VMD 09 - the good, the bad, and my race report!

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Ibuprofen,Percoset, beer, repeat...Ibuprofen, Percoset, beer, repeat!

It's Monday after the Friday CC and that has been my "mantra" for the last 72 hours or so.  I have not slept for more than an hour at a time for last three nights, and rumor has it that Mr. Tom Flores and Jimmy Foster may have similar regimens, but I'll let them speak for themselves.

And you know what?  I wouldn't change a thing...well, maybe a few things..but I had a great - if racing limited - VMDexperience.
 
Let's start with the drive over on Thursday night thru several torrential downpours on my way to Wooster, OH and my Super 8 motel. No problems, but I was a-wonderin' just what kind of conditions we might be facing on Friday morning for the CC race.

Friday found my wife and I driving down Steam Corners Rd wondering just where the hell I was supposed to turn in.  I'm looking at the size of this place and all of the campers and I'm kinda freaked.  My wife had recently accepted Tony Friedel as a Facebook friend and SHE had his cell phone number (oh the smug smile on her face....).  We dialed up TF and turns out he was right behind us.  A right at the south end, and another right into Mid-Ohio and we were there.  A bonus was the fact that 1) a plethora of POGGERS were located in and around us, and 2)Tony and company pulled in just a few cars over.  

Pits are set up, the toaster tank is filled,and we are basically  ready to go for the CC race. Bonus trivia - sitting less than 100 feet away from our pop-up is my "new" 1976 MC-5 250 that Gary Ellis has brought from the midwest.  It is just gorgeous.  But no time to swing a leg over this bad boy.  It's time to stage for the CC race.

Quarter till 10 and I'm sitting in a gaggle of Pentons over in the pre-stage.  I meet Larry Perkins, and Tom Flores, and the McCullough brothers (did I get that right?), and several other Pentonisti.  

10 AM and I'm lined up on the seocond row with all of the 200 and unders. I think Row 1 was the bigger bikes, and Seniors were behind us...not sure who was behind them.  Tom Flores is lined up right next to me on his Berkie.  Maybe another 12 bikes on the line (3 Experts including Flores, Perkins, and Adam Giddings...), some Intermediates like myself and few Novices.  Live engine start with hands on the helmet and we were probably waved away about one minute after Row 1.  Weird start/path into the woods because a late development resulted in us NOT using any of the MX track but instead being routed directly back into the woods with a "do not pass after the first turn until you reach the woods".  Oooookay...the flag drops and I'm following two bikes back into woods - Flores (man he's fast!) and a gent that I met (apologize, but forgot his name) on a 175 Can-Am.  The lap is all woods with just a couple of sections where you might wind it up to 4th gear or so.  No fields, several nice little hill climbs, some wet stuff, and - with all the rain the night before - some slick stuff in a few spots.  But overall, very tacky and very fun.  The Can-Am guy hits the deck hard about 4 minutes into Lap 1 and I have to check it up pretty hard just to avoid not hitting him.  Weave my way thru, look up, and Flores is GONE.  I wick it up, listen to the bike, and I'm just giggling at how clean the Sixxer is revving and running.  I never did get a chance to re-check the jetting but near as I can tell everything feels absolutely SPOT ON.  Lap two and I'm riding my own race with no one behind me at all.  I'm frankly kinda surprised and wondering if someone "clogged the arteries" somewhere and held up the Calvary.  CRIPES...Flores is on the side of the trail....I thought maybe a bike problem..and suddenly I'm thinking today could be a great day.  Then again...it's only Lap 2.  But then it's Lap 3 and after a while it's Lap 4(I think these are about 8 or 9 minute laps).  Wow..picking off a few of the Row 1 guys now, as well as backmarkers.  Late in Lap 4 or early Lap 5 I realize there is a Berkie on my tail.  Flores - he's back!  I pull over and wave him by and take up the pursuit, wondering if MAYBE I can ride with this Berkmonster.  Funny thing is - I'm able to ride with him and actually find myself running up on him in various sections. Well - he did say (before the start) that he not raced much this year - so maybe he's tired and I get to learn from one of the Jedi Knights of our group.  Plus - it was Lap 5 and the increased pace was going to ensure that I stayed in my groove and not mentally lose pace.  Heck, I might even race him on the last lap....we come up on a lapper he goes left while I go right.  And I go DOWN.  HARD.  Knock my goddamn wind out of me, oh-my-god-my-ribs hurt HARD.  The bike restarts, I swing a leg over it and get going again right a way...and I am suffering.  I try to pick up the pace and suddenly find myself riding in some kinda freaked out, conservative mode.  Hmmm...slow down, make more mistakes?  WTF!!! Oh well, five laps down, just got to get thru the white flag/last lap, right?  WRONG.  Come around to scoring and NO WHITE FLAG.  I actually get teary-eyed at the prospect of two more lap, but buckle down and have at it.  On Lap 6, or early Lap 7 - a couple of the Row 1 guys actually lap me as well as a few Seniors from the Row behind me. How...much...longer?  I actually fall down one more time in some stupid way that mostly makes me very aware of how much I hurt, but gratefully no serious mistakes.  The checkered flag on Lap 7 is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  I have won the Intermediate CC race. And I can barely breathe....

