1st in Light Weight
First off, I would like to give thanks to Ed Milich, Pierre, Robert Bowen, Johnny Bowmen, Friends, Cretins Motorcycle Club, LA 2 Wheel Social Club, The Alazzurra List, and the Pantaheads Club for supporting my racing career. With out your support and help; I wouldn’t be racing.
Valentines weekend in good old Rosamond, California. After a crazy Friday night, rolling around LA in a tour bus with a birthday party, I rolled out of bed and packed and loaded my little Chevy S-10. I surprised that there was no rain coming down and the sky seem quite clear.
In the weeks preceding Feb’s race weekend there was some mods done to the Ducati. Rear sets and a new loader exhaust were welded up and mounted. There was also some concern in last month’s dyno test; after about 6,000 RPM the horse power would decrease. Ed believed that he had seen this issue before with the ignition pick ups. Well he was right. There are two pickups on the flywheel, as some of you may know, both ignition pick ups sit in hot oil, well after 23 years the insulation around the two wires that go to each pick up had basically cracked and fallen apart. So the wires were completely exposed and running to next to each other. I still can not believe the bike has been running like this. I had a really good friend, Robert Bowen, who come over and re-wire both ignitions and insulated the wiring the best we could. I even added some jb weld around were the two wires enter the pick ups. Ed also brought over a lighten flywheel. So after an oil change, new plugs, rear brake master cylinder, rear sets, pipes, flywheel, ignitions wiring, and timing; the Ducati was ready for race. Oh lets not forget safety wiring. Haha
I got to the track around 11:30 and registered for a half day practice. It was a sunny 48F day with some wind. After I finally picked a parking space and started getting unloaded, Ed showed up with his 750 Ducati and his 650 Guzzi. Ed was prepping his AHRMA bikes for Daytona. I was really happy to see him show up since I didn’t have anyone to come up to Willow with me that weekend. After getting a few practices session in I was surprised to see that I had beat last month’s time by almost 2 seconds. Wow! I was taking turn 8 a lot faster now; holding the tach right at 8 ½ grand. I think the Duc is the pulling more horses now after 6 grand. Oh Ya! I had flipped the rear tire around after my last race in January. You see at Willow Springs, there are mostly right turns; therefore, you burn up the right side of the tire. Well, peal the right side of the rear tire fore sure. I increased the rear tire PSI by two to three pounds to try and save some life in it for race day.
I stayed in Mojave, 13 miles north of Rosamond, and rolled over to my friend’s house, Elliot. His girlfriend Jen and friends had put together an 80’s Valentines prom party with a bunch of friends from Scale Composites and other aeronautics pilots and plane guruz. The party was at Zac’s, who used to live in a tour bus in a hanger at the Mojave airport, but now lives in an old church. The party was a hoot and Elliot did a great job as the DJ, playing mostly 80’s and early 90’s music. I left the party around 9:30, with a stomach full of food, to get some needed rest. Sunday morning, I woke up to ice on my windshield. It was in the low 20’s. When I got to the track; I was happy to see no rain; which was expected in earlier week forecasts. Although, there was over cast; therefore, the track wasn’t getting any sunlight/ heat in it. There were a few guys that went down that morning; probably because of cold tires. After tech, fueling up the bike, tire psi check, and ect; I went back to registration to see how many guys was going to be in my race. Well, there were only three of us in Vintage lightweight, so I registered in Vintage heavyweight as well since both races were in the early sessions of the day, and I knew that my lap times were faster than everyone in vintage lightweight that day since none of the fast RZ 350’s show up. They’ll be there next month though- double point’s weekend. Ha-ha
Vintage heavy weight was in Race 1. I was in the first wave in front of battle of the twins light weight. I think there was about 12 or so guys in that class and of course only 4 of us in Heavy weight. There was another class in the mix as well, 125 GP I think. I had put the tire warmers on just after the rider’s meeting to try and get the tires hot before race 1. The track wasn’t getting any sunlight so I was a little worried. Well when the green flag dropped, I put the hammer down and pulled a low wheelie for a good 20 feet. I didn’t hesitate to try and get away, but there was a black bike in my class; I think it was Honda, which was trailing me through the first lap. I never let up the whole race. I looked back a couple of times and kept seeing the black bike. Well, after he finally passed me I realized that he was the leader in battle of the twins and not the black bike in my class. His name is Michael Gougis. Well, I drafted and followed him through the rest of the race. It was a lot of fun. After the race he came over to talk with me. I said “did you see me slide through 8?” He said “Man, you were sliding everywhere! I was having fun following you and thought I would just stay there, but then after seeing you slide a few times, I had to get by you.” Haha ya, I was sliding in turn 2, a little in 3, and almost lost it in 5 because the pipe hit the pavement. I felt the front chatter and lift on that occasion. I tell you though, when the rear tire slid a little at top speed just before the last turn, it scared me pretty bad. After that, I loosened up how tight I was running around 8. I knew that I was running pretty fast if I had been running with the leader of Battle of twins lightweight. My best time of the day was in that race. 136.155. I think my best time last month was a 138.58 therefore, we are seeing some improvements.
