I believe its been near 2 years! I got to break in the +50 class, at the Grass track race at Redbud. The weather was awesome, the crowd was staggering. My all nighter on my rm400 fell short about 1am. I will have to get a hold of Eric to fix this one. My protege not, offered for me to race his, clapped out 03 250 yzf. I am not a big fan of going to big tracks with the only 250f against a bunch of 450f's. And I knew he has not kept up with maintenance. It would not start, flooding and popping, fixed that, the c clip fell out of the rear master cylinder twice, and the front wheel bearings are shot! Big ktm wig Burke set this bike up originally, and sold it 1 tooth off, I did know it ran well, and Jeremy gave the suspension a once over, 3 years ago! The whole weekend has been screwed up, so what the heck? Made it just in time for practice, so did 400 or so other riders? The Redbud Grass Track/Vintage Race is a big race! 19 guys in the +50 class running with the +40 class, that adds up to a full gate, PERFECT! Well they blew that with the ever sucky staggered start. They use the starting gate, off the ski jump, over Alessi's grave, and up into the orchard minus the double, big sweeper right, to the steep downhill left hander off camber, WAY COOL, then it went weird, you veered right with 3 trees dividing the lines, hung a right through some more trees, and on and on, till this HUGE black pile of compost, the pegs dug ruts, AND STUNK LIKE *^$%!. The sweet line was around the outside, hands down. The grass portion was unprepared, some good traction, some like clay. I would not want every race laid out like this, but. Practice had 4 or 5 bar scratching the opponents naval incidences, nothing real hairy. Drop of the first moto, towards the back, but the dolts left me plenty of room on the outside, I was ready to cut in around 5th, no rear brakes. Driving the front end under some loose stuff outside saved me from pain, and I kept it running. I mustered up to 12, got lapped by the first 2 +40 guys, Connie Feist, talk about distracting a guy? Second moto put me into around 15th, right as I passed a guy before the finish, the +40 leader got me. So I figured I did better, A little, 12th overall, missed the money by 5 spots. How do you resolve every muscle in your body from being sore? Go ride again! When I came back to the pits, I loaded the bike right into the trailer, open rail, a pit dad next to me heard me gasping and what not, and asked why do I still do this after all these years, with out a pause, I uttered "cause there is nothing more fun I have ever found" And the pit atmosphere, it was a mullet/Halloween theme race. I seen a chicken and a dog race, and Mr. Feist: lime green from head to toe, a yellow square plastic in his front wheel and a yellow round one in the back, and what looked like a home made front number plate/roost deflector that was as high as his bars, and covered the levers! Did I mention it appeared to be made out of 1/2" plywood? He is like that every weekend, number 0, you can not miss him. 2 full gates of vintage bikes, I was bummed, no camera, my vin bike in the garage. A BSA that popped a really lot was last to the first corner, with a Ducati directly in front. They have an xr75 double shock and single shock race on the kiddy track, I was too beat to watch, but next year,,, Vintage Bob
