(Introduction)(Photo's pg.1-3)(Sales Items)(Sponsors)(Tracks)Umbrella Girl (E-Mail)(Schedule)(Articles)(New Bike )(Sponsorship)(News)(Classifieds)(Fan Mail)
Nov 2007 I just had a wonderful week with Eric and Jeff Wood at the FL tracks teaching for Penguin School. We go to these tracks every winter and have a great turn out for the school. Jennings is first. I drive the Penguin truck and trailer down to FL for the school. A long trip but not a bad as usual this year. Jeff spent a lot of money on the truck and now it will actualy do the speed limit. Last year it would only do 53 MPH if you had an hour to get it there. Now the trip is much nicer. I get to Jennings a day before school and unload the truck and trailer so when Jeff and Eric arive the school is already to teach. This is my favorit track so far. I am good friends with the owner and his girlfriend. We went to dinner before the crew arived on Tues. night and had a lot of laughs. Those that know me, alreay know that laughing is very important to me. After school at Jennings we head down to Homestead. Nat from Canada followed me down to FL again this year. It gives her someone with a radio, near by, to call if she needs help. She also followed us down to Homestead. She loves this track and did very well racing there this year. She had to race against the men in the USA. I think she got two third place trophies at Homestead. Jeff and Eric did their usual and won every race they entered. I helped Eric with a new 1098 Ducati. The bike was box stock when we got there and needed a fair amount of set-up time to race. He got it done. Jeff was going great right away with his R-1. On the school day he was not far off the track record. Then on the first lap of practice on Sat. he blew up the motor. He was not happy as you might guess. I suggested, calling junk yards or dealers for a motor. He met a dealer at the track the owned a shop about 30 min. away. Jeff purchased a new R-1 and as he went after it, we removed the motor from the race bike. When he got back we removed the motor from the new bike and put it into the race bike. He broke in the motor in the first race. No practice just race. He won everything including the shoot out, money race. One big monemt on the Sunday racing was when Eric, Scott, and Shane were all on the podium at one time. All Loudon Experts winning aginst the best the South has to offer. I had a great time as usual. I didn't race there this year but really enjoy helping Eric to win and stay safe. We took a flight home on Monday and I was not sure I would be able to land at Manchester, NH with bad weather on the way. No problem. I will fly back down in Feb. to teach at Homestead again and then drive the rig back to the Penguin Headquarters in MA.
Nov 2007 I took my 70cc bike to the dyno last night and now I feel better. I took second place in the last race of the season and I wanted to be first in a big way. I just couldn't keep up with Henry. We went down the front straight and I started beside him. He had about 10 bike lengths on me at turn one. That was in practice. I knew then I was in for a bad race. Last night we got both Henry's bike and mine on the same dyno at Motoconsults. He has two HP on me. That is almost exactly what I told friends was the amount over me he had. I talked with other racer friends and they 'said that two HP is nothing. I asked them, if you were at Loudon racing on a bike with 120 HP and were killed by someone that had a bike with 140 HP would that be something? They said for sure. That is exactly the difference with the little bikes. I have 12 HP and Henry has 14. I will fix that by next season. If the bikes are the same, I know I can win. I told friends that we were going to the dyno last night and if I had more HP than Henry, I would feel like and ass. Glad it didn't go that way. I really enjoy racing with henry. Very competitive.
