Up Front

UP FRONT

RED ROOSTER AND FRIENDS

Allan Girdles

Vintage racing is not at all like the Real Thing. There I was, cranked full over in the sweeping righthander, aimed toward the apex, locked in a duel for 24th place and all I could think of was, Lord, ain’t that Vincent a strange machine. The Black Shadow, my rival of the moment, was cornering in a series of self-induced arcs, gronk, gronk, gronk. Every time the hinge bent inward, so to speak, owner Paul Friedman’s boot touched down and a little puff of smoke appeared.

“Well why didn’t you pass me. then?” he asked later.

“Couldn’t,” 1 said. “I was laughing too hard.”

Which wasn't quite the truth. When the track opened up, so did that magnificent Vee Twin and the Vincent rumbled off into the distance, only to reappear when things got tight. 1 did the same thing in reverse with the Bultaco Metralla whose lap times were about the same as mine and at the end of the, uh, race, why, we were all winners.

Not at all like real racing.

What we were doing began, as vintage readers will recall, with the day I rescued my mock GP Honda 350 from the warehouse in which it had been abandoned.

I used this space to ask if anybody else had any interest in fooling around with old racing machines. Turned out there is a lot of interest. Owners from all across the country replied, with encouraging words and details about their obsolete Hondas, Yamahas, Güeras, Nortons. Velos, Bultacos, Vincents, Harleys, Triumphs. Ducatis, BSAs and Guzzis.

Even before we could make formal request of a promoter for time on the program, the American Federation of Motorcyclists made a request: Would we, that is, VROOM, the Vintage Racers Of Old Motorcycles, like to take part in the annual AFM Six-Hour endurance program?

Yes.

We got 27 entries. Well, we actually got more than 30 entries, but old crocks being what they are, that is, Henry didn't have his Velocette together yet, the Moto Guzzi Falcone arrived too late to run. etc., we had by honest count 27 runners on the line.

Every one a winner, but at the risk of being unfair to the others, the stars of the show included:

Vincent Black Shadow, ridden by Paul Friedman. He and Paul Shoen, Norton 750. came all the way from Arizona. The Shadow' was leaking oil during practice and Paul got banned. Tough thing after that drive. I said. Don’t worry, he said. I’ve crashed on oil other bikes spilled. I understand how' it is. And then he went back to wrenching the engine and as mentioned earlier, it worked.

Ducati GP350, owner Peter Neuer. He bought the bike as a production club model, raced it until a bad crash persuaded him to retire. He redid the Ducati as a road bike, then decided he’d like a full GP version, fairing and all. So he learned how to work w ith fiberglass and made, yes made the fairing, tank and tail section. Prettiest bike you ever saw, the kind of machine that

stops people in their tracks.

Yamaha TD1-C, owner Skid Klees. This, one came from Denver, all 1500 miles and return, because he thinks the old bikes ar# worth the effort. He’s got most of an A^ model and a B model and the C model he brought along. Rides trails and the street: never ventured onto a road race cours? before. A

Velton or Norcette, depending on how you want to coin a word, owned by Terry Redmond. He bought a Velo 500 road machine, tuned it up to Venom spec and then installed the engine in a Norton Manx frame. Not a rich man. Hauls th? bike in the trunk of his car. *

And then there was Buddy Parriott on his Norton Manx, Jody Nicholas on tfig Güera Saturno 500, the Single with the fins that looked 2 ft. wide, Dave and Jeff off their street-licensed Metrallas . . . you get the idea. Few' of the bikes would haveinterested a museum. Even fewer were completely stock but as one chap said? there’s no such thing as a stock racing bike. They all got changed first time they went to the track and anyway, we can get picky andbe purists later. Right now, we need to show' that we can put on a show'.

We did, mostly because vintage racing isn’t like real racing. -r

Ever been through tech inspection at a real race? Tyrants, every one. Petty dictators. Power goes to their heads. Try to tri^ you up every time.

Not this time. AFM wanted to look at the bikes, their right surely, but all they wanted was to make sure the oldies were in sound condition, no leaks, no broken bits. Further, the inspectors on duty when 1 rolled up were both Henry N. Manney III fans. “Is Henry gonna be here?” ^

“Will he be here?” I said. “Shoot. He’s riding his Triumph Trophy 500.”

From then on, the inspectors were onj

our side. The things that needed fixing, the Vincent for instance, got fixed. The rest went through.

The fans were with us. AFM gave the crocks our own parking space and we had k lovely display, a row of parked Ducatis, Vincents, Velos, etc.

Now. The thing about a GP Dueati or at Vincent is that they have presence. Mechanical magnetism. There's no genera¿, tion gap. There were people who said “Wow. a Black Shadow! My buddy used tc> have one.” There were those who said “Wow. I’ve read about the Black Shadowy So that’s what they're like.” and there were, those who'd never heard of the Vincent and said “Lookit that engine!”

But most of the credit goes to. yes. us.

The fast bikes, the real racing machines, by process of natural selection or good sense, were in the hands of fast riders, rea* racers. Buddy Harriott and Jody Nicholas, dueled at Daytona not long ago. so when the flag fell it was something any fan could appreciate: Güera vs Norton, a matched1 pair of classic 500 Singles with a sound n^j multi and surely no two-stroke, can equal. Then came the Norton 750. the BSA, the Velo-Norton and the Ducatis, ridden well and by the time we got to the guys who' really didn't belong in a contest of speed, why, there was no contest of speed. We were having the time of our lives, instead.

In VROOM, nobody wins and nobody* loses. Comparing lap times for early Y;* maha road-racer, a production racir* Bultaco, a mock-GP Honda Twin and 4 27-year-old Superbike misses the point. The sponsoring club counted on us to sta)within our personal limits and we did. Only man w ho fell off was Harriott, on the cool-off lap. (“I wanted to go around somç of those corners fast just one more time.”) He came in on the truck, covered witt> more dust than you'd see in the Baja 1000 and we all hooted and giggled and he looked sheepish, about as far from the normal winner's circle as you can get. -4

You can't call this progress, exactly, but the inaugural event proved itself. The track1 was pleased. ATM was pleased and the members were pleased.

Surest sign for me was Joe Parkhurst. He has a Honda CR110, the production 125 racer. Looks great, hasn't run for years,. During the weeks preceding the event L kept telling Joe he should enter and he* kept saying, well. uh. yeah, maybe.

Spies in my circle tell me Joe was in thf control tower when we all came up to the, starting line, and he looked like a kid w ith no Christmas.

4

On the day after the race, Joe came bv the office. He got home from the race and started getting his bike ready. He isn’t gonna miss the next one.