I grab my wife and motor back to the pits.  Tony shows up and they help me get out of my gear.  Lew stops by to check on me.  And we all agree that I need to head to the hospital.  Two hours later and I walk out the Mansfield Hospital ER with a painkiller-enhanced spring to my step, and a diagnosis of one broken rib, severe rib bruising, and some kind of shoulder muscle injury.  

An hour after that and I'm staring at the results sheets and feeling even MORE pain.  I was 2nd Intermediate and it turns out that the guy I let by was Mr. James Giddings (congrats if you read this!), who was also riding a Berkie and - complete with camelback waterpak - looked an awful lot like Tom Flores.  But Tom was only scored with one lap and I subsequently heard he had also taken a hard fall and was injured in the CC.  A review of the lap sheets told the tail - James was somewhere behind me for the first four laps and caught me on Lap 5.

Oh well....no trip to Vegas for me!;)

BTW - Congrats to Larry Perkins and his Expert win on his Berkie in our CC race.

By dinner time, it was pretty clear to me that I could not ride MX on Saturday.  But boy was I trying to rationalize that it would be do-able.  The MX course was basically a TT with a bunch of left and right hand turns - would have been a hoot on the Six Day as well as the MC5.  The sign-ups were pretty weak in the MX (See Ernie's post) and  - other than The Incredible Adam Giddings Pentavarna - the "Sportsman" 125 field didn't look that tough.  Running Evo 1 with the MC5 would have been much tougher, but once again..Oh Well.  Note:  James Giddings just WAXED the 100 class on his Red Tanker.  I think I feel better.  Wait..no I don't.  Percoset please!

So instead...I had to take large amounts of Ibuprofen, sit back and watch some great motos, hang with POGGERs and drink beer when it rained, do row after row of that magnificent Swap Meet, and visit Pentonville (nice job, Mr Danik and friends)for a wonderful burger, a nice chat with Dane Leimbach (I am not worthy..), and a great laugh when John Penton starts listing what rib bones he HASN'T broken a very short list as it turns out!

Believe it or not, the MC5 is sitting in my garage and I haven't started it yet!  I don't have the strength yet and probably won't for a few weeks.

So...clearly laid up for August.  Wonder what the September race schedule looks like?[8D]

[Ernie Phillips]

Dang Bob!  You let him past you.  Great report.  Hope you and Tom Flores heal quickly.  September = ISDT @ TN, October = ISDT RR @ OH & Barber @ AL.

Ernie P.
Chattanooga, TN

[Tflores]

Bob, All

It was great meeting you at Mid-Ohio and congratulations on you fine finish!  You definitly have my respect for being able to finish the race with the injuries you sustained.  Great job on this ride report as well, I got a kick and a big smile out of it.

My congrats also goes out to 1st place CC finisher Mike Parker on his Can Am and Larry Perkins.  Larry great job on the 1st place MX finish as well.

I can certainly relate to your ibuprofen,(should have come seen you for the Percoset) beer, repeat regimine, seems to have worked well for me too.  Fortunatly I have made it safely  back to Texas and I am healing and feeling much better.  

On the third lap at fair speed I had an encounter with a slick newly exposed root and a stout well sized neighboring tree in short order.  I'm not exactly clear on how my body may have come in contact with the tree or mother earth but the results were a broken chest protector, excruciating pain in my chest/sternum area and shoulder along with difficulty breathing.  The attempt at picking up my motorcycle made it clear that I was hurt to the point of not being able to safely finish the race.  Fortunatly, a helpful spectator got the motorcycle up off the track and started it for me so I could limp back to the pits.

Just for the record, it was the first time in over 25 years I couldn't pick my motorcycle up after going down and over 25 years that I also couldn't load it on my truck!  After some serious debate (OK maybe not that serious) Larry Perkins and his side kick Brandon got the honors of loading my bike onto my truck, Thanks again Larry and Brandon for your help and support.

Although my experience this year at Mid Ohio was short from a racing perspective I truly enjoyed having the opportunty to be there again and will make every effort to be there again next year. It was great being able to visit Pentonville again and to enjoy the hospitality, great food and to say hi and enjoy the company of all the POG members that were there.  I really do appreciate the concerns many of you had for my injuries and I can say it no longer hurts to take a deep breath and to laugh, although I'm still hoping not to have to sneeze yet.  

I should be able to give it a go again in a couple of weeks, and I thank God for the friendships of this motorcycle enthusiast family, the support of my family and the ability to work on and ride these wonderful vintage Penton motorcycles in a AMA, AHRMA, Texas Vintage Racing Club or for that matter any vintage event that comes along.