Oct 2007 I have been in FL. for the last week and a half. I went to Jennings to teach and we had 150 students on Saturday. I went to Daytona after that and got Eric Woods race bike ready for the Race of Champions. We needed to dyno the engine and I went to the dyno on Tues. It took almost all day to get the motor running good. It is a good thing we did that. The motor was breaking up above 7000 RPM. We found that the ignition Module was not good and that almost fixed it. Then we found that the Power Commander was a problem too. After I removed both of them we adjusted the stock ignition module on the Factory dyno. I didn't realize that could be done before but is saves money and works fine. I was familiar with the Dynojet dyno but had never used the Factory one. There is a 15% difference in the Horse Power numbers. I went to the track in Daytona before Eric got there and I got in because I already had met most of the track police. They let me in early and I was able to drop off my trailer. That made it lots easier to park at restaurants and the hotel. Eric arrived on Wed. night and we got his Suzuki ready for practice on Thurs. We didn't have much trouble getting the bike to go well with a few adjustments to the suspension. His Yamaha was surposed to arrive on Thurs. but didn't arive till late Friday. Is was going to be already to race but was in a basket and we had to assemble it before he could get any testing done. Eric is amazing at setting up a bike with just pushing on the suspension. I am also learning to make the same decisions he would be looking at the suspension move. Working with him for 10 years helps that to happen. Eric qualified on the front row with both bikes and we were ready win. His first race on Sunday went well with him winning. The second race was going the same till it rained. I could see the rain but Eric could not while on the track. At Daytona, it can have the sun out on one end of the track and 4 inches of water on the other end of the race track. He was in the lead when he crashed into the wet surface. The 5 riders chasing him also crashed and the race was red flagged. That puts the result back two laps and Eric won. The rule helped us this time. His next race was on the R6 Yamaha and he got a 3rd on that bike. Not bad with no practice. The final race of the day was one we had talked about before the race and we decided that he should not try to lead into the last lap at Daytona. There is very hi speed here and drafting is big. If you lead, someone can easily pass you with much less horse power with the draft. We figured that second or third would be good. He was doing just that on the last lap with his brother in the lead position. Another rider was second and Eric was about one foot off the rear wheel of the second place rider. They went into the chicane (last slow corner before the banking), in third, when the rider in 4th place crashed. They red flagged the race with only one corner to go. That made the race go back two laps. Jeff Wood got third and Eric got 6th. Not so good this time with the rule. Eric and I stayed with Todd in his very nice motor home again. Thanks Todd for the great time.
Aug 2007 On Monday I had another race on my 50cc bike with the USCRA. It was one of the toughest races I have had. I won the race against Henry but it was not an easy win. I wasn't able to pass the racer in second place for two laps and by then Henry had a good start on me. I got to him on next to the last lap and passed him on the outside of turn 9. He managed to repass me out of turn 3 with a better drive up the hill. I got past him again going into turn 6 and put my head down till I got the win. A really fun race with Henry.
June 2007 I just spent the last 10 days at the track. I got to race my 70cc bike in a vintage race. I took first place but not without a good fight. I started in row two and the racer that usually wins this class was next to me. He got a better start than me and I went into turn one two behind him. I got past him in a few turns and figured I had it made. Wrong!!! He managed to pass me two more times and when he got a better drive out of turn three I matched his speed over the top of the hill into turn 6. I had the inside line and thought to myself, just how deep is he willing to go into the bowl? I waited till the last second and turned it in fast. I looked over my shoulder and I had about a three bike lead. I put my head down and while in turn 11 I came up on a back marker. I said to myself, I am going to use this backmarker to good advantage. As the back marker turned into turn 11a I went up the inside and made a close but clean pass. No room for Hank to get into the small place behind me. This gave me lots of room and I kept my head down for the last two laps. I finished with about a 10 second lead. There were some comments about a tear down of my bike. I said bring it on. I will be glad to take your money. My bike was developed by a very good mechanic. The same one that also worked on the second place bike. I was very happy to do a 1:41 lap on the little bike. I was told that the record holder for this class had been a woman who had done a low 1:50. I am not sure about her actual time but I did a fast lap. I thought that was good but the next weekend I was telling Jeff Wood about it and he said,"I could do that in two laps". I said, I have $20 that says you can't. I should have saved my money. He did a 1:39.7 on his first full lap. Youth and skill win again. He liked the bike and asked if he could go out again. This time I got him at a 1:37.4. I am sure that is a new track record for that class bike. Something for me to shoot for now. The following weekend was an LRRS National. I planned not to race but to help Eric and Jeff Wood to win. Eric was asked to race a very special bike. A NCR Ducati. The bike costs about $60,000 and it looks it. For sure one of the best prepaired bikes I have ever seen. We worked for two days to get the bike set up the way Eric liked and he was already doing times that set a lap record for air cooled bikes. I worked with the bike owners all weekend. They were from Canada and I really enjoyed working with them. After the race and at the Ducati track day, they were nece enough to ask me if I would like to ride the bike. I said I would love to try it. My GSXR superbike has more horse power but this is the best handling bike I have ever been on. It also stops faster than anything I have ever tried. They have done a wonderful job with every aspect of the bike. Eric agreed with me, that this is probably as close as we will ever come to riding a full out GP bike. The shot below is Eric getting ready to ride the bike with me holding onto it.
