Vintage Celebration mid way report

whew, THAT was ridiculous.

first off...EVIL, JohnnyB, THANKS. Really, without your help over the past 2 years I wouldn't have made it. It was a blast and I meant to pull you both aside to thank you but DAMN, you guys always have a crowd around you! Thanks.

I'm not sure how to sum up the weekend... retarded? extreme? Ridiculous seems to be the closest.

For me it started 6am friday, picked up a rental van and then off to the shop to have a last minute freakout safety wire session. By 10:30 I had loaded up (solo) and hit the road. After traffic and accidents in the rain I ended up signing in @ 5 pm. Find the Wankers, the Wank-Mahal and Monkey in the usual spot. Off to the garages...

Thankfully the Wankers are a hospitable group, they welcomed me into the dry, DRY garages with open arms.

My whole goal with this endevour has been to build a bike that RUNS and FINISH A RACE. Without having anyone racebike to look at I freak-out on the details. I know you guys have all suffered the late night calls from me... "um, how do I safety wire a masterlink"

TECH? nightmare! Here I am the noob running to catch tech before they close for the day. My thinking is if they find something I forgot (or didn't know) to do tht I'll have time to sort it out before saturday am practice. So I get there and get a serious lecture on oiling the track and the need for case guards. My heart drops and I'm shitting a brick. WTF? Holy shit. poor me, here I am after 2 years and I won't be able to... finally someone grabs the ACTUAL tech inspector who goes over the whole she-bang and... "good job".

Back to the garages, unload and off to Wanksville to party. Meeting all the rest of the fruitcakes from this place was great. Very cool to put faces to the ramblings! I think Yellers fire philosophy for the weekend was to create a fire so larfge that the rain evaporated before it hit the ground. It came close, damn near melted my boots from 5 ft away.

I turned in early and woke-up to "riders meeeting in 10 minutes" over the PA. Weather is awful and I'm Frozen. Standing in the driving rain all night and sleeping in a ghetto bag in the back of the van? seriously FROZEN. I stumbled down to the riders meeting in a haze, jumping jacks in the garage to get some blood to my feet and I swear I woke up somewhere between T1 & T2. Pratice went well stayed upright and the bike ran well so goal #1 achieved. Soto's bike is sorted (finally!), TT gets his bike back together and Yeller gets closer. Our garage comes back in one piece. Tech problems aside thats pretty damn good.

We spend the rest of the day in the pits chasing tech problems and getting diabetes from champ cake. Laytered? I still have a sugar hangover from that shit. Everyone really pulls together to get each other ON the grid. Not just your friends, everyone. Really cool people. Watch Whatevs (nice handle) video, conditions were shit, 100 riders (or so) out there in that? That makes 100 crazy motherfuckers in one spot.

Pack it in for the day and off to the Wanker-mahal for fire-party #2. This is the big one. Everyone bought firewood without telling the others... yellers mission is to burn it all. Mr. Miyagi aka Champ bestoes some "wax-on, wax-off" wisdom and the bromance reaches stupendous proportions. couples under umbrellas? I'll spare the details here, just have to add "lets burn the tent!!!"

Sunday is raceday for us FCB'ers and I make a point to get some coffee in BEFORE hitting the track this time. Morning practice is wet(of course) but at this point rain is all I've ever ridden this bike in. More troubleshooting back in the pits then wander off to watch some other races.

FCB- finally! My first race. TT, Soto, Yeller, Lonewolf... who else was in there? I dunno. I'm just thinking viagra: "stay-up, stay-up..."
I get a good start and get into T1 just behind lonewolf, then TT soto and everyone pass me between 1&2 or 2&3... I try keep it at a steady pace and being a bit dry for a change I try to get some better lines in. 200gp(?) was behind us so I get to ride with Aaron for a minute BFD and Freddy too? Not sure. I don't quite know where I finished in the whole scheme of things but I made it in in one piece, even did the total dork move of going the extra 1/2 lap after finish and got the ol' black flag at T3. What a dork.

So, now that i finished a race and my bike ran something new came up. I want to ride better. I had never thought that far ahead.

When the call came for LWSV I was not ready. Second call and I wanted to change out my battery. F-it, I'll chance it. We sat for 5 min at the start. Total loss? pretty much. Got another good start, hamp passes out of 2 and Monkey plows by me out of the bowl hung in there till it started pouring out. Then I start feeling power loss, I'm thinking "I'll just finish..." do one more lap and I'm wringing it's neck and getting nothing. I pull out and watch the guys pull one more lap before getting red-flagged.

By the way, did anyone talk to 555?

So that's my first race experience abrieviated. The coolest thing might have bben watching Soto finally have a decent bike and kicking ass.... in front of his son! I bet he thinks your freaking superman now. How cool is that?

We stayed for the ceremony and watched Freddy take home a handful of cups, then I parted ways with y'all and hit the road. 4 1/2 hours later I'm unloading the van in brooklyn. Then I return the van and take a cab home. It's 2:30am. Mission accomplished. I was a man obcessed. I can't even think about how much the weekend cost, but I did it! Big ups and thanks to everyone for helping me out. I'll be back.


*bumping into TT at a rest area 2 hours after we leave NHIS? Both in a barely awake driving haze. Weird.









BORN TO LURK, FORCED TO WORK.
www.NYCvinMoto.com
www.VinMoto.org

Dudes...what a great time...crapster on the bikester, but a great time. The "Wankermobile" (Copywrite, registered trademark of Wanker Racing Group 2007, LLP) was just in the pisser this weekend. It was so fustrating to get on the gas and have the bike go "blahhhhhhH". That first practice TT comes by me, close enough to read the tag on my underpants, on the straight.... I get on the gas and the bike goes....blaaaaahhhhhh... t1, t1a, I see the flagman at t2 waving and tt on the track stomping his feet and pounding his hands....

I think, "Should I stop to assist a fellow Wanker...noooooo...he seems to be okay. I wonder what I will have for dinner tonight? Do we have enought beer? Hey, that big tent looks funny from the track, and I wonder why it is taking so long to get to t3? Good thing about a bad running bike is I don't have to use up my brakes? Is going deep into a turn really going deep when you don't have enough power/speed to use the brakes? Wow, this is what it must be like to run in the 50cc class. Hey, was that a 50cc that just went by me....? ahhhh shit...!".

Believe me the bike was running so bad that I had enough time to think about all this as I was "accelerating" out of t2. Even though the bike wasn't up to speed, the good times were! I had a blast getting to know everyone! I have had a fun life, but after talking to Fred, I'd trade my earliar years with his.. , well all but the puking part! Bro, it was good hangin' with you! Just no threats of burning my tent down, while I am wrapped in my sleeping bag in the tent! lol.

Champ, I am a bit jealous that the Miagie wisdom was not dished out to all the Wankers, but just Mr. Rosko. I thought I was your karate kid....

Thanks to everyone else for the advise on the bike, I will get it all sorted out,.... I was impressed that Baker was teared up when he got his awards! And Sotoman, I am gunning for you. No tail marker status for me dude!

Tanner, thanks for the fender and tank. I already got a "wanker" paint job planned!

Wankers!

Yeller'
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Ask not what the wanker can do for you, but what you can do for your wanker!