Up Front

UP FRONT

VROOM

Allan Girdler

Back when I was racing, the high point of my motojournalism year was an end-of-season report, in which I detailed events entered, money spent, results, etc. Due to the sad fact that despite seven years’ effort, steel nerves and lightning reflexes I never actually managed to win a race, this report usually contained within its title the phrase How I Suffered My Annual Heartbreak.

So now, in the fifth year of my retirement, I have suffered an annual heartbreak without even getting on the track.

I mean to do something about that. Patient readers will recall the saga of Red Rooster II, my partially restored and completely inauthentic version of a replica of a GP Honda. Couple weeks after I got Rooster running around on both cylinders. I figured I ought to be able to take part in the vintage bike event that is, to me, the best thing on the program at the Laguna Seca Formula 750 races. Never mind that my ride has only brand name and body work in common with a real vintage road racer, the guys who own outmoded racing bikes are by the nature of their hobby a bit whacko, so it seemed worth at least filing an entry.

It wasn’t. The nice people who promote the race said there wasn’t going to be a vintage event for 1978. Seems the 1977 old crock show was a lot of bother. The promotion crew had to telephone scores of people and track down owners and like that. They decided the time and effort could be better spent on promoting the actual race, so they cancelled the vintage class.

A day or so later I was sulking about this to Tony Murphy, west coast Can-Am rep, demon road racer and owner of several Manx Nortons. I got more than a sympathetic ear:

“Why don’t we put on the race?” he asked.

Well, why not?

Bill Boyce of the AMA was carefully cordial. He liked the idea of having vintage iron at the race, but he wasn’t as keen on the thought of old riders on old tires having young ideas, i.e. actually banging bars and scraping pegs. Would we settle for a parade?

No. The thing about getting old enough to fool around with old bikes is. you know how good you are and you settle for that. (In my case I expect there to be a lot of daylight between my knees and the ground. Darryl Bassani has made a lovely set of replica megaphones for Rooster, concealed mufflers within the cones and everything. I have no plans to drag the chrome on the pavement.)

But the AMA didn’t say no. Back at the promoter’s office, they took it under advisement. Then the final word.

Sorry, but the proposal was too vague, too informal and too late. They’d have to work out insurance. The only open time was between 750 heats and surely I could understand why they worried about 25 old bikes, mostly British, perhaps, uh, altering the surface of the track before KR and Co. got going really fast.

I could understand that. Come back next year, they said, and that’s just what I’d like to do. Now then.

First, there cannot be any doubt abou* the appeal of old machines. There are several active organizations doing for road* race cars what isn’t being done for bikes. They have their own meetings, and they provide an attraction at the real races, and they have a place to use their machines.

The crowd loves it. They went wild ovej* the vintage bikes at the 1977 ’Seca races. They come by the tens of thousands to see the old cars at the same track every year. I have stood for hours in a dusty pasture just for a look at World War II fighter planes in action and I was one of thousands.

The same will apply for old racing bikes^

What we don’t have now is a club for old racing bikes. Maybe we don’t need an actual club in the dues-paying, electingnew-offlcers style. More like a mailing list is what I have in mind.

I propose to call it Vintage Racers O# Old Motorcycles, which shortens nicely into VROOM. (Right. I came up with the initials first and then wrestled words! around until they fit.) '

Rules? Informal, partially because we’ll need all the members and supporters we can get, and partially because unless I figure out a loose set of regulations my bike won’t be eligible. Being a good loser hasn’f made me a sportsman, y’know.

First, the member bike must be an out* moded road racer. Really outmoded. Ja^ Springsteen’s last year’s XR750 doesn’t fit. A KR750 does fit. Survivors of obsolete formulas, is what I have in mind. The Nortons. The production-racer CR Hon-* das. All Ducati Singles. Bultaco Metrallas. Next, the bike need not actually be one of the racers. It can be a duplicate, that is, a road-going machine that’s been revised into an authentic-looking racer of the period. There will be no year limit. If we get enough members, all we gotta do is hav^ classes, with pre-war in one event and post-1 war in another. It will help to make a bette? show.

That’s the big selling point, I reckon.

For us and for them. ^

Right now, there isn’t much being done. Some of the bikes I have in mind are being collected, with a vengeance. Everybody knows a Manx Norton is something tè have, so they sell for many thousands of dollars. They have charisma.

And some don’t. Within the past month I’ve seen three Metrallas for sale for les! than $1.000. 4

Few things lose value quicker than an outmoded racer. Mostly you can’t use it few anything except racing, so when it can’t be raced with any hope of success, it’s two wheels and an illegal (or hopeless) engine. There are countless examples gathering dust in the backs of garages all across the country. They aren’t being cared for because they can’t be used. * ¡

If we had a club, we could use them. ! Given a fleet of clean racers that make all the good sounds, we could offer to take part in the big races, Laguna to Louden. Every genuine professional AMA road race must have some time on the prograrfi for a vintage bike show'.

We can fit into some other events as w'el?. Shortly after we lost our bid for Laguna Seca, I got a telephone call from a man who owns both old bikes and cars. The car guys, known as the Classic Sports Racings Group, were organizing a vintage meet art Sears Point and wondered if there would be any interest in a motorcycle class. t Yes. Thanks to the good offices of Charles Morey at Cycle News (weeklies move eight times faster than monthlies) the word went out and at this writing some thirty owners have signed up for the event (It will take place next month, Henry will report and I will be back east at the time*. Make that two heartbreaks in one year.)

Meanwhile. I cannot be an officer ifi VROOM because it would be a conflict of interest; I don’t believe the press should also be active in clubs and the like. You can’t report fairly on your own actions, after all. Further, my superiors here, the men whose offices have windows, add that I have plenty to do getting the magazine ' out as is.

What I can do is use this space for a good cause. Any and all owners of vintage racing bikes, all makes, all models, aii mechanical conditions; if you’d like to sigjj up for some sort of roster that will get us a place to ride the bikes and have a good time and strike a blow' for the preservation of deserving equipment, drop a note with name, address and machine.

Now I think I’ll get back to work. Red Rooster II is suffering an attack of what w£ technical types refer to as nasty, gummy red stuff in the fuel tank. ^

Next year we’ll be ready. [g