White Lightnin' race report

[brian kirby]

Before I start I want to thank Greg Holder, Al Roof and their team. In spite of the bad weather they did a great job adapting to the conditions and making the best of a bad situation.

We set up the Lillian Swamp compound Friday afternoon, and it was already raining a bit, really a heavy mist. Over night it started raining, and raining heavily at times. Saturday morning it looked ugly but we were going to race. I rode Sportsman 100 Expert on the SoCal Berkshire, "Kid" Christopher rode Sportsman 100 Expert, Ernie rode Classic Expert Wendell rode +50. At the start I got off 4th into the woods.





The start.

I was 4th into the woods and moved up one spot half way through the first lap, but right after that Penton rider Tim Brown on a Harescrambler got by. At the start of the second lap I moved into 3rd as Tim got a new pair of goggles.



The end of lap 1.



Kid Christopher.



Ernie.

I moved into 2nd early in lap two and started pushing 1st place. He was riding an Ossa Phantom 250 and it was a David and Goliath battle. Some sections he had the advantage but most places I was faster, if I could force him into a mistake and get by I thought I could stay ahead.



Pushing the Ossa 250 rider at the POG scoring tent, this is the battle for the overall.

I pushed the Ossa rider for two and a half laps, but near the end of lap 4 I was the one to make the mistake and I stalled the Berksire. While I was fishing for neutral (why is it I can always find plenty of neutrals when I dont want them, but not when I really need one?) and by the time I found it he was long gone. I was WAY ahead of the next rider so I just tried to survive to the end, but managed to get stuck on hills 3 times the last lap.



The showing off for the camera at the last corner.



The End, 2nd overall on a Penton 100 under the POG scoring tent.

It was unbelievably muddy and rutted. As long as I could stay in 2nd gear and hold my momentum I was fine, but if I bobbled or had to go around a stuck rider and drop to 1st I would get stuck or almost stuck. The trail Greg Holder laid out would have been woods rider heaven in the dry, or even half the rain we got. I really felt sorry for Greg and Al as it was obvious to everyone they put in a lot of work getting this event together in the wake of the North Carolina round being canceled.

Brian

'73 Berkshire

[VICTOR MONZ]

Excellent Brian.

Really cool riding.

Victor

[firstturn]

Sounds like Wendall Phillips made it to Atlanta and hopefully will do OK with our Prayers.

Ron Carbaugh

[brian kirby]

Thanks Victor. I have pictures of some other Penton riders, but I dont know their names so when I get home and the results are posted so I can match their numbers with names I'll post them too.

Ron, I am here in Atlanta with Wendell, and considering the type of break he is doing very well. He broke the tibia up near the knee and they could not do the surgery they wanted to do because of the swelling. He has rods on the outside of his leg to hold it in place until they can install the internal parts, but he is drinking coffee, watching TV and making jokes.

Brian

'73 Berkshire

[tmc3c]

Brian, It was nice to finally meet you and Ernie. I will have Wendell in my prayers.



Thomas Carmichael


1970 125 Six Day
1976 250 Hare Scrambler

[firstturn]

Brian,
  Thanks for the information and keep us updated.

Ron Carbaugh

[Ernie Phillips]

Wendell: Down but not Out

My brother had a bid of bad luck at the White Lightning CC. He took a hard dab dislocating his knee and breaking his tibia. He left Greenville Memorial Hospital Sunday afternoon with an external fixator (4 pins and two bars) holding everything together. He will have corrective surgery in 10-14 days after the swelling goes down. Keep him in your prayers.

A big thanks to Greg Holder and his helpers for getting Wendell out of the woods. The White Lightning crew did fantastic job with the event in spite of miserable weather. Also, thanks to the Lillian Swamp crew for pitching in and getting all our bikes and gear together and for the guy (Tim?) who pulled my truck and trailer out of muck.

Al, please post the T-shirt and sticker info. We appreciate your efforts.


Ernie P.
Chattanooga, TN

[sixdazed]

I had the pleasure of meeting Wendell when he came by our shop in Tucson.Super nice guy!Heal up quick Wendell and we hope to see you out there again soon.Best wishes,Ric

ric emmal

[swamp fox]

I rode up from the coast Friday to the White Lightnin' on my K12gt, as I had offered my help to Thomas, Greg, and Al. Not all of the volunteers showed when the weather took a turn for the worse, but somehow we trudged through. It really could have been a whole lot better if not for the uncontrollable weather, but also a lot worse if it wasn't for the great group of people that came to help and race.

I met/saw some great folks there, both Poggers and non.
Brian, Ernie, Don Cutler, Toni & Gary Roach, Tim Hamilton?, to name a few that I can remember. Paul Busick chatted with us at the ticket hut Sunday morning in all the mud and rain.

Thomas's buddy from work, Robert, was an iron man. He was pulling people out of the woods from the race, then helped clear the parking lot of trucks and campers/rvs with his suburban.

After all this, I suited up and did my own 3hr enduro back to the coast in all the rain, dodging all the crazy cagers. I stayed completely dry and warm with my heated gear, more so than I was at the course.

