It’s a beautiful Monday at Mid Ohio. I worked with Dale, an intermediate rider in today’s Sportbike Track Time track day. The track is nice and clean and the air fence is still up.

I did some work on Dale’s bike, adjusted the sag and damping and moved the clip-ons. I watched him from a few spots and we debriefed after each ride. Dale improved his lines, where he was looking, his throttle control but most importantly he had fun and rebuilt his confidence which had been damaged by two crashes last year.

Dale improved his laps times by 36 seconds from the first session to the last and he rode from start to finish of each and every one.

On Tuesday you can hire me to do the same for you.

I’m working for the AMA at Mid Ohio this weekend. On Thursday we tested the Buell Safety Bikes, today I drove and rode shot gun in the Safety Car and did a few other odd jobs.
Liko Miles is hanging out with me this weekend. He is riding for El Rey Beer For Kings in the Moto GT race on Saturday.
Sportbike Track Time and Buell are having a track day here on Monday and Tuesday. I’ll be here and you can hire me to make you faster.

Yesterday I was part of the Honda CBR125R Challenge demo race, part of Honda Indy Toronto. We did a rolling start with the bikes in rows of two then we zoomed around passing each other and generally having a good time without risking crashing. We did a great job and put on a good show.

We may have planted a seed in a few minds that will grow into new motorcyclists and maybe some new racers. This Honda CBR125R Challenge is really starting to take off. The bikes are fun to race, they don’t cost much, the tires last, crash damage in light and the learning is easy.

The kids race on the big track at Mosport this weekend but I’ll be at the AMA Mid Ohio race riding the safety bike. I’ll be back as coach at AMP, August 8th and 9th.

I’m on the road again. Right now I’m headed back to Canada to take part in a motorcycle exhibition race at the Honda Indy Toronto car race, July 10th to 12th.

As I drove through the desert in crazy heat I passed more than four vehicles on the side of the road with flat tires. This confirmed to me that I’m a wise old man, I just replaced my Firestone tires after 66,738 with a new set of Firestone’s. I could have run the old tires a little longer but that would have risked joining those people on the side of the road and I felt much better sharing their pain from the cool 65 mph cab of my RV.

2500,000 photo, lost 🙁
On Thursday June 18th just west of Kingman, AZ my 1997 Ford Tioga turned over 250,000 miles. I was doing 74 mph when I took the picture with my cell phone so you can see all of the zero’s. I normally cruise between 65 and 70 mph.

It’s an E-350 with the V-10 engine and it still gets 9 mpg pulling a loaded 16 foot trailer. I’m amassed at how well it’s lasting, it has never leaked any fluids. I have replaced the plugs twice because the book says to replace them every 100,000 miles and I change the oil every 4,000 miles. I have replaced the torque converter and the gears in the rear end because my trailer is way heaver than the rated towing load. I have replaced the front brake rotors and the shocks. Other than that I’ve had no problems and expect it to be going strong at 500,000 miles. Maybe I can get a million miles out of it…

I’m driving to Willow Springs now, I left ICAR Sunday night after a day of great racing. The day started with a bummer, Toni crashed in practice after taking a few more seconds off her lap time and was unable to start the race. We missed her in the battle and look forward to watching her continue to improve in her next race.

The three fastest kids are about six seconds faster than me so my plan was to make a great start then see what I could do after that. From the second row I was 4th in turn one after the start and I held onto the leaders for most of lap one. A quick look behind told me that Ryan was not as good on the first lap as me but he was quickly making up ground. I don’t remember where he past me the first time but I know I got him back on the outside of turn 6, the inside and outside of turn 9/10 and the inside of turn one once. Every time I passed him he got me back, a number of times he drafted me out of turn 6 and out broke me into turn 7. At least twice I got next to Ryan on the outside of turn 6 and stayed just back of his right shoulder all the way into turn 7, he was right on the edge of the track braking and that left me on the paint which did not work out so well as a passing line. I had a run and the draft out of the last turn but came up 5 hundreds of a seconds short at the line.

My fastest lap was a 1.51.797 on lap four and the fast lap of the race and weekend was a 1.45.480 on lap five by Karl. Karl crashed out of the race and that’s a bummer but he crashed while going fast and he knows why he crashed so it was not a waste.

