A couple of weeks ago I raced Willow Springs 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 cool old bikes and cool (usually also old) people.
As a reminder, I always go racing with a couple of buddies – Olly (one of our technicians at Iconic) and Ted. Olly races a Honda RS125 in Open Two Stroke and Sound of Singles 3, Ted races a 2005 Yamaha R1 in Next Gen Superbike 3 and Formula Thunder. We try our hardest to be competitive but we also want to make sure we have fun and get home safe. Sometimes we also order margaritas that are too large.
We stayed at a hotel nearby to minimize our commutes in and out each day. Friday was a practice day so we arrived on Thursday afternoon and we headed to the track to get registered. After checking in to the hotel, I was excited to see a pickup truck with two cool bikes in it – including the Highway F37 custom Kawasaki 175 roadracer built by Jeff Henise. I featured it back when it was for sale last year, and the link has more information if you’re curious. The new owner is a really nice gentleman who races it in Formula 125 and Formula 250.
We got to the track and got registered for the racing, then took a lap around to find some cool bikes.
Ed Sorbo of Lindemann Engineering brought out a Yamaha TZ750 – I’ll share more pictures and details on it later this week in a dedicated post!
I believe this is a Carabela MotoPony Formula – I’ve featured one for sale before and if I’m correct it featured a 60cc two-stroke engine. It did not race, haha.
Vince Rolleri’s Yamaha TZ250 – he absolutely flies on this!
Paul Germain came down from Winnipeg to race with a trio of cool Yamahas! Pictured is a DT-1 that he built a custom frame for, it races in 200GP. He’s also got a Seca 550 and a FZR400, I’ll show those in an upcoming recap from Inde Motorsports as Paul will be racing 5 out of the 10 rounds of AHRMA this season.
Craig Beecher brought a couple of gorgeous Yamahas. First was a FZ750:
He also had a FJ600 that caught my attention. In addition to a Yoshimura exhaust, it also had a set of one-off prototype PM wheels that definitely stood out:
AHRMA typically puts on a New Racer School before events and I was stoked to see that Shane Turpin came out to be the instructor! Shane’s been winning championships since the 1990s and even earned a wild card entry for a World Superbike race at Miller Motorsports Park. He also used to be the National Sales Manager for Bimota and you may remember that he recently gave me an amazing watch for my Bimota Tesi 3D!
Walt Fulton III chats with Ed Sorbo, presumably about the suspension on his Team Obsolete Harley-Davidson XR750TT. I love the “1-800 FAST HOG” decal – it’s the number for Jim Moroney’s Harley dealership.
This Aprilia SR50 scooter had a bunch of interesting decals on it, it’s clearly been supporting some racing.
It’s also got an interesting spin on the Bridgestone logo.
This incredible Honda VFR750 is a Bubba Shobert tribute that used to be owned by Kent Riches from AirTech. The new owner (Darrin Gauvin) is incredibly fast and just as nice, he took some time to share highlights which include serious engine internal work (including a bump to 800cc), flatslide carbs, 17″ HRC magnesium wheels, a RC30 front end, Hindle exhaust, Tyga rearsets, and a custom wiring harness. You may noticed that it’s got bars instead of clipons, as that’s what Bubba ran in his first year with the bike. It also has Airtech bodywork – Kent used this bike to create the molds for all of his VFR750 products. Darrin notes that it “doesn’t really do anything under 8k rpm” but it makes 114 horsepower and I have to say it looks damn good while doing it! Here’s a little walkaround video if you prefer.
Ron Melton raced this beautiful 1962 Norton Manx in the 500 Premier class. At one point it had a for sale sign on it but I wasn’t able to get a picture of it.
One cool pit bike was this J.C. Higgins Flightliner (made by Sears). Here’s an example of one that’s in a little better shape if you want to see what the lights are supposed to look like.
It’s not just fantastic bikes, you’ll also see fantastic people like Damian Doffo of Doffo Winery/MotoDoffo!
I raced both my BMW and Kramer this weekend and it went pretty well. In fact, it went well for all of us!
I’m a big fan of the AHRMA racing experience, and if you have any questions about how to join then please let me know!
I have a few more bikes to share – what was your favorite one so far?
There will be more bikes like this!