NinetyFour ) a couple weeks ago to familiarize myself with the track and it was invaluable. Friday practice I spent trying to improve my lines, set my markers and get faster. It really didn't work lol. I don't learn tracks very fast. I'm not a guy who can go out and lay fast laptimes down right away. Lack of intestinal fortitude (testicle size?), old age, over thinking or lack of talent might all be contributing factors. Hell, I don't know. But I always race faster than I practice.

Saturday I was in race 2. Racing was supposed to start after lunch and right around 11:30 it rains like hell. Typical Vintage Days lol. Lightning, thunder and a tornado watch closed the track. I love Mid Ohio. It is one the funnest, most challenging tracks in the US but it is treacherous when it's wet. The sun came back out about 2:30, the track dried for the most part (wet spot coming out of turn 4) and we started racing at 3:30. Races were cut from 6 laps to 3 to try and get as many races in as they could before the end of the day. Gridded in the middle of the front row. Not many bikes came out Saturday I'm sure because of the green track. Warm up lap, grid up, green flag and I stall it. Again. 3rd time since I've started racing. This sh*ts getting old. Will be addressing this in the near future. Get it started and take off. I catch a couple of slower guys at the end of the first lap and get around them with motor on the back stretch. Track to myself till the end although I was catching the leaders as I saw them going through the chicane (2-3) on the last lap but didn't have enough laps to catch them. Finished second out of 2 bikes in my class (5 or 6 we're listed on the grid sheets). Robby Ringnalda won on his really cool CBX. Pretty cool story behind his bike but I'll let him tell it lol. But I saw the green and checkered flags so it was a successful race.

Sunday morning I registered for V6 just to get more racing in. While I'm registering I hear the schedule being discussed and thought I heard that the 3 races that didn't run Saturday we're going to run in the morning and the full schedule would run after lunch like a typical Saturday schedule. So I got all relaxed thinking I'm not going out till after lunch. That's not what happened. They got the first 3 races from the Sunday schedule in before lunch as well as the 3 races from the day before. I went back to my pit to fire up the grill for lunch and they're calling race 1. I was a little surprised, but I had plenty of time to get ready. Start to put on my gear and had an intestinal situation that needed to be taken care of immediately. That put me behind. I get back to my pit and Jeff has the bike running (thank the Lord I put the tire warmers on it that morning) and Jamie set my tire pressures while I got dressed. Made it in plenty of time. Thanks guys! Middle of front row again. 3 bikes on track for V5 (class I was in). Ear plugs to try and hear motor better for the launch. They do help but I still slipped it being cautious to not stall it again. That let Rob get the hole shot on me. I followed him through the first 3/4's of the track until turn 10-11 where he gapped me. Still was in my sight until we got around to 10 again and he widened his lead. But when I came out of 15 onto the front stretch he had gone off and was in the grass. I went by thinking "I can win this race" and sent it. I was pushing it, sometimes too hard, missing brake and tipping points, sliding the rear tire coming out of 4 (which was really fun). Settled down finally and the last lap I ran a nice clean fast lap (1.57 my fastest for the weekend) and won my first road race. Unbelievable.

My bump up race was #11 (V6 heavyweight). Was feeling pretty good after winning race 2 but knew I didn't have much of a chance. Faster bikes and faster riders lol. I just wanted more laps and hopefully get to race with someone. Started in the back. Decent hole shot, Harry Vanderlinden passed me (he started behind me) and I followed him past a couple guys going into and out of turn 1. The fast guys slowly disappeared and I was just trying to improve my lap times, which I didn't lol. There was a guy behind me but he didn't get close enough to try and pass. I did get lapped though which hasn't happened in a couple years but it's a big bump up compared to my usual bump in AHRMA. All my lap times except Saturday's debacle we're under 2 minutes so I'm happy with that.

I didn't expect to win a race or the overall this weekend. I knew there would be faster riders than me. Hell, I'm about to turn 55 years old and this my 4th year road racing. But I'm getting faster. Not having issues with the bike is good preparation and is a huge part of being successful on the track. I don't want to brag but I'm proud of this old bike and the work I've done to get it here. I almost never have to work on it at the track. Mainly gas, tire prep and making sure the battery is charged. If I continue to do this it's only going to get better.

I got to meet some really cool people this weekend. Bruce Egan (?) hung out in the pits with us all weekend. He has a super fast 900f that he raced back in the day. Brian Mullins who has been bu****itting with me on FB and is one of the fast guys on track (runs MA twins cup on occasion). Got to hang out with his family Saturday and it was a blast. Met Doc Batcheleer and got to sit his Indian. What a cool dude and bike! Racing is truly a family.

Of course I have a bunch of people to thank. My brother Jim Jordan and my brother from another mother Jeff McKinney. (I call him) Jamie did almost all of the machine work to my engine, with an assist from Nathan House (head) and Bill Moeller (finish hone and knowledge). He and Jeff also took care of the pits and the got the bike ready for my FIRST EVER RACE WIN! No way I get to the grid in time without them being there. No way to thank them enough. I always thank Dennis Parrish who inspired me to try this, mentored me when I first started, answered all my questions putting the bike together, tried to get me to do the smart thing and start on a smaller bike and has just been a great friend and mentor. Jeff has taken the mentor thing over now but I miss you Dennis! Jim Sawtell for parts, ideas, bu****it sessions and inspiration. You're a good friend Jim. I wish we didn't live on opposite sides of the planet. And of course my beautiful, patient and loving wife Becky Jordan . Without your support I couldn't do this. It sucks you couldn't be there this weekend. You are missed at the track by more than just me when you don't go. I love you!

And they all lived happily ever after. The End!

We'll, I'm finally gonna race at AMA Vintage Days. If you've ever been you know it's a madhouse of motorcycles everywhere. This has to be what heaven looks like lol. Here's a pic my buddy Bill DeVore took today.

With my bro James Jordan and my brother from another mother Mac NinetyFour at Mid Ohio for some track time. Learning the lines for Vintage Days.

Mighty nice. Stay tuned.....