Dec 29 and Jan 1, 2006 I got back to Fl again this winter to do some teaching. I love the track at Jenning. Just like a GP circuit. I got there early and had a nice day on the track nearly by myself. The second day only 5 people were on the track and one of them was an AMA top racer. I helped him and his friends have a good day on the track as I also got ready to teach on Wed. After classes on Wed. we packed up and headed for Home- stead, FL. The homestead track is fast with very fast sweapers that must have your full attention. If you loose it there it will not be nice to look at. I will be going back in Feb. to Homestead to teach again.
Oct 11, 2006 Early this summer I purchased a new 50cc race bike so I could race with the vintage group. This bike could not be farther from what I am used to. My regular race bike is a point and shoot bike with 155 HP at the rear wheel. The 50cc bike has about 9 HP at the motor. It is all about never letting the gas off. I enter turn one with full throtle. My big bike needs almost 400 feet to get rid of speed to take turn one and the 50cc bike is taken full steam in 5th gear. Big difference for my head to handle. I really enjoyed the two races that I did on the 50 last weekend. The second race I had a battle with George Decamp and we changed the lead about 15 times in the race. That is more fun than winning. I came in second in the first race and third in the second race. Someone passed me with one lap to go and he went past like I was parked. Not sure what he had for a motor but it was a lot better than George or I had. I can't wait to do it again.
Oct. 13, 2006 The new school is off to a good start this year. We had a total of 5 school days this summer and lots of happy students. It makes me feel very good at the end of a track day when students come to me and say they not only had a great time but learned lots about themselves and their bikes. My goal for the school has always been to make better riders out of students that have been riding on the road for years or even new riders. The track is a perfect place to practice new skills without the traffic and police to put a stop to it. The students are never asked to ride any faster than they are comfortable with. Some of them are a little afraid of the track until they ride on it. The track stays the same every lap and you can try things that you could never do on the highway. A very large thank you to all the students and instructors, that made my first school year a good one.
July 26, 2006 The new school is up and running. I have been working hard to get all the paperwork and supplies ready for my first School day. The dates I have booked with the track are Aug. 23rd., Sept. 7th and Oct. 11th. I already sent out about 450 forms to students that have taken the school before and have some entries already. Many of the students have been attending the school on every event day for about 10 years. I hope they will continue to attend with me running the school. I plan to have the students leave my track days with more feeling and knowledge about themselves and their bikes. I want them to feel that they know what the bike will do now and how they can make the bike handle better and get more out of it. They will leave the school day with info that they can practice every time they ride on the road or track. We will be doing a track walk in the morning before riding. I will have some classes during the day on bike set-up, body position, and other topics. Here is the new school trailer:
June 18, 2006 Last week was a long one. We had my school on Tuesday the 6th and then right back to the track to teach with Eric Wood at the two day pro school the next Tues. and Wed. The weather was great the whole time. It did rain a few drops a few min. after the school day ended. It was very hot on the weekend and we had many crashes for the racing weekend. I set up a parking lot course on the second day of the pro school and had Jeff Woods TTR 125 for the students to play with. I set up a figure 8 in the lot and the students would go faster and faster till they got a knee down and sampled front and rear slides. If you crash the dirt bike you just slide for a min and we all laugh. It was great fun and everyone wanted to do it more than one time. I would let them go for about 10 or more laps before letting another student try it. Both Jeff and Eric used my race bike to teach on because the school fast bike was not available. after about 50 or more laps on already spent slicks, Jeff did a low 1:13 sec lap on my bike. How to make me feel sick. I wish I could do that. Below: working with a student one on one.
