This run started just up the road from me crib at an old truck stop, “Tri-County Truck Stop”. It was rebuilt in the mid-fifties when the original structure burned down, and I don't think that it's had a good cleaning since then. I love the place.
I live very close to old Route 66 as well as the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Anyhow, these were the five that showed up for the ride: Me (duh), on myhopped up Buelly, EZ-B on a 1992 Sporty, that I sold to him when I boughtthe Buell, Jazzy Jeff on his Buell, Scott on a Kawasaki screamer of somesort, and Wes on his Honda FI sportbike.
Here's the route, straight west on highway 50. A fast 2-lane with minimaltraffic that day. We got lucky.
The Japanese bikes had the most power, but were usually not the ones outfront. Something to do with constantly passing cars into oncoming traffic,maybe. Or consistently riding at twice the posted speed limit?
Yeah, baby, yeah!! A few weeks ago I hammered out thereon the hot rod Dyna, and vowed to take the Buell the next time. What arush.
The weather was great – the photos tell that story. Jeff and I were the ones haulin' ass in a big way on this ride, 100 – 115 MPH for miles at atime. EZ-B was trying to keep up on his geared-down Sporty (for stop-lightracing, yeah I did that to it), and the vibration caused a loose groundsomewhere. I was trouble-shooting it because that happened occasionallyback when I rode the bitch hard.
We all pulled over, I said “let's checkthe battery connections first”. Soon we were back on the road again.
After 120 very fast miles (and no tickets), we got to the Twin Pine Hotelin Tipton. “Pine”, not “Pines” – it's one tree that forked near the trunk.Tipton's a little town, the hotel owner is Chuck, and all of us biker trashare welcome to do pretty much whatever we want as long as we don't get loudafter 2 a.m. and even then he just gets a little irritated.
It's true. Everyone's friendly and havin' fun at the flat track races.
A lot of the people who ride to these races typically ride hard, realhard. I see some of the same people at this little hotel year after year. Coupla years ago there were these two men on Suzukis (I think), V-Stromssitting outside their room drinking beer so I struck up a conversation withthem. They were headed back to Illinois from southern Mexico and decided totake a little detour to see the races! One of those dudes was in attendancethis year, too. Not on the V-Strom though, he told me that he totaled it going to Florida for Bike Week. He looked to be fifty-something.
We got to the races a little earlier than I like, but everyone else was a “flat track virgin”, and they were anxious to pop their cherries. I think myfirst race was in Fresno in the mid-eighties.
Like I said, we got there a little early.
Wes and Scott seemed a little surprised at the variety and depth of bike riders in attendance, every style and brand that you can imagine. They seemed to think that it was going to be a Harley thing. I told them that the Springfield Mile, in Illinois, has maybe ten times the bikes. The racesgot off to a late, and somewhat bumpy start, as there had been heavy rains the day before and there were some track issues. Remember that this is a dirt surface. In one of the earlier heats a rider got bucked off in Turn 1, and all of the other riders went out and had a long look at thesurface with much discussion.
Eventually things got under way, and racing was intense. The final was a bit of a let down as all of the topdogs crashed-out in a series of mishaps, the last with 7 laps left. But first and second were very close at the finish.
For more information on this great, old form of racing seewww.amaflattrack.com. Also, here's the link to a great 1 1/2 minute videoof the final race highlights, complete with that lovely “Snarlin' Hot RodHarleys” soundtrackmms://wms.stream.aol.com/partner/ford/fordracing/sedalia082705.wmv
After the racing it was a 20 miles blast east back to Tipton(www.tiptonmo.com).
Fuck it had been a long day. Up the next morning, Wes went oneway and the rest of us went the other way back towards St. Louis. Wesreally puts on the miles. “Handsome Wes” is not in any of the photosbecause he was kind enough to bring his camera, set up and take thesegreat shots. Props to the Wes-Man. After we got going EZ-B was reallyjammin' hard on that Sporty, and ya know Spud was not gonna take this lyin'down, so the two of us proceeded to ride with impunity and total disregardfor our personal safety. When we stopped for a late lunch, I was breathinghard from the adrenaline rush. We never did see Scott and Jeff again afterwe took off, even after waiting once on the side of the road for 10-15minutes.
Be Cool, Stay Free
–Spud