Race three, Vintage lightweight. I took off the line again in a fury; past everyone including the 500 class in front of me before going into turn one. Strung out a pretty good lead from the pack and persisted to keep a smooth line the rest of the race. I knew I had the race therefore; there was no reason to push the bike like in the previous race. I was running average 138.Which still is pretty fast. The back tire was toast and the track was cold; therefore, I had to race smart to avoid having a crash. About half way in the race I was having a hard time down shifting. Later find out that the all the fluid in my clutch master cylinder was empty, and I had no clutch at all. I will be investigation that issue this month along with putting an upgraded clutch master cylinder. Another awesome freebie from Ed, which came with a steel braided line. Ya! There was also a two stroke bike, which I wish I knew the number now, who cut me off just before the last turn. Asshole! If I hadn’t let off, I would have hit his back tire. The bike wasn’t even in my class; therefore, there was simply no reason for that crap.
Well another great race weekend! Two wins for the Cretins Racing and the 650 Ducati. Still haven’t found a cash sponsors, and I’ll have to buy a new rear race tire by next month. Haha! The higher rear sets worked great, but I’m still grinding the pipe in a few turns. I have to weld on a patch to the pipe before it grinds a hole in it this month, but at least I can hear the bike now.
In April, I will be racing the Ducati in WSMC the second week, and the third week with AHRMA. I’m also going to be racing my cb450 sportsman and possibly a friend’s cb350 sportsman that third weekend as well. That will be an expensive race month for sure. March is just around the corner, and I’m sure the faster RZ’s will be showing up.
Thanks again to all that helped make this a great race weekend. Until next month,
Rick Carmody aka “Highside”
#394 1986 Ducati Cagiva/Alluzzurra/Pantah
Name still undecided. Haha J
Valentines weekend in good old Rosamond, California. After a crazy Friday night, rolling around LA in a tour bus with a birthday party, I rolled out of bed and packed and loaded my little Chevy S-10. I surprised that there was no rain coming down and the sky seem quite clear.
In the weeks preceding Feb’s race weekend there was some mods done to the Ducati. Rear sets and a new loader exhaust were welded up and mounted. There was also some concern in last month’s dyno test; after about 6,000 RPM the horse power would decrease. Ed believed that he had seen this issue before with the ignition pick ups. Well he was right. There are two pickups on the flywheel, as some of you may know, both ignition pick ups sit in hot oil, well after 23 years the insulation around the two wires that go to each pick up had basically cracked and fallen apart. So the wires were completely exposed and running to next to each other. I still can not believe the bike has been running like this. I had a really good friend, Robert Bowen, who come over and re-wire both ignitions and insulated the wiring the best we could. I even added some jb weld around were the two wires enter the pick ups. Ed also brought over a lighten flywheel. So after an oil change, new plugs, rear brake master cylinder, rear sets, pipes, flywheel, ignitions wiring, and timing; the Ducati was ready for race. Oh lets not forget safety wiring. Haha
I got to the track around 11:30 and registered for a half day practice. It was a sunny 48F day with some wind. After I finally picked a parking space and started getting unloaded, Ed showed up with his 750 Ducati and his 650 Guzzi. Ed was prepping his AHRMA bikes for Daytona. I was really happy to see him show up since I didn’t have anyone to come up to Willow with me that weekend. After getting a few practices session in I was surprised to see that I had beat last month’s time by almost 2 seconds. Wow! I was taking turn 8 a lot faster now; holding the tach right at 8 ½ grand. I think the Duc is the pulling more horses now after 6 grand. Oh Ya! I had flipped the rear tire around after my last race in January. You see at Willow Springs, there are mostly right turns; therefore, you burn up the right side of the tire. Well, peal the right side of the rear tire fore sure. I increased the rear tire PSI by two to three pounds to try and save some life in it for race day.
