| WTT Places 2nd at the Vintage Races at Wauseon! |
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One of the highlights of the weekend is the racing of the Board Track class on Friday night. The "skinny wheel" bikes are always a crowd favorite, and this year, a total of thirteen riders brought out machines to make a few hot laps and give the crowd a show. Ever since I was a kid, I've been watching Dale and his friends have put these old bikes to use, having the time of their lives. So last winter, I decided to start putting together something of my own to make a few laps with the group.
The entire build came down to the wire...... we finished the bike exactly one day before we left for Wauseon on Wednesday. We only had time for a few start-ups, and although the bike seemed to be running well, we didn't have any time at all to get it out on the road to tune and test it. Despite the lack of practice, we loaded her up anyway and headed for the meet. After driving all night, we arrived in Wauseon early the next morning, and immediately hit the swap meet to see what sort of old motorcycle goodies we could dig up. Over the course of the morning, we made several good finds for projects currently ongoing in the WTT restoration shop, but by early afternoon, I knew our chances of dialing in the race bike were getting fewer by the hour. So just after 1:00, we towed the bike down to the road adjacent to the fairgrounds and unloaded her to see what she'd do. The bike fired right off from the push start, and within seconds, we were speeding down the road -- me on the race bike, Dale on his '15 Harley, and our friend Carl on his 1937 Knucklehead. After a few turns in on the carburetor's high-speed jet, the bike pulled like a beast. The three mile ride down the road gave me quite a bit of confidence on the machine, and after tightening the steering a bit, we turned her around and headed back for another 3-miles of testing. Once I got finally got the carb adjusted correctly, with just the snap of the throttle, the bike would pull away from both Dale and Carl with ease. It was ready for the track. With 13 bikes competing, and a total of three different runs out on the track, we all knew that there was plenty of fun to be had. Each and every rider seemed to have their bike running tip top, and right off the bat, each bike popped off perfectly for the 4-lap practice. The four practice laps went by like lightning, and very quickly, I started to realize that this was some of the most fun I'd ever had. Correction........ It WAS the most fun I'd ever had. Its hard to explain the experience of gliding around the track on a 90-year old motorcycle, but I can tell you that its an experience worth having. Each time we got out, we seemed to get a better and better feel, and honed our techniques to shave precious seconds off of our lap times. Through both of the heat races, the bikes ran better each lap, and all the up to the main event, no one had any mechanical trouble at all. The stands were packed to capacity for the final race in the board track class. The crowd was eagerly awaiting the 8-lap contest, and after all bikes were pushed started onto the track, the tension grew higher as we grouped together for the rolling start. Carl Estes of Pusherman Racing set the pace, leading the field with a wide open throttle from the front stretch all the way through turn four. As he continued to pull away from the pack, we knew that the real race would be for second place. The WTT-prepared machine that I was on proved to be up for the task, as were Mike Lange on his 1921 HD Two-cam and John Rhodes on his 1926 Super X. As coasted back into the pits, the results became official. Carl Estes on #B52 Harley in first place, the WTT prepared #22 Harley in second, and John Rhodes and his Super X in third. After much preparation and anticipation, our day at the races was a success. The bike performed flawlessly, thanks to a great pit crew, and thanks to a dozen other great friends and racers, more fun was had than ever expected.
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For decades now, the Antique Motorcycle Club of America has been holding dirt track races at various meets around the country, attracting hundreds of bikes dating back to the early days of American motorcycle racing. For the last several years, both Wauseon, Ohio and Davenport, Iowa have been the venues of choice, as the associated meets those weekends are two of the biggest old motorcycle meets in the world. This year, the crowd at the Wauseon National meet, held July 15-17th, got to witness another night of great racing.
Starting with just a few parts, I spent much of the last seven months assembling a machine that would not only be capable of keeping up with the other bikes, but would handle well on the short 1/2-mile tracks at the AMCA meets. Keeping with the theme of the race -- dropped handlebars and tall, skinny tires -- the bike featured a 74 cubic inch Harley-Davidson JDCA engine and a handmade short-coupled frame with an extra-short wheelbase for the tight turns on the Wauseon and Davenport Half-miles. Oh yeah, as with the rest of the bikes in the class, the machine was built with no brakes, and no clutch, just like nearly all of the racing bikes that rounded the tracks nearly a century ago.
Friday morning was spent roaming the swapmeet, and making a few last checks on the bike, and by 1:00, we loaded up our gear and headed for the pits. 
As we crossed the start line, we all hammered the throttle and the race was on. Now, there are a wide range of capabilities with these old bikes, and often times, the "newer" bikes from the mid- and late-1920s tend to separate from the field. As always, there were a few slower paced machines, but for the most part, all of the bikes maintained a blistering pace that kept the crowd on edge for the entire race.
