Season Ended Thank You!!!

2009 Racing Wrap Up. Gratitude!

It’s been 11 months straight of preparation, focus, strategy, education, respect, and friendships. This was my first year of racing a full series and never missing a weekend. I’ve always wanted to race and prove to myself that I am fast on the track and that I could be a winner, and I feel like I accomplished that. I have learned so much this year with the help of so many, but there is one thing that I can say for sure up front. This has been the best year of my life.

This year we won a championship in the WSMC Vintage Lightweight on a 1980s Cagiva/Ducati Alazzura (Pantah) 650, and took a second place in Vintage Heavy weight on multiple race bikes including 650 and 750 Pantah Ducatis, and a 1981 Suzuki 1100.Along with WSMC, I also finished 5th in Sportsman 500 on my 1970 CB 450 Honda with AHRMA. In the 28 races (combined WSMC and AHRMA) we ran this year; we finished on the podium except for the two in which I crashed while leading.

The year started out cold with mornings as low as 28 degrees F. The summer weather at Willow Springs reached a smoldering 114 degrees with a track temperature closer to 150 degrees. When I came to the track, I hardly knew anyone there, except the members of our team. Though out the year, I learned what racers are all about-they are competitive, yet sincere individuals. I met so many great racers, mechanics, dads, families, corner workers, officials, office administrators, fans, and dogs all of which I call my friends. They all feel like family.

This letter is for you. With out your support and help, I wouldn’t be writing this letter of appreciation. You as part of team helped us fulfill our goal in winning a championship. There would be no tires, parts, financial rescues, smiles, or wins. With out your support I wouldn’t be fulfilling my childhood dream of racing. This is a thank you from a person that wants to show his gratitude and appreciation for all that you have done.

Last year I decided I wanted to race bigger bikes with the WSMC, and find a way to do so on a shoestring budget. I was approached by Ed Milich in late 2008, and was offered a ride on his wife Alice’s 650 Pantah in Nov 2008. After a podium finish in that race, I was hooked. Pierre Pfeiffer offered his Pantah with a blown motor, and Ed and I spent the holidays building the motor and fixing up the rest of the bike. Early in the season the blue Pantah would finish first in both Vintage Heavy and Light weight, but soon the competition got up to speed and made the season much more interesting. Soon, we were lightening the bike in every way possible and losing the charging system starter, and other niceties. Russ Stranger would be my toughest competitor in Vintage Lightweight class where we would both take first and second and learn to become better and faster racers. As the year progressed the battle between Charles Burnett and I would become the season’s hardest monthly race for me. Points meant everything and so did strategy. Ed and I would build bigger bikes since Charles’s was winning in order to keep our points lead. George Beavers allowed us to finish building up his Suzuki GS and race in Vintage Heavy weight. My times started in the 1:37’s in the early season, but by the end of the year, we were running in the low 1:32’s. The class championship would be decided all the way down to the last race of the season between Charles and I. Unfortunately, I crashed on the last lap leading the race, so I took second in this championship.

I would like to give thanks to so many people who have offered their support.
Ed Milich and Alice Sexton of Guzzitech.com and Ducpower.com, Pierre Pfieffer for lending me his bike, the Ducati Pantah/Alazzurra/Cagiva internet groups. Andy from GP cycles for late nights on the dyno, Beverly Hills Ducati, Mike Curtis from Fleetserve for help with sponsoring our monthly race tires, Brian Catterson & Motorcyclist Mag for all his help, support and encouragement, the Cretins Motorcycle Club, George Beavers for letting us run your bike and starter stand, Kara Harrington for help with my leathers, Eric Orr from Strictly Regimental for the water jetted parts, Cinema Vehicle Services, Johnson and Wood, my father Mike Carmody, Jesse Pompilio for your monthly pit crew help, WSMC, and most of all my friends and family for your ongoing support.

