[Fot] Driving to the track in the race car

[Bill Babcock]

Incidentally, I still have BOTH bikes. Solid proof that I'm not a  
collector--I just can't stand to sell my motorcycles, though I'm  
nowhere nearly as attached to my modern bikes.


On Oct 14, 2007, at 7:14 PM, Bill Babcock wrote:

> First one bounced--too big. Hey Mark, isn't 4K a bit too restrictive?
>
> On Oct 14, 2007, at 7:12 PM, Bill Babcock wrote:
>
>> I recognize the stretch of road. It's right before the main  
>> entrance. Hard to believe that god-forsaken area is strip malls  
>> and tract houses now. Last year  I was up in Gorman where we used  
>> to ride our dirt bikes for miles and miles all day long, and I  
>> couldn't recognize anything. Solid houses as far as you can see.
>>
>> I drove my dirt bike (a 1976 Yamaha 360MX) from Belmont Shores to  
>> the track several times to race in the Riverside Grand Prix. I had  
>> a tail light, a fake headlight and the license plate from my  
>> street bike. If I got stopped I doubt I would have been able to  
>> convince a cop it was a 1972 BMW R50/5  I didn't have a car at the  
>> time. In 1977 I seized the top end in practice, fixed it in the  
>> paddock (freed the rings, sanded the scuff marks off the piston  
>> and got the aluminum out of the bore with battery acid) put it all  
>> back together and finished second or third. Seized again on the  
>> way home. Fixed it again next to the road. Made it home.
>>
>> Thank God those days are over, though I wouldn't mind having that  
>> energy level and absurd determination again. The next year I had a  
>> real truck--I made it from a VW Squareback wagon. Cut the back end  
>> off right behind the seats and made a flatbed out of it--we called  
>> it "the yellow peril" which my chinese friend Barney greatly  
>> appreciated. It was only marginally more reliable than the 360MX.  
>> Had to take the whole bed off to change the oil. Didn't do that  
>> very often.
>>
>> I'm building an Ambro, and I intend to street license it,  
>> expressly so I can drive it to the track and race.
>>
>> On Oct 14, 2007, at 6:39 PM, Kurt Oblinger wrote:
>>
>>> Driving race cars to the track was quite common in the old days,  
>>> even F1
>>> cars.
>>> http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/9475/60trintingnant9dd.jpg
>>>
>>> Some of you So. Cal.  folks will recognize that piece of road as the
>>> stretch of 60 freeway just before the Day St. offramp that took  
>>> you to
>>> Riverside Raceway. It's 1960 and that is Maurice Trintignant in his
>>> Cooper F1 on the way to the 1960 USGP. The teams used garages in the
>>> town of Riverside because there was nothing yet built at the track.
>>> Similar scenes could be seen around Le Mans and Monaco as those  
>>> tracks
>>> had no real garage facilities in the old days.