Thanks to everyone for the memories, and hopefully we can do it again without so much rain.

Robert Manucy
72 Berkshire
72 Six Day
82 Honda cr250r
04 BMW K 1200 GT

[brian kirby]

I also want to thank the folks in the Penton T-shirts way out in the woods urging me to catch the Ossa, I am not sure but I believe it was Gary and Toni Roach.

Brian

'73 Berkshire

[BlueRidgePathfinder]

quote:Originally posted by Ernie Phillips

Wendell: Down but not Out

My brother had a bid of bad luck at the White Lightning CC. He took a hard dab dislocating his knee and breaking his tibia. He left Greenville Memorial Hospital Sunday afternoon with an external fixator (4 pins and two bars) holding everything together. He will have corrective surgery in 10-14 days after the swelling goes down. Keep him in your prayers.

A big thanks to Greg Holder and his helpers for getting Wendell out of the woods. The White Lightning crew did fantastic job with the event in spite of miserable weather. Also, thanks to the Lillian Swamp crew for pitching in and getting all our bikes and gear together and for the guy (Tim?) who pulled my truck and trailer out of muck.

Al, please post the T-shirt and sticker info. We appreciate your efforts.


Ernie P.
Chattanooga, TN

Dear Ernie,

First of all, let me say that Greg and I are truly humbled, yet extremely proud by the turn out and support of our event by our friends and fellow motorcycle addicts. You folks, both those who came and those who were there in spirit, are wonderful!

Especially after this weekend, I am going to adopt Dave Mungenast Sr.'s prophetic words of wisdom as my personal mantra. When speaking at the Awards Banquet at the 7th Annual Leroy Winters ISDT Reunion Ride in the Berkshires, Dave said:

"I always say that the motorcycle riders are the greatest fraternity that I've ever seen, because no matter who you are, whether you're Malcolm Forbes, or whether you're Malcolm Smith, or Malcolm the trash hauler, when you throw your leg over that motorcycle we're all the same, we're all bonded together....."

As most of you know, it began raining Friday night, and never let up much all weekend.  Saturday, following the Vintage (Pre-1975) race, AHRMA officials (and the riders) cancelled the Novice (both Vintage & Post-Vintage combined) out of concern for the riders' safety, but went on with the Post Vintage race.

After that, what had been a marvelous course on Friday was toast. Then
it rained, and rained, and rained, and rained, all Saturday night into
Sunday, so we were not able to run on Sunday. Instead everyone was frantically, yet carefully, working just to get all of cars, trucks, and motor homes out of the park, which by then was a muddy quagmire. The luxurious land yacht belonging to John ?, the nice gentleman from California (most definitely manly man who rode the Yellow 1974 Yamaha SC 500 in Saturday's event) is still sitting in the upper lot. He figured it would be at least today before he would be able to get that thing out of there without tearing it up with tow trucks.

Due to conditions and consequences caused by the torrential rains, it
will be a real struggle for Greg and me to cover our expenses and commitments related to hosting the event. Whatever profits we can glean from the sale of our event T-shirts and commemorative decals will be our saving grace.

Therefore, I have put together a promotional flyer with prices and
ordering details for these items.

UNFORTUNATELY, I don't possess the gumption to post that flyer here on this fourum.

SO, IF ANY OF YOUR FINE FOLKS HERE ON THE PENTON OWNERS GROUP FORUM WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE OUR White Lightning Event T-Shirt & Commemorative Sticker Sales Poster, please e-mail me directly at [email protected] , and I will reply to you with a .pdf file containing the poster containing all of the pertinent information for ordering our shirts and decals.

I have uploaded our White Lightning T-Shirt & Sticker Sales Poster to the various and sundry Yahoo! Group Sites, and hopefully the Liles have a way to post a link to our promotional flyer on the AHRMA website as well.

Any and all help you can give us in moving these items, to generate some much needed cash flow, will be greatly appreciated!

Ernie, please keep me updated on Wendell's condition, and send me his UPS shipping address (off-list) so that Greg and I may send him a special gift.

Happy trails,

Al Roof

[bildough]

Brian;

what a great race report. I think its so cool that you take the berkie out and show off what it can do. The pictures sure make it look great. My prayers are with Wendell for a speedy recovery.

Bill cappel

[Gary Roach]

quote:Originally posted by brian kirby

I also want to thank the folks in the Penton T-shirts way out in the woods urging me to catch the Ossa, I am not sure but I believe it was Gary and Toni Roach.

Brian

'73 Berkshire

Hi Brian,

Yes, that was us. I thought for sure that you were going to get him. I broke a footpeg off on the sighting lap, so I didn't get to race.

Gary
 

Here are a few of my pictures:

[tmc3c]

Ernie, Brian,
   Any word on Wendell?



Thomas Carmichael


1970 125 Six Day
1976 250 Hare Scrambler

[tmc3c]

Ernie, Brian,
   Any word on Wendell?



Thomas Carmichael


1970 125 Six Day
1976 250 Hare Scrambler