The 2010 race season is just around the corner, and Ed and I are building a super Pantah to race in Battle of the Twins and Vintage Lightweight classes. We are also hoping to build a competitive BOTT middleweight bike and possibly even win some races at Daytona in March…

Once again, Thank you so much for your support. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Rick Carmody
#394

AMA Flat Track After Party at the Cretins Clubhouse

Second Practice on the "Black Stealth" GS 1100

The Black "Stealth" September's Secret Weapon.

Since we have lost 4 races a row, even with bringing out a larger displacement Ducati, in in Vintage Heavy Weight; we were forced to build a bike that would compete in order to try and save our points lead.
So, we borrowed George Beaver's unfinished 1981 Suzuki GS 1100 race bike. Ed Milich engineered and adapted a 2006 GSXR fork with radial calipers, Brembo brakes and Marchesini forged aluminum wheels. In order to make the geometry work with the 50mm GSXR forks, Ed designed fork extensions.

These are beautiful Ed. Nice work!.

Then Ed machined some wheel spacers and adapters.
Here is the naked GS with the forks and wheels mounted.

George had already been running this bike in WSMC and AHRMA in the past years, It has a slight over bored kit and competition cams, APM drag clutch, Dyna adjustable ignition system, and it runs a total loss on a small cell battery.
When I got the bike, it was naked, and George had a old GSXR race faring, GP Cycles, hanging in his rafters along with a lower. He said that he had always wanted to have these mounted to the bike, and I decided to make it happen in less than one week. Problem is that the lower wouldn't fit well with the exhaust. Eric Orr has had this older CBR race tail section hanging in his garage for years, and I have borrowed it a couple of times in hopes of mounting to something. Well, after the 3rd time of borrowing and never using it; Eric said "this is the last time buddy you oh me 35 bucks!" So here it is mocked up in my shop.


George had a upper faring stay therefore; I had to weld on mounts for it. The I had issues with the lower since it didn't fit well around the exhaust. So, I brought the bike over to Smilie at Barnacle Bros; who specialize in Fiberglass work.

http://www.barnaclebros.com/



We cut out the protruding exhaust and molded around it and then applied some Kevlar to the area because it will most likely be the area it will touch the pavement.
Smilie also helped me mount the fairings and cut the seat to fit around the shocks.
Here are some pictures of the bike at his shop. Note: two days before race day. haha


The night before the race I mounted an old front fender I had laying around, put a coat of Satin Black on the fiberglass, put some black vehicle vinyl on the tank, and designed some sponsor stickers. I also picked up a front windshield from Johnson and Woods.

Miller Motor Sports Park, 2009 AHRMA Bonneville Vintage GP

Miller Motor Sports Park, Toole Utah
2009 AHRMA Bonneville Vintage GP

I would like to give special thanks to my dad, Mike Carmody, Gary Swan from Toad town racing, and the Cretins Motorcycle club for helping me get to Utah this year. With out your help and support I wouldn’t have made it.

It was a long ride up to Utah with Gary Swan and his buddy Martin in a cargo van pulling a trailer full of bikes, through the valley of death with no AC blowing, and me lying in the back. We left at 6:30 am and made it to the track around 9:30 pm. I met up with an old friend from Oklahoma that lives in Salt Lake that night which was really nice. I found me a place to sleep along a wall in the garages with my air mattress, that ended up being right next to a huge air compressor that shut on and off through out the night.

Friday, practice day. First practice out was terrible. The bike felt like it wanted to just fall over in every turn. Something was seriously wrong with the front suspension; therefore I came in and disassemble the whole front triple assembly. Ed Milich and I put a 35 mm Ducati front end on the bike in the weeks pre-ceding not knowing the bottom bearing wasn’t seating with the race. Bill Woods took off a piece of his mountain bike, and we used it to shim down the lower race to meet the bearing. We used some ratchet straps to preload the bearing since the upper nut would no longer grab steering stem threads and tighten down the pinch bolt. Ha-ha Cretins Racin!! Well, we got the bike back together just in time to make last practice, and the bike was 90% better. The bike was running rich still, and everyone was experiencing front tire chatter. I played with the tire pressure a little to see if it made a difference.