After making an adjustment, Kim’s clutch was better but still slipped a little so he was forced to take it easy on the start and ride for points. Despite his slipping clutch, he still turned in his best lap of the weekend.

I was busy with my battle so can’t report on the rest of the race other to say that they were all happy afterwards. Maybe they can post their race reports in my comment space, hint, hint.

1st Bodhi
2nd Steven
3rd Ryan
4th Ed
5th Nicole
6th Leah
7th Kim
8th Karl DNF
9th Toni DNS

You can use my link to find the PCSC web site and click on the CBR125 Challenge tab to see results and pictures from the weekend. There is a picture of us on the pre grid before the race that shows Nicole kicking me, clear evidence of how mean these kids are.

The kid coaching has been going great! One of the three fastest kids came looking for me early today with a track map and three good questions. Because all the kids want to learn and all the parents are nice, it’s been a blast helping them. I spent all of practice today doing lead/follow.

In qualifying I blasted out of the pits first because I wanted to show them that they could go fast on the out lap and because I wanted to try and hang with the faster kids when they passed me, and they did. Karl Robitaille took pole with a 1.46.504 with Bodhi Edie just behind with a 1.46.764 followed closely by Steven Nickerson posting a 1.47.015. Ryan Roche and I had a good fight that he won with a time of 1.51.600. I took 5th with a 1.52.070. I’m looking forward to a good battle with Ryan tomorrow. After missing Thursdays practice Nicole Pilkington came on strong with a 1.59.341 taking 6th. Toni Nesbitt is clearly the most improved rider so far dropping 29 seconds since the first practice to take 7th with a time of 2.01.492. Leah Vignale turned in a 2.02.502 for 8th, look for Leah to improve tomorrow. We could have a great battle between the CBR125 women of ICAR. With a 2.02.652, Kim Young Jae could be our spoiler. Kim improved his time despite a slipping clutch and is now poised to make a great move from the 3rd row.

Tomorrow will be a barn burner!

I worked for the AMA at Road America last weekend and the racing was great!
On Monday after hanging out for a few hours with the gang from Sportbike Track Time I started driving to a new track in Canada called ICAR.
ICAR is part of an airport in Montreal, it’s a cement track and there are some bumps but the lay out is fun and the wall’s aren’t to close, the traction is great. I rode my CBR 600 F1 in a track day on Wednesday and I’m racing in the Honda CBR125 Challenge.
I’m also working for the Parts Canada Superbike Championship, I’m in charge of paddock parking so you know the rigs are all lined up nice and the rental cars have been kicked out. I’m also working in tech, I‘ll be using my Mega Max/CMS as part of tech to make sure no one is bending the rules or their frame.
The Honda CBR125 Challenge is for novices only. As a pro guests rider I’m not allowed to finish on the box but I’m only 5th fastest right now so this may not be a problem. I’m working with the kids doing classroom stuff, track walks, lead/follow and practice starts. The riding is tough because it’s hard for me to hang off enough with the stock pegs. But I love all the thinking involved trying to keep my speed up and make up for the 60 extra pounds that I have over the kids.

Do you remember Liko Miles of Miles Ahead Racing? Liko did well with his new settings at the AFM race the week after our AMA race at Infineon. Here is what he had to say:

“Well, we knew that the real test of all the new information we learned from the AMA weekend at Infineon would be the AFM race the next weekend. For those who don’t know here is a quick recap: Ed helped me (Liko Miles) at the AMA round at Infineon as my crew chief and along with his experience and knowledge (as well as the new Mega Max machine) we made HUGE changes to my setup. This new set up was good enough for a top 20 finish in the Daytona Sportbike Race and a load of confidence going into my club race. Back on tires and fuel that I am comfortable with (AMA uses spec fuel and tires) I proceeded to set my fastest laps ever at Infineon (FYI last season I was on a 750) and get three second places in my races, narrowly losing out to Lenny Hale, who is a very fast boy! All of this was done on a stock shock and forks! (Revalved by Lindemann Engineering) Big thanks to Ed Sorbo, Jim Lindemann, David Hall and Bill Wickersham for helping elevate my game and I can’t wait for the next race! See you at the track!”

Liko’s next AFM race is at Thunder Hill. Look for him to have another great weekend.