May 27, 2006 Today I got together with my friend Todd and we went to see Neil Hodgson at a Ducatti dealer. We were amazed how down to earth he is with us mortals. Todd and I got to spend quite a bit of time talking with him. You would never guess he was one of the best motorcycle racers in the world. He was telling us how when in the US that most people don't recognize him. He can go into a restaurant and no one even knows who he is. When in Europe everyone knows the top roadracers. He, like many other top racers, doesn't like most of the tracks in the US. He says that it is hard to get used to taking big chances near concrete walls. Because most of the racers in the US grew up with them, we don't even see the walls. When I race at Loudon I can't say that I even know that there is concrete on the outside of most of the corners. I just know that some of the corners I must use my head in so as not to crash. If you crash here, you will get injured. In most of Europe you can go off the cornersand there is grass or kittylitter for you to stop in. Not Here!!
May 15, 2006
I got my new road bike last week. A GSXR 1000. It feels just like my race bike with more horse power. I can't believe how well it handles right out of the box. There were almost no changes on the new 2006 and I should have waited till next year for the big changes but I needed a new road bike. The ZX-11 was getting old but she still runs well. I will keep her just in case a friend stops by and want to ride with me. Give them a helmet, leathers, boots and a ZX-11 to ride.
I only have about 500 miles on it now and it is hard to go easy for the brake in time. I have not opened it up yet but soon. Might happen this afternoon. I am also waiting till I can try it at Loudon in two weeks. My race bike is getting a motor clean up. It was down a little on power and time to freshen it up. Summer is almost here. Can't wait.
Eric Wood Wins In CCS Florida Season Opener
Feb 14, 2006
Copyright 2006, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
By John Marley
Following Saturday night's annual CCS Florida banquet, racing got serious at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, February 12th. The Penguin Roadracing School had conducted classes on Friday, but chief instructor Eric Wood would continue the lessons on a cold and windy Sunday afternoon by winning the Unlimited Grand Prix race, known locally as the "No Muffler Shootout."
Henry DeGouw's controversial open pipe format for the event's pre-eminent race sent sound waves reverberating off the pit wall to the grandstands on the other side of the track. One of the largest crowds ever to see a CCS Florida event crowded pit lane to watch 29 riders roar into turn one.
Going in a little harder and a little deeper from his third-row starting position, Penguin instructor Eric Wood weaved through the seven riders in front of him into turn one. Wood emerged at the top of turn two in the lead, threw the bike over to the left through turn three, made the hard right-hander in the downhill turn four, and roared away at the top of third gear in the fast turn five left-hand kink. Then he was gone.
Behind Eric Wood came brother Jeff Wood, also a Penguin instructor, sporting the 1x plate earned in his recent Formula USA championship-winning season. Riding a borrowed GSX-R750, Jeff Wood distanced himself from the rest of the howling pack battling for the cash paid to the top 10 finishers.
With the Wood brothers checking out, previous CCS Florida Champion Marco Martinez claimed the third spot. Fighting among themselves for the next few positions were Michael Rouleau, David McEnery, and the 2005 CCS Champ Darren Luck. Victor Chirinos, riding a new ZX-10R, was also trying to keep up with the pace set by Rouleau and McEnery ahead of him on their 1000cc GSXRs. Luck moved up to pass McEnery and Chirinos on lap three but was unable to do anything with Rouleau and Martinez.
With the race in hand, Eric Wood held the Hooters HELPMERIDE.com Suzuki up in a top-gear wheelie from the beginning of the front straight to the end until he had to set it down for turn one to the roar of approval from the fans.
Pulling in to Gatorade Victory Lane for the traditional champagne ceremony, a beaming Eric Wood said that the Hooters team had a new engine builder for the new season. "We've got Lee Shierts from Lee's Performance in Charlotte, North Carolina building our engines this year, and I can already feel the difference. After practice and the earlier races, I knew I had the tool; it was up to me to do it."
Jeff Wood thanked his many sponsors, especially
Carl McAllister, a Penguin staff member who loaned him the bike
he rode. Marco Martinez, the third-place finisher, told his many
local fans that he wasn't seeking another Florida Championship
this year, adding that he was pleased with a new points system
instituted for 2006 by the new management of the Championship
Cup Series. "It's about time," was the way Martinez
put it.
