Race weekend weather looks great. Hope to see lots of Pentons there. Good luck finding fuel for cheap [8D] Drive safe!
Friday, May 16
High: 70 °F RealFeel®: 78 °F
Mostly sunny
Friday Night, May 16
Low: 50 °F RealFeel®: 50 °F
Partly cloudy
Saturday, May 17
High: 77 °F RealFeel®: 79 °F
Nice with intervals of clouds and sunshine
Saturday Night, May 17
Low: 56 °F RealFeel®: 53 °F
Partly cloudy with a shower in the area late
Sunday, May 18
High: 76 °F RealFeel®: 76 °F
Periods of clouds and sunshine
Sunday Night, May 18
Low: 52 °F RealFeel®: 47 °F
A moonlit sky
Ernie P.
Chattanooga, TN
Gary, Thanks for the update. One of those mud holes did me in last year ... you failed to mention how slick the silt is! Glad I'm riding a Penton with a PVL! Will you be there? I have some Mag hubs I need your assistance on.
Ernie P.
Chattanooga, TN
Ernie bring them with you, I am not 100% sure yet that I will be able to go yet. Will know this afternoon. Later Gary
Gary, I'll bring'em. thx
Ernie P.
Chattanooga, TN
I WAS INFORMED THAT THE RACE IS A GO, FOR SAT AND SUN. LATER GARY
Races were fun. Water was not a problem. Weather turned out to be great. Christopher went 2-1 in Classic Int. In Saturday's race, he was way out front in his class, bike started to run ruff, thought it fouled a plug, couldn't get it going. He was only able to make 4 of 6 laps. Problem was loose wire (poor prep on my part). I went 1-1 in Sportsman 200 Int, not because I was faster, but because I was ... luckier? My Bultaco riding competitor, had problems ... oh well.
http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg276/ernie7711/?action=view¤t=littleegypt2008015.jpg
Future Berkshire owner, Brain Kirby, riding his ol' Can-Am 175 killed everybody in Vintage ... fastest by over 10 minutes. Gary E broke a motor mounting bolt. Teddy L and Joe Murphy were racing Pentons also. Cheapest fuel on this trip was $3.64/gal!!!! High fuel cost is making it hard on everyone. Turnout was low ~25 Vintage, ~30 PV. The Little Egypt Off Road guys and gals did a fantastic job - 4 different courses, 2-vintage, 2-PV.
Ernie P.
Chattanooga, TN
Ernie,
Thanks for the update. If the loose wire was the ground for the coil give me a call. Sounds like your Team had a Great weekend.
Ron Carbaugh
There was a timing error in the first posted results, I won the first day Vintage race by 2:01 not the 10:00 first posted. The second day Vintage I got the holeshot and was having a great battle with Penton rider Spencer Ballantine but half way through the first lap I got a flat. I went into the pits and with the help of Joe Cartwright and Ken Harrison swapped on my spare front wheel (with a barely inflated tire) and went back into the race a few minutes down. I believed I had time to catch the leaders in my class and put the hammer down. Managed to win my class after some hard riding.
PV was a different story all together, the big Maico ('79 440 MC) shook me around like a rag doll. The first day I got stuck in a big gully and the kick start lever was too high (I'm only 5'7") for me to get it restarted. The second day I crashed 3-4 times on the first lap, then slowly worked my way up to 4th in PV Open with 2nd and 3rd in sight at the start of the white flag lap. A half mile into the last lap the rear sprocket bolts sheared off and my day was done. Luckily for me it was a short walk back to the pits, and a short tow back with a four wheeler.
Brian
Brian,
Since I try and keep up with the racing scene and have a interest in all Penton riders I was just wondering about the statement on your post since you said there was a scoring error?
"I believed I had time to catch the leaders in my class and put the hammer down. Managed to win my class after some hard riding."
I know Spencer and he is a hard rider, but making up several minutes is difficult at best. Did Spencer have problems? Since I am unable to be at these races your posts are important to me. Thanks.
Ron Carbaugh
Sorry for the confusion Ron. Spencer and I battle a lot, but we are in different classes, I am in Sportsman 200 Exp and he is in 50+ Exp riding a Penton 250. Spencer is a very good, very smooth rider who rarely makes mistakes and the slicker it is the better he is. If you beat him it wont usually be because he gives it away, you have to work for it. He did have trouble Saturday, phantom loss of spark which came back later without really finding anything wrong. We went back and forth the first two laps, and at the end of lap two I finally got a little gap. My margin at the end was 2:01 over Hodaka rider Gary Copeland (who is in my class), but if Spencer had not had trouble I would have won by a much smaller margin, probably in the :30 range or less. Gary is a good rider too, and on tighter courses I have a lot of trouble with his Hodaka which is much more nimble than my Canned Ham.
Sunday I got clear early in the first lap and had a decent gap over Spencer (I'd guess 5-10 seconds) when I hit a rock and got the flat front. I knew I would not catch Spencer, but I thought that even with changing the front wheel, I would have time to catch back the leaders of Sportsman 200 Expert which were Gary Copeland and Greg Holder. In hindsight, they both had some trouble too or I would not have caught them either but thats racing sometimes you are the windshield sometimes you are the bug.:)
Brian