Saturday-race day 1
Practice went well, chatter wasn’t so bad, but the back tire was sliding through most of the turns.
Dropped my lap times down, but Ari Henning’s time were around a second faster.
Ken Lighthouse and his son Rod made a showing for the Saturday event. I passed Ken just out of the attitudes, took the next turn and down the straight to make another pass on a TZ when just before Clubhouse corner (turn 13) I see Ken coming in on the inside. Ken and Rod are always known for coming in on the inside and fading wide out the turn. I quickly decided not to make my pass and hit the breaks instead. Sure enough, Ken came flying across my line and almost ran off the track. I would have T boned him in practice…. Whateva! I gave him shit for it later in the pits. Haha

I lined up on the back of the grid. Jumped off the line with a wheelie, but then the foot peg popped up when I went to put my boot on the bike. I couldn’t grab second until I could get the peg down. The group took off ahead. I battled my way around the slower guys in the first lap, and Ari and Rod had taken off. I would battle with Chris F. on his CB 450 for two laps and pass him on the last turn. Slower traffic through parts of the track would also slow me down from catching the leaders. 3 laps into the race I see Ari on the side of the track in turn 12. Apparently, rough rowdy Rod Lighthouse had lived up to his name and knocked Ari off the track. Ari, still came back and finished 3rd, and was furious after the race. He was able to settle down and keep his composer, but I warned him in an email the week before about Rod. Haha “Bring it on!”

Close up of me coming through the last turn
Sunday- Race day 2
I leaned out the main jet a little more to try and get the bike to run better, but as many know, when you’re at 5,000 feet above see level, there is power lost. I lined up and got a good start. Ari and I took off in front of the pack out of turn one, but when we go to turn 13, I almost ran straight into the back of him. He told me later that he was having such chatter problems in that turn that he had to break hard. The front brake handle was clinched to the throttle and the bike wasn’t slowing down. Ah, the beauty of drum brakes. Around lap three, Ari and I both ran into traffic, and when we hit the attitudes we both struggled because we couldn’t pass this old slow Ducati. He was able to get around him before I was and made a slight lead. By lap 6, Ari and had stretched farther ahead, and I was sliding around several turns. I decided to keep a smooth line and not push it any harder. Ari would finish first with me behind in second. All in all, it was a great race. I didn’t crash and still got a podium finish; even though, I wanted to reclaim a victory ahead of Ari since our last race against each other, back at Willow, resulted in a crash.

Cretins Racing was in full effect. Wayne Child’s, aka Drunktank, took the podium both days with a 3rd place finish. Eric Orr, aka Dirtygunn, finished two complete races with out engine problems, although he did crater a cam bearing and oil filter/pump cap causing no oil pressure in practice the day before. DG finished 7th on Saturday within a huge field with competitively fast times; great job buddy! I finished second in both days and really wanted to finish first, but things didn't seem to work out that way. Mark Brown of Seattle finished 4th, in the same race as DG and Ari, and had times better than the third racer on Sunday, but electrical issue would result in a DNF. Ari Henning pitted with us as a supporter of the Cretins Racing team and showed ARMHA's veterans WTF is up! He finished with 4 1st place finishes and one third.

So, I would say the Cretins Racing Team showed in style and class, drinking PBRs late at night, podium finishes, and made the AHRMA boys know that we are here to kick some ass. Dirty, Drunk, and High style baby! Bill Woods, Todd, and racing friend showed up to support. They helped me more ways than you could imagine. It was the support of my good buddies from Seattle, which would make my bike able to race plus they let me borrow a pair of race boots. Also, Mark’s good buddy Randy came along with him, and he’s a great guy to have around. Many San Francisco racers were there, Andrew Green, and The Hipp family, and Gary from Toad Town Racing which made the pits feel like a family. I would have to say that I came back from this weekend happy as hell, and it was worth ever more than all the sacrifice and hard work that it took to get there.
Thanks for all of you and your support to the Cretins Racing Team.

Rick Carmody aka Highside
#394





Here are some photo I took of the boys at the track.


Ari Henning in the last turn

Ari Henning making it across the finish line

Ari after finishing 1st in Sportman 350

Eric Orr aka Dirtygunn and his Hond CB 350

Eric Orr coming around the last turn

Eric Orr going down the straight

Wayne Childs aka Drunktank and his Moto Guzzi 500 Monza

Wayne Childs holding a position through the last turn

Wayne Childs flying by

Mark Brown and his Honda CB 350 with a nice trash can lid number plate.

Mark Brown coming down the straight

Mark Brown finish 4th!

Gary Swan of Toad Town Racing

A TZ 750 Flat tracker!!



Barbra and her fancy leathers. haha Got a nice tan!

Here is a video Ari made during practice on his CB 350. Notice the chatter in the turns.
"

WSMC August Race Report 2009

First off, I would like to give thanks to Ed Milich of Guzzitech.com/bimotacagiva.com, My Dad, Pierre Pfeffer, Mike Curtis of Fleetserve.com, Friends, Cretins Motorcycle Club, LA 2 Wheel Social Club, The Alazzurra and Pantaheads Lists, Pirelli Tires, and Johnson and Wood for supporting my racing career. With out your support and help, I wouldn’t be racing.

Since last month, I traded my little Chevy S-10 for an extended cab Dodge Ram 1500. Although the new truck is higher up and it makes it a little more difficult to load the bikes; it was so worth the trade. So much more room in the cab and the bed to load up; plus the truck has a V8 which makes getting up and over the mountains much easier. I guess as we all know it cost a few extra bucks to roll in style.

Since last month, Ed and I work hard on making the 750 Ducati a little faster since my fierce competitor was only running a .250 faster than me in Vintage Heavy weight. We actually only lost a few un-needed pounds on the bike in hopes to gain at least a half second and mounted some awesome dual Brembo Brake Calipers in the front. We mounted a cool vintage fiberglass Pantah race tail section that was a bit lighter than the old stock seat. I of course had to put my touch with graphics on the number plates. Haha


Well, Jesse came out this month and help load Saturday morning. Thanks to myself for creating a race list of things to bring because it took me a few hours to finally wake up Saturday after a long work week. Plus, I had to run down the night before to Torrance to trade bikes with Ed so that I could get more seat time on the red 750, and I could bring out my cb 450 for a shake down with the new front suspension.

Saturday practice was a bit hot, and the track was fast because the wind was not an issue. I rolled out the CB 450 through tech and got a few lookers, and everyone could hear me coming with those dual reverse megaphones. Haha, Ed had donated a Cagiva front end for the 450 which has some better geometry to help out the high speed wobbles I had been experiencing with the original front end. Ed helped measure the travel and we had it set up. Well, it felt like driving a limo around the track; therefore, I dropped the front end down ¾ of an inch to see if there were any drastic changes. Going drastic help me figure out which direction I wanted to go with setting the front end up with only 3 practices. I felt a substantial improvement on the next time out; although, a head gasket leak would end the day for the shaking down of the 450. The red bike felt great except the corners of the new tail section kept poking my hamstrings.

Saturday night, Jesse and I hit dinner with Jeff Tigert and friends at the Mexican cantina restaurant in Rosamond. Later we stayed in the Devonshire Inn on the other side of the highway in Rosamond. Not a bad place btw. Thanks to Ed for helping me out with the cost of the room. Last month was rather uncomfortable plus the bugs were a nightmare.
Oh and big thanks to Jeff for the post practice safety meeting. I got some good tips from you. Later that night we all rolled over to the 1/8 mile paved oval, at Willow Springs, and watch some stock car racing. That was super cool and fun. Here is some video I took with my little Canon Camera. Not the best but fun to watch.




