UK and Spa here I come

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:03 pm

Here's a few pics from the zillions I took....

Arrival on Wed pm 01JUL

Vince accepting his 2nd in class trophy. Our new 'brother from another mother' Thomas Arnsburg and our most gracious host is on Vince's left in the red T shirt. Thank you Thomas, you ironed out so many challenges for us newbies and answered so many questions patiently. You're simply the best!

The only way to cool down for humans, temps were up to 39 degrees!

30 mins at 7 kms per lap in air temps of high 30s take their toll. But our mighty Metzelers were more than up to the task..

Down the straight from La Source into Eau Rouge, one of the most iconic corners in road racing. There were 70 (!) bikes on the start grid for our race.

Vince & Hyde Racing and Zanzani engineering skills on display.

Nice...

The quickest Open Extreme bike by far...

Interesting...

Chris Van der Weide's beautiful period correct Moriwaki Kaw

Angus Green on the Thursday 02JUL Track Day - wishin' and hopin', he's just loves a good wind up!

Angus silver bike no. 81

The Captain on Angus' bike.

A bunch of lovely 1100Rs, including Andy Larkin and Keith (krgood?) came all the way from England for this meeting..COOL! Thankyou for your support lads, much appreciated!

Vince and Captain.

Ivan the Terrible

Wout's lovely four...

Thomas (schenkertwentyone) arranged for a full blown photo shoot..

First race, first place in AMA Legends Class. We came second to this...

These CSBK folk sure know how to have a party. In the pits on Friday evening, this went on till about 3:00 am! Thankyou all for your kindness and hospitality shown to us Kiwis.

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 1:33 am

Thanks for the great pics, Tony.

Hawk Joined: Jan 10, 2012 Posts: 439 Location: Chicago

Looks like a great time....

E

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 3:04 am

Erock wrote:

Looks like a great time....

E

Great ??? That's an understatement.................It was a fantastic time, you have to really go there to see for yourself. The CSBK guys have some serious "firepower" and the level of build is remarkable. IMO everyone else in the world could take a lesson from them on how to organize, race and enjoy themselves. Its a total package that I've never seen before in my whole racing life !!!!!
It's so good that we "will" be going back.

Captain

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2015 10:57 am

Captain wrote:

Erock wrote:

Looks like a great time....

E

Great ??? That's an understatement.................It was a fantastic time, you have to really go there to see for yourself. The CSBK guys have some serious "firepower" and the level of build is remarkable. IMO everyone else in the world could take a lesson from them on how to organize, race and enjoy themselves. Its a total package that I've never seen before in my whole racing life !!!!!
It's so good that we "will" be going back.

Captain

Best meet I've ever been to… by a long, long margin!

Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:04 am

They have us beat, that's for sure. AHRMA needs to take notes and they will get better turnouts.

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:00 am

Super super pictures!!! So nice to put faces to all the great guys around the globe that I marvel at the wonderful jobs they do with these old bikes....Such a great experience to have had....

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 4:26 pm

JJam wrote:

They have us beat, that's for sure. AHRMA needs to take notes and they will get better turnouts.

The only event that ARHMA currently is involved with that could compare at all would be the Barber Vintage Festival which has 60,000-70,000 people attending over the weekend. It is like no other AHRMA event. Even so, AHRMA is a small player in the big picture as the whole 3-day event is geared toward a celebration of vintage motorcycles where racing just happens to be involved. The level of bikes (and most competitors) at "ordinary" AHRMA events don't match what happens at major events in Europe. We've had a few pros come play like Jason DiSalvo, Kevin Schwantz, Gary Nixon and Jay Springsteen but not many and other than Gary and Jay, not for long either.

AHRMA's rules are pretty restrictive with regard to modifications and though you can still spend prodigious amounts of money on your bike, you can be pretty competitive without going broke in the process.

It'd be nice to have big grids...

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 4:51 pm

Love going down to Barber! Would be even more fun to have a horse in the race!

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:15 am

Dennis, i am assuming WERA Vintage is a another notch down from AHRMA?

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:49 am

DennisTheMenace wrote:

JJam wrote:

They have us beat, that's for sure. AHRMA needs to take notes and they will get better turnouts.

The only event that ARHMA currently is involved with that could compare at all would be the Barber Vintage Festival which has 60,000-70,000 people attending over the weekend. It is like no other AHRMA event. Even so, AHRMA is a small player in the big picture as the whole 3-day event is geared toward a celebration of vintage motorcycles where racing just happens to be involved. The level of bikes (and most competitors) at "ordinary" AHRMA events don't match what happens at major events in Europe. We've had a few pros come play like Jason DiSalvo, Kevin Schwantz, Gary Nixon and Jay Springsteen but not many and other than Gary and Jay, not for long either.

AHRMA's rules are pretty restrictive with regard to modifications and though you can still spend prodigious amounts of money on your bike, you can be pretty competitive without going broke in the process.

It'd be nice to have big grids...

Dennis, they have classes for just about everything. From nearly stock all the way to complete monsters with modern suspension and wheels. That way anybody who has a bike can race and spend as much as they want. It was really over the top. Id move somewhere over to the UK ir Belgium in a heartbeat if I wasn't married. The race scene is that big over there.