2-8-06 I am now on my way home from Hong Kong. This time I spent two weeks there and had a great time. The weather was just great and no rain the whole time there. Now I have the long trip home. This time the monitor is telling me only 14.5 hours left to get to New Jersey. Then I have a 6 hour wait till my next flight to Bradley in Hartford area. From there I get into my truck and drive to see Eric and Jeff wood at their home in Northern Ma. I get to sleep about two hours and then we get on another flight to Homestead, FL to teach and race next weekend. I am sure to be nice and tired when I get there this time. I have with me my new set of Vanson leathers and can't wait to try them on the bike. My race bike is still in Homestead from when we had the Penguin School here about two months ago. That makes this trip a lot easier on the way down. The after racing and teaching I get to drive the truck and trailer home with Alan Quin to share the driving this time. He and I have made this trip a number of times now. We have fun and still get the job done. This is the first time on a 777 by Continental that I have a whole row of seats to myself and I love it. I can sit at the window or the isle. Only about half the plane is loaded and we will be getting in about 30 min. early to Newark, NJ. I love the monitors on the back of every seat. The have movies or where the aircraft is right now over the earth. Using GPS and surface maps. It zooms in and shows you where you are on the ground as well as placement over the whole earth. Better for me than a movie. In about 8 hours we will be up over the North Pole. Too bad it will be dark.
12-14-05 This week I purchased the Hawk Motorcycle Safety School from George DeCamp. I have been helping George run the track part of the school for a few years and last week he called me to say he and his wife are getting out of the school business. He asked me if I might be interested in taking it over for him. I agreed to do that and the first two track days next year he and his wife will be running the school with me learning all about the paperwork involved. The third track day will be my first in charge and they will help me that day. After that George will still be involved with teaching and giving licenses to the Vintage racers. I will also be certified to do that but George already knows the Vintage group very well and they all know him. I am also getting a new 50cc.race bike so that I can try to beat George at the game he is so good at. I am very excited about having the new school and helping street riders to become better and safer riders. I will still be working with the Penguin School and Eric Wood to teach racing on the track. My new school is not geared to teaching racers just helping riders to be safer and faster at the same time. I also decided I needed a new truck to pull the new two axle trailer that comes with the school. I love the new truck. It has every new toy that the company has.
11-17-05 Getting excited to play in Florida again very soon now. I will be driving the Penguin truck and trailer to Florida for Eric and Jeff Wood again. I enjoy long drives and this is a long one. I take about 25 hours of driving to get to Homestead from home. Then a day at Jenning, FL. I leave from Jennings after the school and drive to Homestead and that is a full day trip as well. Then on Friday we teach at Homestead. We race Sat. and Sun. there. My friend Natalie from Canada will be followning Bill Mac and me down so she has some company. She will be taking both schools and then racing at Homestead with us. I just can't wait to go. Things are going well for me here at home but it is nice to play in Florida when the cold weather starts here. I just picked up a 2005 Honda CRF 250cc bike to play in the dirt with. I will also race on the ice this winter with it. I hope to see some of my friends down at the tracks in Fl that I have worked with before.
Natalie Provost www.racingnat.com
6-28-05 I spent most of last weekend working on the race bike. It needed some TLC and the hot wet weekend was just right for that. I had a chain brake last weekend for the first time in my life. I try to keep the chain clean and waxed all the time and they last a long time. I also purchase the best from DID gold and use rivet master links. The master link broke on the side plates and that surprised me. I was just heading back onto the track with a student and was hard on first gear. When I hit second I had nothing. Figured I hit a false neutral. Tried two other gears and nothing. Thought for a moment I had trashed the transmission. I turned around and walked the bike back to the pits. As I was walking someone was heading toward me with a chain in the air. I said GOOD NEWS. Much cheaper and faster to replace that than the trans. He told me it almost hit me in the head. I was all done for the weekend and just put the bike into the trailer to work on at home. Well last weekend was the time for that. I went over the whole bike with an oil and filter change, check all bolts and nuts, check safety wire, new front break pads, clean the whole bike, new rear sprocket and new grips. The same thing I do for John and Eric every weekend between races. Finally take care of my own bike. Now it looks good but still needs a new paint job. Not this week but soon.
