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Showing posts with label Roger F. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roger F. Show all posts

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

Sammy Tanner - The Flying Flea

Brilliant bit of history from regular correspondent, Roger F.

From Flattrack.com on Facebook, David Sites posting from the Bob Myers collection. Sammy was #59 before he was #7. He appears to be wearing a t-shirt over his leathers to promote his new record! 

Sammy Tanner was known as 'The Flying Flea', and a Kansas race promoter, was responsible for trying to turn him into a rock star, having Sammy record a 45 (rpm single record) by the same name.

 Sideburn interviewed Sammy Tanner for our regular Trophy Queen slot for Sideburn 13. G
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Friday, 22 January 2016

The Citizen Kane of Flat Track Movies


I'd never heard of Ride With The Wind until I saw this trailer over at Church of Choppers.
It brought a tear to my eye and reminded me a little of my favourite ever film, Mask (with Cher not Jim Carrey, silly).

In this clip there is what looks very much like actual footage of an actual GNC crash spliced into the drama. I sent an email to a group of older fans and industry people in the US asking 'Does anyone remember the crash or who was involved? It's not very clear, but could it be Chris Carr (20) and Parker (1). Early-90s, I think, it predates my following of the sport.'

The ever helpful Roger F (a regular correspondent and a great character, click his label below this post) came back very quickly...

'That's a late season crash involving the chase for the #1 plate between Chris Carr #20 and Scott Parker, and the resulting leg  injuries (knee?) ended up costing Parker the championship in 1992. I can't remember the exact race, but it was a west coast half-mile late in the season. Carr was running either up front or close to it, and Parker was back a few spots. Late in the race, Chris Carr slid out coming out of turn 2, but managed to keep his XR running. In his haste get going again, he lit up the rear wheel and the bike kicked sideways....right into Scott Parker's line, catapulting him off. An unfortunate racing accident pure and simple, but it all but awarded #1 to Chris Carr, his first of many... Roger"
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Saturday, 25 April 2015

Ohio

Gregory from Ohio got in touch a few months ago saying, and I'm paraphrasing, 'I've raced motocross, I've starting reading Sideburn and this dirt tracking looks fun, but when I've tried to speak to some dirt track race people in my area they've been very dismissive and I don't know where to start. Help.'

I remembered that regular blog contributor and sometime Sideburn magazine contributor, Roger F (whose great shots from Ohio races in the 1970s are in Sideburn 7) lives in Ohio. I introduced Greg and Roger via email, and...

Thanks again for putting me in touch with Roger, Looks like I'll be racing this weekend. Really appreciate your kindness. Looking forward to many more issues with my new subscription. I included a photo of my first flat track build (Yamaha 360).

 The race is at Western Reserve in Salem, Ohio. Roger said he would also be there. Looking forward to the fun. Have a good race this weekend, let me know how you do! Will you be in the states for Dirt Quake USA? 
Greg 

 Sideburn - converting the world to flat track, one rider at a time. And yes, we'll be in Castle Rock for Dirt Quake USA. G
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Friday, 26 September 2014

Minibike conquers Pikes Peak

This is a great story from and starring our friend, regular correspondent and occasional magazine contributor,  Roger F from Ohio.

Here's a blast from the past. I just got my new issue of Sideburn magazine with a cover story about Guy Martin and the Pikes Peak Hillclimb, and there was also a minibike picture posted on FB by a friend that caused me to look around for these pictures and maybe put together the little minibike basketcase that fell into my lap last week. Serendipity. 

 In the fall of 1971, I was enlisted to help another student in high school get a motorcycle license endorsement so he could ride a minibike up the famous Pikes Peak mountain as a promotion for a new Mercury brand centrifugal clutch. Centrifugal clutches were a weak point for minibikes back then, as kids would thrash them, slipping them unmercifully, making expensive replacement necessary. Unfortunately, a week prior to going their rider gets mono, so at the last minute, I'm drafted to fill in. The advertising account manager, a mechanic and I are packed into a station wagon and drive out to Colorado, right before the road closes for the winter. 

 We had three days out there to make it to the top, and back then, only the first five miles were paved. The rest was an exceptionally well cared for, wide dirt road that could be navigated safely by tourists in their automobiles. There was no real skill required to ride the road, just twist the throttle and endure the cold. 

 The first day we had great weather, but despite preparation beforehand, the bike was still jetted too rich for the altitude and ran out of breath about a couple thousand feet from the summit. Overnight in the hotel room, the carb was rejetted, but the next day the weather turned bad and we were stopped at the cabin at the end of the pavement due too snow and wind at higher elevations. 

 We had one day remaining and it was do or die. The weather was clear but cold, and we made it without incident. The bike was still hampered by a lack of power as I got closer to the summit, and I was consciously taking wide lines to conserve momentum in order to make it. By the time I got to the top, my speed was down under 10mph and the motor was struggling, but that clutch never faltered, even after miles of hard work over the three days on the mountain. 

The publicity was very successful, and the ad manager ghost wrote my account for Mini Cycle magazine, and the story also appeared in the AMA magazine and several local newspapers. The attached pictures are b/w promo shots taken on our way down for the ad campaign. It really was a cool little minibike, despite the lights, horn and mirror tacked on to make it quasi street legal..
Roger
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Saturday, 26 July 2014

Wauseon Swap Meet and Half-Mile

Our friend Roger F in Ohio sent these photos through. Roger and his partner, Patty, took photos and Roger raced.