Sunday morning, we rolled into the track and got our pit set up. Ed showed up a little late; therefore, we got no seat time on the blue bike because we needed to put a new rear tire on and last practice was up already for lightweight. The weather was hot and the track was fast. Loyde Johnson showed up on a sick looking Ducati to race in Vintage Heavy Weight. It was low to the ground and had an exhaust pipe sticking out behind the center of the seat.

Race 2 Vintage Heavy Weight.
I lined up on the outside of a pretty good competition. Two Honda Hawks, a Ducati behind me, and couple of others lined up, and the green flagged dropped. I dropped the hammer, and the bike revved to almost 11grand! The clutch slipped widely as we left the line and everyone was out in front. I eased up on the throttle going into one and around two in hopes of getting the clutch to start working again. I still was able to pass the Russ on the 650 Hawk going around turn 2 and follow the Ducati and Chuck on his 750 Hawk. I made a pass around the Ducati in turn 8, but he again passed me going down the straight. I late braked into one and made another pass attempt on the Ducati and was able to hold him off. On the third lap I was up on 750 Hawk and made a pass on the outside of turn 3. I led through the Omega and around 6, 7, and 8. As I entered into 9, Chuck was right there on the inside. I knew he usually goes wide coming out of turn 9, but I wasn’t going to give up my lead that easy. It was hairy and tight going through but I was able to keep the lead position. All three of us were running tight down the straight away and Chuck jumped up front. Then the Ducati was pressuring me and passed me on the next lap. I came back and passed him before turn 9 and focused on Chuck again. On the last lap, I was giving it my all and Chuck was close. I made a slight change going through turn 5 to keep the momentum up, but when I hit turn 6, the front end lightened, and I gained a slight tank slap and lost a little speed. As we entered the fastest part of the track just out of turn 7, Loyde slams the door on me coming around the outside. Although he may not accept this race interpretation; he came inches from crashing us both. As I noticed him coming across my front tire; I let off the gas and put my right leg out. I just knew I was going to hit his rear tire and be slammed to the pavement going 130+MPH. Letting off when I did was a good reaction because he missed me by less than an inch. It was seriously the scarcest moments in my racing career. I ended up third place behind the Ducati and the Hawk in first.
All three of us ran our times down in the 133’s! It was a super fast race, but I wasn’t able to come out in first.




Vintage Light Weight.

Russ and I lined up with a few other racers. Green flagged dropped and the Hawk jump out in front as usual. I stalked him for 2 or three laps. He was running fast and blocking lines for me to pass, but I know he felt the pressure. Into lap three I late braked on the inside of Russ and made a smooth pass. I had been running the way down the straight in 4th gear instead of jumping to 5 because of a slight wind started up. When I passed the Hawk; I accidentally popped down into 3rd. Well, that ended up being a great thing. It gave me a burst of power coming out of one that I need to pull away. I then popped back up the 4th entering into turn 2 and brought the up the RPM’s. After that, I kept my head down and started clicking down two gears into turn one and was liking it. Russ chased me for a lap, but then had engine troubles again. I pulled into the pits with a first place finish and wondered what had happened to the race Russ and I had going.
Until next month buddy!



Well, another great weekend for Cretins Racing; even though fellow Cretins racer Eric O. wasn’t able to make it out again this month. One 1st and one 3rd place finish. Charles is now 1 point behind my lead in Vintage Heavy Weight; therefore, we have to win next month in order to keep the lead. The funny thing is, I didn’t race the first month in Vintage Heavy Weight because there were no racers, and now 9 months later, it has more bikes and competition than the lightweight class.

Next week I’ll be rolling out to Miller Motor Sports Park in Utah for an AHRMA event on my Sportmans 500 Honda CB 450. Cretins Racers Wayne and Eric are coming as well. There are also a few Cretins Racers coming down from Seattle to race as well.
Oh, and my talented and fast competition, Ari Henning, will be joining us as well. I’m totally looking forward to dicing again with him. It’s going to be a kick ass race weekend!!!

Thanks again to all that helped make this a great race weekend. Until next month,
Rick Carmody aka “Highside”

Jesse, Ed, and I


Russ and I