What happened to the Summit Vintage crowd?

I seem to remember that going to Summit always meant much bigger grids than in the SE, but this past weekend was VERY sparse! We actually had bigger vintage grids at the "last minute-hardly anyone knew about it-threat of bad weather" round at RRR last month! Don't get me wrong, the peeps that did show were fast and I had a couple GREAT battles, but I was really expecting more turnout. Especially as it's the ONLY vintage round at Summit this year.

Kudos to all of the racers that showed up. :up: BIG Kudos for Rich Oldakowski, who, at the tender age of 70 years old, is still THRASHING that sr500 around the track at a very rapid pace. I barely edged him out in our 1st race (we were both leading our respective classes, but battling for pride points) and had a similar battle over 2nd place in V3. (Midge was gone!)

Hope to see more people at RRR in 3 weeks!

 

we used to get VIR in march and summit in april,may and September, like a 4 race series, now with only one round its hard to get anyone interested, damn shame really I enjoy the WERA races and really like summit point track

 

Were Bucky, Bill and crew there?

Summit is on my list, but I aint driving all that way to spectate.

I tried to stir the pot with the 350 guys to support the event, I threw Bucky and those guys coming down here so much in their face HARD, but to no avail.

WHEN I get another bike together the way I want it, I just plan on a solo run up there if that's what it takes.

 

Yeah Charlie, there were a few CBs there. Bucky and I had a great race for 2nd in 500GP after Dave Roper left us in the dust. Little effer edged me out by 0.107 seconds...again.

350GP was Dave and Bucky once again taking off and Steve D'Angelo on his spectacularly beautiful Ducati getting by me on lap 6 to take 3rd.

Beverages, cigars and unmitigated bullshit ensued. A grand time was had by all.

 

It was thin, esp. for such beautiful weather. Did Mother's day keep people away?

 

If we had more Summit vintage rounds per year again,I would go for a cb350 to tag along for next year.I was hoping for a BIG Summit turnout to show some regrowth altogether You guys look like you have the most fun out there:up:

 

I for one was shocked at the emptiness.

 

I have zero interest in putting together a 40 plus year old bike to haul all over creation again. I lived in baltimore for several years driving and racing in nh pretty much exclusively. Having no clue there was so much racing at summit, just 90 mins away from my house. When I discovered wera, i was hooked. There was no looking back.

Losing the dates slowly meant less racers showing up, which meant less dates. Cmp was maybe the first? But i remember vir cyclejam being a real su k to loose in august. The wezther was always insanely hot, and there was seemingly always a freak mini hurricane that would blow through. March vir was always wht you focusec on all winter. Looooved that wdekend. Rrr, then daytona, then vir...all within 2 weeks! Nuts! The amount of racing to be done on the east coast before mid o every year was astounding.

An ex wera vintage guy said it me over the weekend "we were lucky to get to be racing durring that time. It was good" he was right. 60 bikes on the track durring the p1 race at mosport. Bikes gridded back to left hander onto the front straight at mid o my first year there. 22 cb350s one weekend at louden in the fcb class.

I dont know how guys like oldakowski and you dave, stay so motivated and interested. I love the track, but baltimore ha s turned into a wasteland for vintage racing since the baltimore crew dropped out.

I miss beating up on those d'angelo ducatis.

I need an sv650

 

As long a WERA gives us a place to race the CBs, I'll be there. I might not always drive 8k miles like last year but it's way too much fun to stop.

Here's a POV video of the 500GP race. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1-_tU59llU&feature=youtu.be

 

Yup, turnout sucked. It was depressing.

 

It's not just vintage that had a low turnout. I switched from my old fzr400 to a slightly newer SV650 for the much larger grids. There were 6 or 7 out there this weekend, but I was the only novice. So it's back to the same old--nobody to race against. Just doing my own personal trackday out there.

I'll do more WERA rounds this year, but if I want to have some other guys to race against at Summit, I'll have to do it with another org I'm afraid.

Still a great weekend though, not gonna give up on my local track.

 

Should have brought the 400, then there would have been three of us!

 

I've done the math many times and racing 2 classes with WERA is still cheaper than a trackday. Racing 3 classes or even possibly 4 is cheaper than a trackday at places like Barber. My last year racing I brought 2 bikes. That gave me two different practice groups and then 2 races on a Saturday. So, I got 4 track sessions in for only about $160 in track fees. On a trackday you might get 5 or possibly 6 sessions in but the cost is higher and it ain't racing. Also, you can get tire contingency at a race event.

 

Logic and reason, come on we're racers!

 

You were the only novice?

 

Bj-

Nice race!! As it was the only one I wasn't entered in, we watched it from the bleachers in t5. What we saw every lap wasn't nearly as exciting as what I just saw on your video!:up:

You had some real moments of brilliance in that race, but were hampered by small miscues. After you ran wide in t5, you really picked up the pace! If you had attacked t3 and t10 all race long the way you were attacking them at the end, you probably would have been battling with Dave instead of Bucky.

That 5 speed tranny really hurts you in t5/t6! Needs a downshift, but I'm guessing that 1st gear is too low to be usable?

Pissed I didn't get my gopro fixed for this race! I'll b sure to have it up and running for rrr!

 

The bottom line here is that if we want more races, we need to show up! Believe me, I miss the March VIR race more than anything! (only 75mins from my house, everything else is 5hrs+) I would kill just to have the Aug VIR be Vintage instead of doubleheader.

You came blame WERA for cancelling the races if you want to, but when no one shows up for the few races we have left, it pretty much validates their decision to kill so many Vintage dates. If more people started showing up, WERA would have no choice but to bring back some of the Vintage weekends.

If you haven't raced in a while, get out there and do it! If you have, then bring a friend next time. If you don't have any friends, then run a bump-up class.

If you miss racing at VIR, then show up this Aug enter in Clubman. I bet if WERA saw 15 vintage bikes all gridded up for Clubman (which usually has 1-2 bikes in it) they might think twice about making VIR a double header next year! In fact, I will personally guarantee a 1st place trophy for ANY Vintage bike that comes to VIR in Aug and runs clubman. I'll even camp at the track even though it's so close to home and I'll bring a bunch of killer wine and beer to share.

Points are nice, but don't most of us just want to have a good battle with someone? I took home 2 1sts and a 2nd this weekend, but the best battle I had wasn't even over a position. Rich O was the only bike left in V4 and I was the only bike left in F-2stroke. We BATTLED hard, with several passes every lap. I came out of t10 SCARED and absolutely FLOGGING my poor little rd to try and hold him off for the win. Neither of us had to. We both knew we were the only bikes left in our classes and could have just stroked around for some easy points. But we didn't!

 

The weekend started with 3 of us, but one guy could only race on Sat., and the other one had a mechanical on Sunday.

There were several other SV's to race against, so I'm not at all complaining. A few were superbikes, and all were white plates, so they were all gone by turn 3, lol.

I just remember from years past having huge SV grids with a good mix of novice and experts. I was excited to get thrown into that mix after having raced the fzr400 and the super light grids for it. Was really looking forward to having someone to race against, even if it's for second to last place.

I'll keep plugging away, and hopefully the grids will improve. Not gonna give up on Summit or WERA.