Take Care, Tom Flores

[tooclose racing]

Let me again mention how quick Tom Flores was, even if was just for a couple of laps.  Pleasure to meet you, pleasure to follow you back into the woods, Tom.  Hope you are healing - I mowed the lawn tonight, so I suppose I'm starting to feel a little better myself.  But I also sneezed for the first time today.  Just once thank god, but I thought someone had stuck a knife in my ribs.

And YES Ernie - I let Mr. Giddings by on his Berkshire, thinking it was TF.  You know how us racers are - I've played that one back in my head a hundred times - but I sincerely thought I was letting Tom by and no one else.  And this member of Clan Giddings was no slouch my friend - Larry can attest to that in the 100 MX race.  Did he run last year with y'all at VMD?

Having said that, bottom line is that it was ME and no one else who tucked the front wheel later on. First crash since I started riding last year.  But what a hum-dinger of a crash![xx(]

[slvrbrdfxr]

Bob,
Glad to hear you are doing better and it sure was nice to meet you. I'm also glad to read that Tom is feeling better too and it was nice seeing him again. I had a nice two day battle with Tom at the ISDT RR last fall and even managed to keep him behind me for couple laps of the final MX before he finally got by. You guys were both running pretty fast on Friday and pulling away from me on the Jackpiner. I settled into a comfortable pace and then had a bit of bad luck on lap 2 when the tip of my shifter got sheared off by a rock. I'm sure you'll remember the corner where that happened. It was about 1.5 miles out on a very tight left where a trianglar shaped rock was sticking up approx 12-18" from the inside of the berm. You couldn't see the rock (even though it was painted orange)until you were right on top of it because of some tree stumps and high weeds blocking sight of it. Since part of my shift lever was gone I was unable to change gears after that. I used the remains of my shift lever to place the bike in second gear and then continued on as best I could. I really had to wring the bike out now to keep up some speed and eventually ran low of gas on lap 4 eventually switching to reserve to make it back to the scoring barrels. I stopped just after the scoring barrels in my 5th lap because I didn't want to risk running completely out of gas somewhere out on the trail. I still had fun and will try again next year on the Piner. I also rode an IT175 in the PV 86-200 class and had a good ride even thought I took a hard tumble on the third lap. That crash had me dazed for a bit and I went down 2 more times during that lap before getting back on pace again. Once I got back up to speed, I had a nice battle going with the 3rd place finisher Mike Gallagher Jr for a couple laps. Mike Jr and I swapped positions back and forth several times during laps 4 and 5 and he eventually got away from me when I stalled the bike. From that point on I decided to take it a bit easier and made the mistake of letting the leader pass me within sight of the scoring barrels at the end of my 6th lap. He got the checkered right in front of me as I was getting ready to go into my 7th lap. Overall it was a fun weekend of riding and I was glad to make it through with only a few bumps and bruises. Hope to see you again at the ISDT RR in early October so take care and and my best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
Dave McCullough

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Great stories from Dave McCullough...

Can I just mention that - 10 days after the CC race - I feel awful!?! I know that I may have aggravated things a bit by attempting some yard work on Saturday, but this rib injury (and something going on with my back/shoulder muscles) absolutely sucks.  It's genuinely hard to NOT do anything and "take it easy", but this injury has just about beaten me into accepting such a notion.  I'm doing a follow-up with personal PA/Doc today to see if a  muscle relaxer or some kind of PT might help.  I am administering Ibuprofen constantly.  Believe it or not, the Percoset wasn't much help in the scheme of things and THAT scrip ran dry by mid-week.  

I think the earliest event I will be considering is our NE/NA races in Hancock, NY. first weekend of September.  We also have another Allen's Farm race in the fall.  And YES...I'm thinking about the ISDT Reunion Ride/event.

Sheesh...just needed to whine a little bit to you guys...

[Lew Mayer]

Twelve ounce curls until the pain goes away.[)]

Lew Mayer

[tooclose racing]

"Don't cry for me, Argentina...."

The latest x-ray has revealed FIVE fractured ribs and I have liquid building up somewhere in my lungs and/or chest cavity.  Oh...is my wife going to feel bad about the list of chores she gave me last Saturday.  And I do believe this now puts me in the same league as Gary Ellis.  

Hmmm...I can already envision the story I will tell my grandchildren:

"So...there I was slicing thru the woods at the vintage championships with Terry Cunningham on one side of me and Dick Burleson on the other when suddenly a giant brown bear stepped out in front of my bike, letting the other two riders go by.  When his giant paw hit my chest...I thought I was gonna die!"

[Larry Perkins]

The older I get the faster I was.

Get well soon my friend, there are battles to fight and dragons to slay.  Take care of yourself.

Larry P