6-27-05 Last weekend at the Loudon Classic was a wonderful experience for me. I usually help John Scheehser no race weekends but this weekend I was helping Eric Wood. I had told John in advance that I would be working with Eric and he should try to find another wrench. H didn't have any luck finding someone that could help so I tried to help both the first weekend. Not a very good plan. I wasn't able to help either one the way I should. I had to keep my attention with Eric. Eric didn't have a good race bike for the National and his dad had given him his race bike to use. I offered my race bike but Eric didn't want to crash my bike again. So, we worked for three days to make the Ducati usable to race. The bike had a very bad chatter from both wheels everywhere. We tried just about everything and it got a little better but not good enough. Then his dad said to me while Eric was on the track testing, " I am not even sure if I should tell Eric, he will be very mad at me." I said tell him what. His answer was that he just remembered that at Daytona before his crash, his front seal leaked and that one of the tubes might not have any oil in it. Eric was mad but figured it might help to have the tubes rebuilt by Computrack. We had already had the rear shock rebuilt the night before. Between the rebuilt shock and fork tubes, we helped the chatter. Eric also found a way to ride the corners in a different way to help the problem. He went out and got pole position and when we went to dyno the bike they told him he had the wrong number on the front of the bike. A number 5 and not his FUSA number 4. The disqualified him and he would have to start last. He was very upset but decided to make the best of it. Next day we had the bike all ready with the correct number on it and Eric lined up at that back of the pack. I think there were 38 entries. He got his usual great start and went into turn one in 8th position. I couldn't believe how well he went up through the pack. By lap 5 he was second. The only problem left was Ricky Ducete Number 6. Ricky is very fast at Loudon and would be hard to catch. Eric passed him with two laps to go. He set a new lap record for the class. A nice ending for the long 10 days at the track. Earlier in the week I helped Eric with the Advanced school on Friday before our CCS weekend and then helped with the two day Pro School. I did the track walk with the class without Eric for the first time and had many students compliment me on the walk as one of the best learning tools of the school. I have always felt that the track walk with 'Eric is the best part of the learning experience for students and loved to hear that from others about my walk with them. We had 4 girl racers from Canada taking the school and it rained all the first day. I had slicks on my race bike to teach on. Bill Mac. loaned one of the girls his dirt bike to try in the rain and she loved it. I had to come home for a Planning and Zoning meeting about my land on Wed. night and that went very well. Back to the track Thurs. morning. All in all I had one of my best Loudon Classics. Learned a lot and made some money working. A vacation doing what I like best.
6-3-05
Christine booked a race track in Poughkeepsie, NY. and has asked me to help with the trace portion of the school next weekend. I have never been on a short oval track before but more than willing to try it. The track is only 1/5 mile with 8 deg. banking on the corners and 4 deg. banking on the streights. It should be fun and we will run it in both directions. The students will get a chance to get the speed up some under controled conditions with me leading them. We will not get going fast enough for them to get into trouble and I am sure all of them want to get home with their bikes in nice condition. The following weekend I will be teaching the Penguin Advanced school with Eric Wood at Loudon, NH again and then I will wrench for Eric and John on Sat. and Sun. I may do a race myself again this weekend or at the next race weekend. I miss the racing and will do some as long as I can. I am not the fastest in the Expert class but usually finish in the top 10 so not in other racers way yet. If I feel that I am holding up faster racers I will quit and just help in the pits. I have over 100 trophies and nothing to prove at 60 years old. Just really enjoy the whole racing group and want to keep my hands on it for some time. I really enjoy teaching and will be doing that for a long time.