I stayed in Mojave, 13 miles north of Rosamond, and rolled over to my friend’s house, Elliot. His girlfriend Jen and friends had put together an 80’s Valentines prom party with a bunch of friends from Scale Composites and other aeronautics pilots and plane guruz. The party was at Zac’s, who used to live in a tour bus in a hanger at the Mojave airport, but now lives in an old church. The party was a hoot and Elliot did a great job as the DJ, playing mostly 80’s and early 90’s music. I left the party around 9:30, with a stomach full of food, to get some needed rest. Sunday morning, I woke up to ice on my windshield. It was in the low 20’s. When I got to the track; I was happy to see no rain; which was expected in earlier week forecasts. Although, there was over cast; therefore, the track wasn’t getting any sunlight/ heat in it. There were a few guys that went down that morning; probably because of cold tires. After tech, fueling up the bike, tire psi check, and ect; I went back to registration to see how many guys was going to be in my race. Well, there were only three of us in Vintage lightweight, so I registered in Vintage heavyweight as well since both races were in the early sessions of the day, and I knew that my lap times were faster than everyone in vintage lightweight that day since none of the fast RZ 350’s show up. They’ll be there next month though- double point’s weekend. Ha-ha
Vintage heavy weight was in Race 1. I was in the first wave in front of battle of the twins light weight. I think there was about 12 or so guys in that class and of course only 4 of us in Heavy weight. There was another class in the mix as well, 125 GP I think. I had put the tire warmers on just after the rider’s meeting to try and get the tires hot before race 1. The track wasn’t getting any sunlight so I was a little worried. Well when the green flag dropped, I put the hammer down and pulled a low wheelie for a good 20 feet. I didn’t hesitate to try and get away, but there was a black bike in my class; I think it was Honda, which was trailing me through the first lap. I never let up the whole race. I looked back a couple of times and kept seeing the black bike. Well, after he finally passed me I realized that he was the leader in battle of the twins and not the black bike in my class. His name is Michael Gougis. Well, I drafted and followed him through the rest of the race. It was a lot of fun. After the race he came over to talk with me. I said “did you see me slide through 8?” He said “Man, you were sliding everywhere! I was having fun following you and thought I would just stay there, but then after seeing you slide a few times, I had to get by you.” Haha ya, I was sliding in turn 2, a little in 3, and almost lost it in 5 because the pipe hit the pavement. I felt the front chatter and lift on that occasion. I tell you though, when the rear tire slid a little at top speed just before the last turn, it scared me pretty bad. After that, I loosened up how tight I was running around 8. I knew that I was running pretty fast if I had been running with the leader of Battle of twins lightweight. My best time of the day was in that race. 136.155. I think my best time last month was a 138.58 therefore, we are seeing some improvements.
Race three, Vintage lightweight. I took off the line again in a fury; past everyone including the 500 class in front of me before going into turn one. Strung out a pretty good lead from the pack and persisted to keep a smooth line the rest of the race. I knew I had the race therefore; there was no reason to push the bike like in the previous race. I was running average 138.Which still is pretty fast. The back tire was toast and the track was cold; therefore, I had to race smart to avoid having a crash. About half way in the race I was having a hard time down shifting. Later find out that the all the fluid in my clutch master cylinder was empty, and I had no clutch at all. I will be investigation that issue this month along with putting an upgraded clutch master cylinder. Another awesome freebie from Ed, which came with a steel braided line. Ya! There was also a two stroke bike, which I wish I knew the number now, who cut me off just before the last turn. Asshole! If I hadn’t let off, I would have hit his back tire. The bike wasn’t even in my class; therefore, there was simply no reason for that crap.
Well another great race weekend! Two wins for the Cretins Racing and the 650 Ducati. Still haven’t found a cash sponsors, and I’ll have to buy a new rear race tire by next month. Haha! The higher rear sets worked great, but I’m still grinding the pipe in a few turns. I have to weld on a patch to the pipe before it grinds a hole in it this month, but at least I can hear the bike now.
In April, I will be racing the Ducati in WSMC the second week, and the third week with AHRMA. I’m also going to be racing my cb450 sportsman and possibly a friend’s cb350 sportsman that third weekend as well. That will be an expensive race month for sure. March is just around the corner, and I’m sure the faster RZ’s will be showing up.
Thanks again to all that helped make this a great race weekend. Until next month,
Rick Carmody aka “Highside”
#394 1986 Ducati Cagiva/Alluzzurra/Pantah
Name still undecided. Haha J
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