Ron B's Photos
Saturday practice
Sunday races

Team Spawn Race Report

Since my last report I'd bought a 1 1/2" over box aluminum swingarm and a few other bits from TCR, so Thursday evening I get a wild hair and decide to install it - of course, once I've got it all apart I discovered that there wasn't enough clearance from the rear hangers on the RM80 motor, so Friday morning was spent underneath the blamed thing with a hand drill and grinding bit, o boy...many metal shavings later, it fit fine, so off to the races! As _both_ my 50cc motors are still being rebuilt having blown up, I was able to borrow Squido's bike for the 50cc class races, thanks Squido!!

Saturday was sunny, clear and _hot_, hitting 90 in the shade before the day was done, yikes! The new swingarm makes a huge difference in handling, and I added one tooth to the front sprocket which also helped...
It was interesting riding Squido's bike "Spawn-for-a-day", as I've not  ridden a 50 much here before, I can't wait to get my own back as it takes _so_ much more riding skill to make them go fast and keep speed up in the corners! The rubber from the karts was actually a problem this time, so much of it gooped up the tires - at one point it loaded up the front so bad it ripped my fender right off Scyther! Sheesh.
Got in about 5 practice sessions before I called it quits - many bikes had motor problems this time, seizures, fragged pistons and ? broken cranks sidelined what, 5 bikes altogether? Must have been the full moon...

Sunday the temp was cooler but humidity was up so it felt about the same, and what with all the karts there for raceday the rubber was even thicker on the track! I wonder if there's any way to Zamboni it off for the Invitational weekend, I can't imagine how we'll get through the endurance race without the rear wheels binding up completely! Lawrence brought The heat race for 50cc was fun, especially at the start when Frank did a "vaseline" move and squeaked between me and Mike into Turn One! My forks were binding in the sliders so I took it kind of easy and came in 5th, I think...fixed the problem by loosening the braces and bouncing it up & down to loosen things up for the main race...everyone was in good form, especially Taro - after practicing on street tires to the point of crashing Saturday he came back on race tires and was looking hot!

The 80cc heat was a challenge - Rich Serne was up from Sacramento, riding Ron's NS50 as his Superbike died the day before...and Ron was on his 80, and got a great start, not to mention Frank blazing past, so I fought hard to get around, but managed it, inproving my lap record by over a second to 46.703! Saturday Rich was handtimed in the 45's which has improved to the 43's in yhe telling, I expect the official record to be shattered completely at the Invitational, heh.   The 50cc main was uneventful and fun - I'm too far behind in the standings to worry about points so I motored around toward the back, saving my waning energy for the 80cc main...I had pole position there, which isn't a real advantage as one needs to get over to the righthand outside for Turn One - still, I was psyched, and got a great start and blazed into the lead, just raging the first couple laps expecing to be passed any time in the corners...I finally chanced a peek to the rear and saw I was a few seconds ahead of Rich, so I relaxed a little and concentrated on technique, as there are 3 corners that are basically a mystery to me
still.
My mantra throughout the race was "Don't f**k up!", and it must have helped, as I pulled of my most hard-fought win yet, only by the graces of all the mechanical attrition, it's not going to be a walk from here out, which is great!! Thanks again to Squido for loaning his bike and everyone who came out and made this the best Canby weekend yet!

Next Saturday is Battletrax in Puyallup - come out and support the cure for diabetes!
h23