[Bateman147]

The first race of the season in the Northwest was this weekend in Seattle. It Snowed.

There were 15 bikes on the Formula 160 grid (160s and 175s) that braved the conditions and raced. All of them finished the first race, but there was drama in the second race - two riders found the limits of their Bridgestones and one had a "fuel delivery issue" and holed a piston after winning the first race in the morning going away.

There's a report by Bradford Duval on the blog page at www.groupwracing.com/wordpress, though the Group W Racing page seems to be down at the moment. It was up an hour ago when I posted Bradford's report.

Michael

 

[whatevs]

I learned to race at SIR (I guess the name has changed). I remembered having a novice practice race in mixed rain/snow. I seriously kinda like racing in the rain now, and I'm not too bad at it. Thank you, hometown!

Looks like you guys have a good thing going over there with the 160s. I keep hearing about it over here...you have your own class in WMRRA? Do you go down to PIR ever?

 

[Bateman147]

We've got a great thing going in the Northwest with 160s and 175s. I suspect both WMRRA and OMRRA will have 20+ on the grids each race this summer. We do have our own class in WMRRA - it's called Formula 160 and it's scored seperately from 250 vintage. Rules allow 160s up to 3mm over and 175s up to 1mm over. Outside that you're "encouraged" to enter 250 vintage. Though there pretty much aren't any bikes doing that. I think there was one or two last year. OMRRA runs in 250 Vintage, with 160 members running their own gentleman's agreement class within a class to much tighter "rules" also called Formula 160 and as far as I know they're still following the original rules as posted on the Group W Racing website. I'm not sure if they're awarding their own separate 160 plaques this year or not.

I am not racing this year as I'm not making much $$ and I don't currently have insurance - hopefully this company I'm starting will take off and I'll have big dough to spend on racing next year....

Several of the OMRRA racers do travel up for the WMRRA races and a lot of the WMRRA racers used to race OMRRA, though I don't know how many will this year. Vintage guys won the #2 and #5 plates in the OMRRA club overall championship, and the club decided to change the race format for vintage to match the rest of the club this year. Which means they'll be running 12 lap races - quite a long race for our little bikes. I don't know how many of the WMRRA guys are going to brave it and go down this year. Most everyone will be trying to get down to Miller, and quite a few do travel up to Mission, BC for the races as well.

There's also a combined club championship going this year sponsored by both clubs and a shop in Portland with a $2000 purse for combined club points accumulation. It's certainly possible for any of the vintage guys to place well in the total club points if they do all the races.

Michael

 

[jbranson]

Oh man, that track is beautiful. Looks like hella fun to race there. More pics if you get a chance.
I'll check out that website for more.
JohnnyB

 

[whatevs]

It IS a beautiful track...my favorite part was the elevation drop into the hairy esses. It isn't the safest place in the world- basically no run off, tire walls about the only thing separating you from the forest and a slippery as snot entrance to the straight due to the drag racing crap they spray, but I miss it. It was only 45 mins from my apartment...

 

[Bateman147]

It is an incredible track layout - one of my favorites. Like a lot of tracks it does have some "do not crash here" areas where you really want to ride at 95% instead of 105%. Recent years have made some improvements, especially with air fence placement. The pavement is not in the best of shape these days, and there's a kink in the straight now to keep us off the VHT crap the drag racers put down in the launch area.

I absolutely love the downhill braking area for turn three - it's pretty easy to own even the modern bikes coming into that corner.

You should come out Johnny. Tell you what - fly out August 9-10 for Vintage Days and I'll make sure my bike is together for you to run. In fact if any of you want to come out I'm pretty sure we can round up enough loaner bikes given enough notice.

Michael

 

[Bateman147]

Here's a video of the vintage days weekend LeMans start for the F-160 race to whet your appetite and entice you to think about flying out... That's a 160/175 only race - no other bikes on the grid.

There's also a vid of 160 racing at Portland in the "related videos" area.

Michael

 

[bfd]

That's a gorgeous set of corners. Imagine all the possible combinations for FrankC to crash in.

Any chance we could do a LeMans start this season?

 

[joe c]

looks like europe. awesome.

jc

 

[UngaWunga]

Cool.

 

[Bateman147]

That's the Portland track - lots of close racing there. The riding tends to be a touch more "Bonzai" than at Seattle as PIR has awesome runoff just about everywhere. The track is pretty much level and is fairly easy to figure out, but not so easy to get that last few percent and go really fast on.

Seattle's track has mass elevation change as you can see in the one pic. It's got a fantasticly flowing set of linked corners up the backside - 5/6/7 flow together like smooth ballroom dancing if you get it just right and there's no one in the way.

Very good riders from both tracks that are fun to race close with.

Michael

 

[Bateman147]

Here's another from Portland - old enough that I'm in it.

I'm on #147 in the Purple leathers when the race part of the video starts up.

Michael

 

[ROSKO]

great photos, I would love to make it out west sometime to take a few laps. Snow huh? I bet that's what NHMS looks like for the track day next month! Glad I get some sunburn down at VIR to shake off the cobwebs!

 

[jbranson]

That some fine racing! Sure wish Loudon was more condusive to flowing small bore racing. So many places on our track kind of kill the momentum of small bore stuff.

The chances of me ever getting out to the great NW are pretty slim, but if I do I'll let you know and bring my gear

In that lemans start vid....the guy that got off last, in the black leathers....his bike sounded pretty strong.

JohnnyB

 

[Bateman147]

Here's a full lap of Pacific Raceways (formerly Seattle International Raceway) from a SV650. The elevation changes aren't very apparent in the video - the downhill to turn 3 is dramatic.

Michael