A couple of months ago I raced Inde Motorsports Ranch with AHRMA, and while I shared my experience in BEARS with my BMW R75/5 I also wanted to take a moment to share some non-race-specific highlights from the event as there’s a bunch of great bikes and great people!
Per usual, Ted and Olly joined me for this round of racing. But this time we had two bonus guests – Olly’s brother and niece from Australia, Ben and Emily! Ted carpooled with me in the Iconic van and we all caravanned out to Inde from LA.
Ted’s R1 with my Kramer and BMW
We stopped by Saddle Mountain Brewing Company for lunch on the drive out…
From L to R: (Ted, Ben, Emily, and Olly)
…where I was surprised to see a lady open carrying at the table next to us. Welcome to Arizona!
Nick Ienatsch and Yamaha Champions Riding School use Inde Motorsports Ranch as one of their two home tracks. So Nick was kind enough to lead a track walk for anyone that wanted to pick up some free advice, and it was incredibly helpful!
Motorcycling legend Dave Roper is just to Nick’s left.
Inde Motorsports Ranch has a very impressive facility, and one of the coolest parts is that there are a ton of retired fighter jets on display in the pit area! Here’s a a Lockheed F-104G, also known as the Starfighter. The “G” model was specifically built for export, in this case to 14 other countries. It’s painted in Royal Netherlands Air Force colors because the person who bought it was a former USAF pilot who got lost in fog in Holland and was saved by a Dutch pilot so he painted it in honor of the plane that saved him. If you want to see the other planes, let me know and I can do a separate post dedicated to them…
My recap from Willow was very picture heavy as it was hard to get videos due to excessive winds. This time around I brought a proper mic setup for the phone so I was able to get a few videos for those of you that like to see AND hear.
One of my favorite bikes at the event sadly wasn’t racing, but it sure looked fast even when it was still! Check out this Honda RC162 replica owned by Steve Brown of Kings of Speed Garage: it’s one of a series built by a company in Europe around the legendary Honda CBR250RR inline-4 engine that revs to almost 20k. We’ve sold a similar bike over on Iconic Motorbikes but that one did not run at the time. Check out this video to hear Steve talk about his bike and then give it some good revs – it doesn’t really come through in the video but it was staggeringly loud!
Over at Iconic I’ve been in contact with Nick Ienatsch for some business, but I had never met him in person until this weekend of racing. I asked him to talk about the two bikes that he brought, and we started with a very nifty Yamaha FZR600 that he was racing. I think you’ll get a kick out of his “switch” on the tail…
Nick’s other bike was not going to be raced, but it was a very cool Yamaha TZ750 that has been featured in a tremendous amount of publications over the years. If you want more photos of it, you can check out this little profile I did on it a few weeks ago.
I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Elings of Moto Solvang at the race. He brought a few cool bikes but the most special one to me was his Moto Paton 500, which is a quasi-replica. I shared some photos and specifications of it already if you’re interested but here’s a chance to hear it – another bike that’s much louder than what the video suggests.
Paul Germain out of Winnipeg, Canada raced at Willow and Inde. He brought a trio of cool Yamahas – a DT1, Seca 550, and a FZR400! The FZR was having an issue but I was able to catch him firing up the DT with a custom frame that he built.
Normally race bikes have pretty cheap paint job for obvious reasons, but I was blown away by the quality of the liveries that this gentleman had:
We were pitted next to Cameron Crockett and I asked him to talk about his two race bikes. First is his Honda CBR400RR, which previously raced in the Manx TT!
Second is his Honda CB750F, which he races in both Sportsman 750 and Formula 750. Due to the difference in classes, he has to swap out the carbs in between races!
Eric is one of the people who motivated me to join AHRMA, he competes in BEARS with me on a R75 that’s incredibly well-prepped. I’m jealous of how the engine has been canted to increase ground clearance – as you may have seen, that became an issue for me at this race.
Paul’s been racing his Bridgestone SR175 for 22 straight years! I was highly amused by the sticker on the back of his bike:
Said sticker, one more time:
Last but not least, I met Grant Spence. He races a 1950 AJS 350 that his dad used to race in New Zealand – he brought the bike back to life after an extended slumber and he carries some of his dad’s ashes under the tank so that they can still race together!
This gentleman pinned a flyer to his back, turning himself into a walking classifieds listing. I got a kick out of it.
Daniel May is the Executive Director of AHRMA, a competitor of mine in the BEARS class with his BMW R75/5, and a competitor in vintage sidecar racing with this super cool rig:
When I went to the UK a couple of years ago to check out the Isle of Man, I stopped by Crighton to check out their new rotary-powered CR700W. As far as I know, there’s only one in the US and it belongs to a buddy who has brought it out to two AHRMA rounds! He brought it to Barber last year but it was apparently smoking so much that they black flagged him the first time it went out, then it was having some mechanical issues so he parked it. He didn’t race it at Inde but it was still amazing to see it in the flesh again. I highly recommend you check out my visit to the factory if you want more details, but here’s a few photos of this rarity on display in the pits:
My favorite styling cue is probably the silencer, which pays homage to the shape of a rotor.
The owner of the Crighton (Mark S.) also has a crazy sidecar rig based on a Honda CX.
As you may remember, Olly races his Honda RS125 (and sometimes his Yamaha TZ250) in Open Two Stroke. The racers in that class are definitely closer than other competitors, they’re almost like a family. A good chunk of them got together for a group photo after the racing, and someone’s kid had an excellent photobomb.
That pretty much sums up the event from my perspective – if you missed it, I already covered my vintage racing with the BMW in BEARS. I haven’t shared my modern racing with the Kramer just yet but as you may have noticed from the featured photo, I did get to share the podium with Nick Ienatsch which was pretty cool! I ended up winning both Sound of Singles 1 races and getting a 2nd and a 3rd in Sound of Thunder 2, which is my bump up class.
The next race is Barber in October…hope to see you there!