 The Antique Motorcycle Club of America has a national meet every summer in Wauseon, Ohio at the Fulton County Fairgrounds. The meet's centerpiece is the swap meet and classic bike exhibitions, which go on all weekend, with emphasis on American machinery, culminating with a judged bike show on Sunday morning. To enter, the bike has to run too. 

There are several acres of classic bikes and parts on display and for sale, with flat tankers from the teens to more modern early-'60s bikes, but the emphasis is on American street bikes from the first half of the 1900s. They have chapters outside of the USA too. 

Of course every Midwest fairgrounds has a grandstand and horse track, and they run a vintage half-mile flat track on Friday each year. Where else could you see a full hand-shift class run, or a dozen board trackers circling the track, forming up for a flying start? Very cool! And they also have some celebrity racers run a match race too. This year, Jay Springsteen was lured out of retirement and raced against Geo Roeder on a Norton. 

If you are an enthusiast of such things, check the meet out at http://wauseonnationalmeet.org/ . Gary, trim it how you see fit or summarize it yourself. 

 It was a great day, and my first half mile on my XR500. Very fun on a beautifully prepared crushed limestone cushion with big wide corners and short straights....thanks for sharing the pics....R

A couple of nice KRs...
Late-1920s Cleveland Four
Mid-'20s Excelsior Super X board track racer (replica?).
Indian Four - which was actually an Ace, until the Springfield company bought the rights.
Roger says, 'I asked the vendor about the Excelsior. It's a 1925 machine cut down for his kids in 1936, original since then, handed down in the same family. Totally cool...'
Gives you an idea how the grandstand fills up Friday evening as people get off work and make their way to the fairgrounds.
This is our friend Al Lonneville (#9) on the rigid Triumph battling a KR in the brakeless class. Patty took all of these.
I'm #40 on the pole in my heat. It didn't help. This was taken by our Motorhead friend Tom Beasley.
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Monday, 23 July 2012

Sammy Halbert Rips it up in Ohio

From our Ohio correspondent, Roger F. 

Sammy Halbert, National #7, came out to stay sharp at the short track at Western Reserve in Salem, Ohio this past Saturday. He is partially sponsored by the local H-D dealership, South East Harley-Davidson and is seeing a local young lady who filmed this (I believe) from the announcer's stand. Good quality, 4:16 long. I was in the next race for +50 and missed this, so thanks to Mike S. for the video. 

A rider goes down in turn 2 about halfway through the main, and when the leader comes up onto it, and slows suddenly. Halbert, running in second, is flipped when his front wheel runs into the leader's rear wheel, forcing a red flag. Sammy shows what he's got in the ensuing restart where he is lined up dead last....r 

I asked what bike #20x was and Roger came back with this... 

The first 3 racers are expert pros. This might be the Money class instead of Heavy Vintage. 20X is indeed a framer, but I think it's a Honda. His partner rode it in one of my races and won on it also. It's a jet. 
I asked the lovely Miss Patty to locate the picture she took for me of the framer that Halbert battled with. This particular shot was taken back in May however, and as you can see, it's a nice piece....roger
More from Roger later...
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Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Dan Ingram

I posted some photos rom Springfield and saw a name I didn't recognise, saw he didn't have a national number and assumed he was a new young rider. Of course, you only keep your national number for one year, a rider has to make a main at least once every season to keep it up.
Roger put me right:

Dan Ingram, 1983 AMA rookie of the rear and former national #31, returns to racing for the first time in 19 years! He not only made the main at Springfield over the weekend, he finished 11th! I love it when old guys start racing again! .....roger
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Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Lima Laverda

Very unusual SF750 based flat tracker snapped by Roger at Lima. The photos are a bit dark, but it's still worth showing.

From vintage display behind the grandstand. I didn't meet the owner, but I love the tank! Roger
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Saturday, 11 June 2011

Two aspiring flat trackers from 40 years ago

Brilliant photo and story from Roger (who contributed other great photos and stories for Sideburn 7)


This professional photo just came to me from long ago and is of me (#41) and lifelong friend John (#9), taken in his basement in December of 1971. To get there, we had to squeeze through the kitchen and down some steps, but that's another story.
The bikes, purchased new earlier that year, are 100cc Kawasaki G31M Centurians, sold only in 1970 and 71. They actually came with a dyno tag of sorts hanging on the handlebars listing peak horsepower, and mine said 18.7 and 10,250rpm. At 8000rpm I think it made about 8, so you can imagine the peaky powerband. Missing from both bikes are the green fenders, but otherwise they're stock.

I only actually raced it a few times, because of a fatal flaw. The round disc on the side of the case is actually a supplemental air filter held in place by a rubber ring, with the open carb mouth residing directly inside. During practice at a scrambles, I laid it over on the right side and it sucked in some racetrack. Of course I did the wrong thing and attempted to run it, and it promptly seized. I knew it was not a good thing when John and broke the cylinder free of the cases and instead of seeing the rod, all we saw was air. The top of the rod was still with the piston, now one with the chrome-lined cylinder. The lower end was even worse.
So I had it fixed and eventually sold it.

Of course now the rare Kawasaki would be worth a lot of money too. But it was my first racebike and John and I sure had some fun while we had them...
Roger Falasco
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