Here is the rest of the story
Production racing was great fun in the 1970s… AFM was good about their rule enforcement, keeping “production racing” just that. So here I am racing a ’69 Trident against old and new Honda 750s, Ducati twins, and everything else you can think of. One my second outing in May of ’78 I had a good day, finishing mid-pack. What I wanted to do was compete in the 4-hour race at the end of the season, and to do so I would have to have at least 2 races under my belt. I’d hit a couple more events during the season to gain valuable track time for machine and me.
As November neared I knew I’d have to make some improvements to the bike. Chris Quinn re-laced an alloy rim to the front wheel for me, then we removed the Continental tires in exchange for Dunlop K81s (UK version). I bought a new café seat and fitted the 3-into-1 pipe (and jets of course). Now all I needed was some teammates.
Chris Quinn would be the obvious choice as a teammate, and he said he’d get another rider signed on soon enough. Enter one Dave Neal, local Norton hotshoe. I’d seen Dave race during the season, and he was quick. So come raceday, Bret and I show up in the Land Rovers, with the Triumph in the back of one, and tools, wheels and equipment in the other. I hadn’t planned on racing in the rain, nor did I have experience of such. After Paul Ritter tested the track on his 750SS Ducati did AFM call the race for the day, we’d try again next Sunday.
The following Sunday we find ourselves at Sears Point. Practice in the fog was something new and interesting, to say the least. By race time the skies had cleared and the track dried out. We got the Triumph tanked up and pushed it to the grid. Dave Neal would start the race and run for 1-hour, then he’d pit and we’d re-fuel; this would give us a chance to calculate the fuel mileage. With the green flag down the Annual AFM 4-Hour was underway. At the end of lap one we were 4th overall, ahead of us was big competition; Paul Ritter on his 750SS Ducati, Dave Emde on the San Jose BMW, and TT-Motors Triumph Twin. After an hour we were still in 4th. Emde pitted on the BMW with one of its carbs hanging in midair by the throttle cable! Moments later Dave pitted, Chris and I filled the tank while Bret checked the tires and catch bottle… and I took off. With a load of gas I was off down the pit lane flat-out. Three laps later our day came to an end in turn-6 when I holed a piston. So much for that. |
