More VMD Racing

[Mick Milakovic]

Saturday night at the meeting/dinner Dale asked for racers to share their stories from the harescrambles and MX.  I was too embarrassed too share mine because I rode so poorly, but I will tell you all what happened to me on the start line.  

As you might know we did a live engine, hand on helmet start.  My bike was warm and ready to go, but we had an extra half-hour wait for the track crew to re-route the course (Toni, you're an iron-woman for finishing that race!).  I re-started my bike when we finally got going and when the flag went up I grabbed a hand-full of clutch, jammed it into gear, and when I dumped the clutch the bike went backward!  What the.....?  I slipped it out again and back it went again.  So I shut it off, pushed it off to the side, kicked it again, and gently eased the clutch out and it went forward.  

It was later explained to me that engines with very high compression (and my Gary Ellis built 250 has a ton) can back fire and have enough momentum to actually cross top dead center, fire again and run.  I guess that's what happened because the bike ran great the rest of the race.  I only wish I could say the same for me!

Mick

[Steve Minor]

That's happened to me before with my 400. I've been told it can be the result of a number of things including the timing being slightly off and a "wimpy" kick on the kick starter. Ever since the first time, I always crank and test before dumping the clutch.

Steve Minor

[Mick Milakovic]

Here's a one-lap video of the race.  You Tube said it was too big, which I don't understand because it's only 23 minutes, so here is a link to my Facebook homepage, you get to see how slow I really am!

https://www.facebook.com/milakovicm

Mick