5-22-05
Yesterday I went to Christine's Kickstart Motorcycle Training Series school and worked with Lee Parks and his instructors all day. I had a great time and learned a lot in a parking lot. I am used to track schools and have been teaching road racing for over 6 years and didn't really think that I would learn much in a parking lot. Now I have decided to become one of Lee's instructors. He has some really good traing exerciese that help you to do all the things necessary to go fast and you can practice them at slow speeds in a parking lot. He has a great powerpoint presentation and his class room work also helps to make the student thing in a way that will improve his riding skills. Most of the bikes were sport bikes but a few Harleys and crusers were also in the mix and some of them even got a knee down by the end of the day. I had my race bike and a dirt bike with me and I had picked the wrong bikes to bring. I forgot that the race bike has no fan and the day was hot. I could not keep it from getting too warm under the conditions of slow work in a parking lot so that bike was out. The dirt bike could have been used but didn't really give me a good feel for the training so Christine was nice enough to lend me her 250cc sportbike for most of the day. It was a nice bike fot the school and I could get my knees down right away everywhere with it. I got to see Lee loose the front tire while navigating one of the lot layouts and made a text book save. Then the lot was cleaned again with the blowers. He also managed to get his knees down with a 1500cc BMW the belonged to one of the students. Very impessive with such a large bike. Lee had many training aids set up and they all worked well as far as I was concerned. I definatly felt as though I left the day with Lee a better rider than I had been and I have been riding for over 53 years and racing for almost 10. I highly recomend his school with Christine. You can check out her school at www.christineskickstart.com
4-8-05 Getting ready to teach school at Loudon again this year. Eric and Jeff Wood will both be racing on the first weekend this year. I will be filling in for Eric teaching the Advanced class with Peter Kates and Rick Ducette. I have worked with Eric in his class for over 8 years now and can recite most of what he teaches by heart. I am sure it will not be the same without Eric but I am also sure we can help the students learn alot. We have a street school day on the 19 of April and then the full school on Friday the 22nd. A nice full weekend for the first weekend. The weather is warming up nice now and I just hope it stays for the weekend. Some years it has snowed for the first race weekend. It usually melts off by racing time and we still have a good time.
2-16-05 We got back this morning at about 6 am from the long drive from Homestead to Boston. I flew down to Tampa FL. last week on Wed.and then Jerry Wood picked Alan Quin and me up at athe airport with his plane and took us to his home in Clearwater. That is where we left the Penquin school bikes and our race bikes for two months sense we were at Homestead last. Alan and I drove them down to Homestead and that took the better part of a day. The weather at the track was great with no rain and warm but not hot temps. We had a good school with 88 students on Friday. I had time to do many good hot laps with my GSXR 750 with some advanced students on the track with us. Jeff didn't have a race bike with him because his FUSA team didn't have a bike ready for the season yet. I again offered him my bike to race. He loves the way it handles and he does very well on it. I worked on my lap times Friday and then set out to help Eric and Jeff go fast for the racing on Sunday. This track has practice all day Saturday and all racing on Sunday. I worked on set-up for both bikes. Eric had his last years Hooters GSXR 1000 bike and it needed some work. He had crashed it in the last AMA race of the year and we fixed it. By the end of practice on Saturday both were going very well. Jeff was faster for some time because he had raced my bike two months ago there and it was just about ready to go. We made it turn in a little faster but other than that it was ready to go. Eric had not been on this track with the 1000 and was looking forward to this track on the big bike. There are 4 long straights on this track and it favors horsepower. At the end of the day on Saturday Eric was going faster than Jeff and we were ready for the Eric and Jeff show on Sunday. They were in three races together and they don't usually do that. Both are very conpetitive and worry about taking each other out in a race. The first race had Jeff into turn one first and Eric second. After three laps Eric took the lead and they swapped first place a few times and then Eric stayed in the lead till the finish. Jeff finished about 10 feet behind Eric and my bike was going very well against the 1000CC' bike with only 750 CC's. The next two races that they did together were just the same with third place way behind each race. Jeff also did one race with his Ducati 750 and did well with that too. They didn't crash at all and that made for a perfect weekend. The only crash for us was when Scott Mat crashed Jeff's bike but was able to go back out later the same day and do well on it. Alan and I stayed over night on Sunday and took off Monday morning at 5 am. We got to southern SC. and stayed over night in a hotel there. Leaving at 3 am on Tues. morning and not getting to the Penguin School near Boston till about 3:30 in the morning. I then drove to my house and got there at 6 am this morning. I had meetings at 9 am with engineers digging holes on my land and have only had 1.5 hours sleep sense two days ago. Just a little tired tonight. Apex and I will sleep well tonight. He is as glad to be home as me. He is the only bad thing about going away. I miss that crazy dog when he isn't with me. Eric did something at the trophy presentation that makes him the great person that he is. He gave his trophies to three small children that were with there parents at trophy presentation. He said to me, watch the look on this little girls face when I give this first place trophy to her. We went over to a little girl about 4 and first he asked the parents if it was ok, then gave the little girl his trophy and said to her, see the angle on the top, that is you. As he got his other first place trophies he did the same with other kids. I have seen the nice relationship Eric Wood has with his children and how wonderful they are turning out and not see him get all choked up when he sees other kids with a smile too. Nice Work Eric.
