Guest Ride Report – USCRA/FIM Road Racing Championship, Loudon

New Hampshire’s Laconia Bike Week has been a motorbike mecca for more than a century. It’s a venerable scene attended by riders of all brands from all over the northeast and eastern Canada, with racing traditions going back to the 1916 hillclimb up Tower Street in the lake resort town of Weirs Beach. The USCRA (United States Classic Racing Association) was founded by racer Bob Coy and Rob Ianucci in the mid-‘70s to keep vintage machines (and racers) in service and road racing competitively.

USCRA/FIM North America Vintage Road Racing Championship, Loudon, NH,
June 11-15, 2021
By Ray Sapirstein
Photos by Heather McKay Bowes, Andrew Phillips, and the author

Photo: Ray Sapirstein

Over the years, several venerable tracks, such as Gunstock and Bridgehampton, have succumbed to development and financial pressure. The old Gunstock track, epicenter of racing at Laconia since its inception in the 1930s, was one of the founding sites of motorcycling in the U.S., drawing competitors internationally to its TT road course, the U.S. equivalent of the Isle of Man race. Established by Springfield, Mass. Indian dealer and Swiss emigré Fritz Baer as an off-season attraction at his Gunstock ski area, the race became one of the premier destinations in motorcycling, hosting international championships and establishing many of the luminaries of American motorcycling. As recently as 2002, the USCRA has fielded races there, showcasing vintage machines and veteran riders in spirited competition. The Gunstock track yet exists as a ski area parking lot, its hairpin turn, pavement, hay bales, and stone walls fallow, silently remaining to be revived as a motorcycle race course.

As the hazardous, tree-lined Gunstock track became a less-viable site for modern road racing, it was replaced by the Bryar Motorsports track, later to become the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with its monumental NASCAR oval and grandstands, with multiple strategic cut-outs and chicanes for technical road racing. While several tracks in the northeast have hosted USCRA racing in past years, NHIS has become the sturdy mainstay of vintage motorcycle road racing in the northeast this post-COVID season. It’s an inspiring spot.

Turn 10, where the road course rejoins the NASCAR oval. Photo: Ray Sapirstein

The USCRA is a welcoming, inclusive community of affable, easygoing friends. The shaded pit garages are accessible and open to spectators who wander through checking out distinguished bikes and offering queries, words of support, and encouragement to racers. With its jumble of coolers and folding chairs, the pit scene resembles a giant front porch as much as anything, though punctuated by hanging leathers, tool boxes, the scream of returning and departing two-stroke racers and—with the financial support of Bike-urious!— the roar of throbbing tank-shifters.

Doc Batsleer (l) and Joe Miller, Indian vs H-D, 45s on the hot grid. Photo: Heather M. Bowes

There’s a class for everything period correct and built before 1991 (30 years ago!), including sidecars, as well a Formula 400 class for contemporary 400s to keep the serious racers’ chops among us limber and on point. In all, USCRA events are a bike show with a focus and a gravity of purpose: racing in earnest, a feast for those who gorge on the reality of vintage motorcycles up-close and in-person.

Vin Borbone lofting his H2 at the hole shot. This is not a parade. Photo: Heather M. Bowes

Pete Minardi (Indian Scout) takes John Butler’s checkered flag in the tank-shifter class. Photo: Heather M. Bowes

Author’s Note: It cost me about $3,000 to get involved as a novice racer with a used, race-prepped Kawasaki EX500, a lightly-used full coverage race suit, and assorted protective gear purchased new; I already had a truck for bike transport. Practice track days with a race school are about $250 each and race day fees are $150 daily, plus $50 per race. You need a race license from another organization or a USCRA race school session and rookie race to be licensed to compete.

The author (age 56) on the front straight in his novice vest. You can do this! Photo: Andrew Phillips

$20 track admission, food and camping are available on-site. Bring a pit bike or bicycle to move around to several vantage points as a spectator, our remaining races this season are the US Vintage Grand Prix on August 2nd, and September 6th, 2021 at NHIS.

Links:
USCRA website
USCRA Instagram
USCRA Facebook

Heather McKay Bowes Instagram
Andrew Phillips
Ray Sapirstein Instagram

Portfolio: