sidecar racing

 Finally got some videos where you can see me in action.  The first one
was on Monday, June 13th at Loudon, NH.  The cam-corder is on the bike
of the current champ.  I was running 2nd when he had problems with his
shifter.  I took over the lead at 2:30 and held it till my trans
popped out of gear with a lap and a half to go.  Got back in gear but
ended up finishing 2nd a few feet behind the winner.



The next race was on 6/18/11 and the champ with his cam-corder started
right behind me.  I started from the 2nd row and made an outside pass
for the lead in turn 1.  Lead for two laps before the champ was able
to just motor on by with his stronger engine.



The woman riding with me is a former champion that weighs all of 103
lbs.  My regular monkey wasn't able to race that day, and her husbands
rig wasn't ready yet, so....  We didn't do too bad for our first time
together.  And when I say first time I mean first time.  We had missed
practice that morning so what you see in the video is our first time
going into turn 1.

Gotta give her credit, I had told her I would take it easy for the
first couple of laps to give her a chance to find where the hand holds
were.  She said, "Oh no, we can't win if you do that.  Let er rip!"

 
AWESOME, Bruce.  Good luck with the medical procedure; let us know how
it goes ... want to see lots more videos in the near future!

 
Finally won a National  !!!

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20110725/SPORTS/107250317/Vinta=
ge-Motorcycle-Days-sidecar-race-goes-quickly-teamed-duo

Pictures of the sidecars start at 28.

The article is about the race on Sunday but does mention my win on
Saturday.  My regular monkey couldn't make the trip so I had to find a
sub.  The sub turned out to be the husband of the woman that monkeyed
for me last month.  She was also there and was riding the rig that won
on Sunday.  Andrew is a former champion sidecar driver and really
wanted to drive. Two years ago we had finished both days at Ohio with
him winning and me finishing 2nd.  I agreed to swap off with him so I
could learn from him and get a chance to apply it.  As the news
article says the race on Saturday was in the rain and we were sliding
all over the place.  The two rigs we expected the most competition
from spun out on the warm up lap and decided to withdraw.  Of the
remainder there was one rig that kept us honest, swapping the lead
back and forth a few times before we could open a gap at the finish.

On Sunday with Andrew driving we started from the back row as we had
on Saturday.  First time I've monkeyed since 2008.  Grid position was
by entry date and I didn't pre enter because I wasn't sure I could get
the engine done in time after blowing it up last month.  Andrew got a
great start passing half the field by turn 1.  We took over 2nd half
way through the 1st lap.  At nearly the same place on the 2nd lap we
over cooked a turn and the chair came up, big time.  He had to
straighten his line to get it down which put us on the grass.  From
there we slid into a gravel pit that stopped the slide, tossing me off
the rig.  The last guy we had passed was right behind us and got the
whole thing on video.  I had to lift the rig to get the rear wheel out
of the hole it had dug while we both muscled it out of the pit.  The
clutch was over heated and it didn't want to go but we managed to
chase down one of the rigs that had gone by and ended up 5th.  That
was good enough to give us 2nd in the overall results.

Here is a video from the winning rig, the same one that blew by me at
Loudon last month.

http://www.youtube.com/user/myfavoritemonkeys?feature=mhee#p/u/22/sw4doS3=
r1mw

He comes up behind us on the warm up lap around 1:30.

Next race is Mosport Ontario in August.  Made arrangements here to
have Jessica, who was monkey on the 2nd place rig Saturday, to be my
passenger.  Ivan can't make it up to the event so she is free.  Andrew
and Kat are taking the month off and Doug will have one of his regular
monkeys.

Will post a link to my get off when it is on line.  First time I have
parted company with the rig in the 12 years I've been doing this.

Bruce

 
Here is a link to the video of the get off.



We take over 2nd at 2:16 and exit stage left at 4:06.

Just got a surprise though.  Because of the way points are awarded for
finishing positions we ended up taking the championship by one point,
36 to 35.

http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/Libraries/Racing_Documents/20110725vint=
ageRRchampions.sflb.ashx

Yeeee HAAAAA!!!

Good thing we were able to chase down that rig after we crashed :)

Bruce

 
Congrats!