1-Day Racing Career

[Larry Zimmer]

Bob Burks (bobcat), of Dallas, asked me to post this for him. Great story. Things and memories that make riding life truly great and fun. Thanks for sharing, Bob.


The one and only time I ever got to ROAD RACE !
I was awakened at about 6:am by my former roommate ,the team crew chief: "throw your tools into the van and lets go !". I had a serious hangover
from the pre-race party the night before and was to be the team wrench. The event was a 4 hour endurance race on a closed airport runway and taxi
ways , (no banked turns) , a flat and very coarse surface. Rodney, the bike owner, planned to run the whole 4 hrs. by himself! He went to register;
and, came back to announce, "we must have at least 2 riders!" He turned to me and said, "go get them leathers out of the van. I hope they fit, "cause
you're RACING!" I just about had a heart attack right there ! I had never been to a riders school; and, my only experience was some aggressive
riding on country roads with friends. This was the real thing and I was scared to death! The leathers fit; but, of all bikes, we were to ride a Kawasaki
Z-1R and to make matters worse , Rodney had made his own rear-set pegs by switching the right side peg to left and left to right and flipping them
upside down! that was OK; but, he also flipped the shift lever over backwards making it a 1 up, 4 down racing shift pattern! I had never ridden a bike with
that pattern before; but, I was already committed, hangover and all .
Practice was a nightmare! Between learning the track configuration, shift pattern and about 40 "experienced" racers surrounding and screaming past
me on all sides, I quickly forgot the hangover. I guess I did the prep. well! The bike actually handled good, ran strong and the brakes were up to the
task! We were entered in the HEAVY PRODUCTION class (stock,1000 cc and up). Rodney was to ride the 1st and 3rd hours and I the 2nd and 4th.
The first hour I watched Rodney closely while biting my nails. By the 3rd or 4th lap the bigger bikes were already into lapped traffic and it became hard
to tell who held what position. Seems suddenly, the 1st hour was up; and, it was My turn! Heart in throat, I climbed into the saddle and tore off into the
unknown. Initially, my lap times were much slower than Rodney's; but, as I began to settle down and learn a line, my lap times were very close to Rodney's.
Then I began to run into trouble ! I finally determined who the leader was and started to do my best to stay with him. I learned his braking points ,especially at
the end of the long straightaway. His bike would start to wobble under hard braking. So, I would grit my teeth and stay in the throttle as long as I could dare;
then, grab the brakes as hard as could, lean so hard I was dragging the alternator cover badly, but would gain a little ground! I found out how to stay
close around the backside turns and the chicane; but, when we hit the straight, he would just fly away from me; and, the only thing i had for him was later
braking, wearing out the alternator cover and increasing my focus and concentration through the backside turns and chicane. That is where I scared
myself so badly I thought I would have to pit to change underwear! My focus had gotten so intense that I forgot to pay attention to the shift pattern and
reverted to natural reflexes and exiting the chicane in hot pursuit ,pegged the tach in 3rd gear. I down shifted to 2nd and SAW GOD ! The Kawasaki beast
went completely sideways and buried the tach needle before I could pull the clutch in. Somehow I recovered and picked the pace back up, only to have
the same thing happen twice more in the same place, somehow managing to recover each time. I can only imagine what the corner workers thought ! FINALLY
my 1st hour was over. I jumped off the bike looking for a chair as Rodney tore out of the pit. I didn't watch much; but, sat and replayed in my mind what I
had just been through !
The 3rd hour was quickly coming to an end; and, I really wasn't eager to get back on the bike, hoping Rodney would want to do the last hour since his original
intention was to run the entire 4hr by himself . He signaled he was going to pit; so, I got ready ,zipped up leathers, helmet on, gloves on, bike fueled, I
took a deep breath, swallowed hard, jumped back into the saddle and blasted out of the pit (as much as i could "blast" with stock exh.system)! I quickly fell
back into my routine learned the first hour out. I had to finish this race. The 4th hour (my 2nd hour) went well. I made no mistakes; and, was uneventful
until i saw my crew and Rodney jumping up and down signaling to me '# 1' ! On the next pass by the pits they were still doing it, only more frantically. On the
next pass I saw the leaders in their pit changing a front tire! They had worn all the way through it and had a flat! Then it sank in: I was in 1st place!
However, the former leaders replaced the tire quickly and were back on the track. Here we go again! My competitor eventually caught and passed me!
Their bike was just too fast; and, I had nothing left to make up the difference.
FINALLY, the checkered flag ! TEAM Rodney and Bob had scored a 2nd place overall: 2nd place heavy production! We WERE ELATED to say the least!
But guess what beat us for 1st over all and 1st heavy production? One FAST RED 79 CBX !!!!! Ridden by Joe Patton and Jon Minono.

My first and only roadrace; and, I hold in my hand a small trophy as I write, engraved 2nd PLACE -- HEAVY PRODUCTION, ENDURANCE RACE, NOVEMBER 1978.
A trophy i am most proud of! It was only later that i realized that it was Rodney's first road race too ! I didn't come down from the thrill for 3 days !

[EMS]

Here are a few pictures to the story. Not really authentic, but still...

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Great story, fellas.

[NobleHops]

Great story, fellas.

That was great fun, and drenched with glory!



N.

[bobcat]

Here are a few pictures to the story. Not really authentic, but still...

Man ,does that bring back the memory ! I can almost feel it go sideways when i shifted the wrong way !

bobcat

[oilheadron]

I had a 1969 Suzuki 250 Hustler Isle of Man race replica that had reversed shifting out of necessity due to clearance issues with the handmade expansion chambers. It took a little while but we finally got our brain wired right (left??) and didn't miss too many more shifts. Gorgeous little bike but an absolute torture device to ride due to the riding position. Made even the most uncomfortable modern race replicas feel like heated recliners by comparison.

[bobcat]

I had a 1969 Suzuki 250 Hustler Isle of Man race replica that had reversed shifting out of necessity due to clearance issues with the handmade expansion chambers. It took a little while but we finally got our brain wired right (left??) and didn't miss too many more shifts. Gorgeous little bike but an absolute torture device to ride due to the riding position. Made even the most uncomfortable modern race replicas feel like heated recliners by comparison.

i tried it on my 76 CB750F after that race and did fine for a while and still eventually made the same mistakes, only not quite as scary as the race !
i figured out how to put it back to normal without sacrificing the rearsets. i had ,in some CR750 stuff i bought (unobtanium) a reverse shift drum
i was going to use but sold the bike and CR stuff before using it .

1 down 4up forever bobcat