What follows is the race recap of John Parker’s experience on his Triumph–put together with help from ECR! His bike is a 1971 long rod t120 with a 75mm big bore kit on a Trackmaster racing frame.
Race Number 1
Location: Mid Carolina Speedway in Neeses, SC
Track: Fast 1/4 mile short track.
Date: Friday night, February 29th.
My first race on the rebuilt motor and suspension. In my heat race I got off the line good but couldn’t stay in front of the smaller, lighter bikes and finished 3rd. I had a front row start for the final but was a little late off the line. Then late in the race I lost a position and finished in mid pack. I really don’t even know what place I was in. Maybe 6th of about 14-16 bikes. I’ll have to wait until the AHRMA race reports come out.
Race Number 2
Location: Oglethorpe Speedway Park (OSP) in Savannah, GA
Track: Way fast 5/8 mile track with a curved back stretch. It’s scary fast. I love this place!
Date: Saturday night, March 1st.
I was good in the heat my heat race, finishing about 3rd or 4th. Had to pass a few to get there. Nobody passed me. Front row start for the final with two rows of 8-9 motorcycles each. Got off the line pretty well in the middle of the front row guys and started moving up right away. I found I could pass coming out of the #2 turn onto the back straight as my Trackmaster was really sticking to the groove. I remember passing Billy Collins (30E from Florida) on the inside coming out of #2 on about the 4th lap. Then, there was nobody in front of me but Melvin Brown (50A from New York), the National Champ in the Super Senior Class. There was no way I was going to catch Brown on his super fast Trackmaster Triumph 750 but there was soon no one behind me either as I was pulling away from 3rd place on back. I finished 2nd in a big deal National on my second race of the weekend. Wow! I was ecstatic. As I pulled off of the track I met my friend Larry Lorenz, owner of my bike, and we bear hugged each other. I think Larry was as happy as I was.
Race Number 3
Location: Ocala Speedway in Ocala, FL
Track: Rough, dry slick, odd shaped 3/8 mile. I would say it had 5 turns and kind of egg shaped. There was the 1-2-3 turn and the 4-5 turn.
Date: Sunday night, MAR 2nd.
We went out for practice late in the afternoon and nobody could figure the track out. You had to be there to understand. They stopped practice and worked on the track with some sort of scraper and nothing helped. They eventually had to completely grade the track again holding up the program for almost two hours. We got to practice again and I thought I found a high line I could use. After the second practice we had another riders’ meeting and all voted to race, but be careful. Can you imagine a bunch of old vintage racers from all over the USA being careful? HA! We were all hoping the other guy would be careful and go slow. Nobody did. In my heat race I got off the line in mid pack and immediately headed for my secret high line while the rest went for the low groove. Uh oh, it was like they all took a short cut and I found myself dead last. Bummer! I tried the high line again and then moved down to the middle but couldn’t make it work. By the time I got back down on the inside groove, I was way back. Kind of embarrassing. Also, I had to explain to Suzanne what I had been thinking and she was not impressed.
Final time came and I was the last guy on the second row. I figured I could just gas it right towards the fastest guy in front of me and he would probably be gone before I ran into him. It worked pretty much like I had planned and I was not the last guy through the 1-2-3 turn. I stayed on the groove all the way around and started catching riders. Long story short, I picked them off until I sat in 3rd and ran out of laps. I may have been able to repeat a 2nd place with about one or two more laps but maybe not. Melvin Brown won again, for the third time this weekend. All and all, I was pretty happy with the 3rd place finish, coming from the back row.
Thanks to 45c for describing all his exploits on the track–and congratulations for his excellent finishes on his Triumph!
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