1-4-05 This morning I received a phone call from George DeCamp asking me to be in charge of the schools instruction next year. His son, Steve will be working on the Hooters Suzuki team from Florida and will not be here to run the school. I have worked for a few years now with George and his wonderful wife at his school. I have really injoyed working with them. They run a very nice operation and have a loyal group that attends most of the events they run. The school is usually full way in advance. If any readers are interested in becoming better riders, please contact me for dates and slots open. May 10 July 27 Aug 23
12-25-04 We had many students ask us to have another school this winter and Eric and Jeff decided to do it all again in Feb. The talked with the track owners and decided on Feb.11,05 as the date for it. Was left all the bikes including mine at their dad's home in Fl. and we will be flying back down for another school at Homestead. We all love the track and the people there. We have lots of fun and many students learn lots that can be used on the track or if they are street riders, on the road. The track offers lots of different combinations of corners and long straights to learn from. Many hard breaking areas and high speed corners as well as first gear ones. Not many race tracks have all these different combinations to learn from. It is also a great place to spend a cold winter vacation from the north winter. Many students come from all over the country and some from Canada. For many students, it is the only possibility in the south to go learn from a professional school. It also keeps you from loosing all you learned on the track last summer with no practice in the winter. I love it and hope many of my web friends make it to Homestead to work with us.
12-8-04 It is so nice to go to a warm place to play motorcycle in the winter. Alan and I drove to Jennings, Fl and we had some great weather for the Peiguin School there. The school was small because the track runs a lot of track days. It gave is the time to work one on one with almost all the students and we had a lot of good feed back from them. I had a chance to get some hot laps on the new race bike and I really love it. I also think that this track is just great. I had a chance to spend some time with the track owner Borgue and he is a great person. YOu would never guess he owned the track. He came with us on the track with one of his bikes to learn from Eric. We packed up and headed for Homestead the next morning. It is a long ride to the length of Fl. but Alan and I had a lot of laughs. We all stay at the same hotel there and go to dinner together as a group. Perfect weather with no rain. We always have a big class at Homestead. There is no other school in the area. This time we had no crazy students and everyone was there to learn. That makes our job lots easier than trying to keep someone from getting injured with fooling around. Jerry asked me to work with a woman that had only been riding a motorcycle for about 10 months. She was scared to death on the track ride around. We only go very slow for the ride around and she was over her head. I spent most of the day working with her and that is very satisfying for me to get someone that is scared and turn them into a person that has lots of confidence and a big smile. At the end of the day she was doing great and her husband couldn't believe how she had prograssed into a confident rider. I took some photos of them but will not have time today to post them. When I get back from my trip to Hong Kong I will do that along with some of my photos of my trip. We left all the school bikes in Fl and plan to go back on Feb. 11 to teach another class there. I flew home to near Eric's house and he picked me up at the airport and drove me to my truck and trailer. I loaned my race bike to Jeff Wood and he did great on it. He came within about 1 sec. of the lap record and won 4 out of 5 races he entered on it. He was faster on my bike there than on his team race bike. I didn't want to take any chances with another trip this week getting injured racing this time. I will race at Homestead when I go back in Feb.
11-15-04 We that race don't like the winter very much. I will be going to Florida again real soon. Penguin school is having classes at Jennings,Fl. and Homestead, Fl in December. I Will be teaching at Jennings on Dec, 1 and Homestead on Dec. 3. Can't wait to try the new race bike on these tracks. Eric has my bike almost fixed and will be ready for me to drive the Peiguin truck down with Alan Quin as my backup driver. Alan and I have lots of fun and I really enjoy his company. Glad he is going with me on this trip. The truck is a large box truck with the Penquin trailer behind it. Lots of school bikes, tools, race bikes for Alan, Eric, Jeff, and me plus fuel and spairs all in the truck with the 20+ school bikes. A big load. There will also be racing on Dec. 4&5 at Homestead but I am not planning to race this time. I have a trip planned to Hong Kong two days after I get back form Fl and don't wnat to make the trip with anything broken. I feel that teaching is less dangerous than riding the road for me. Everyone is going in the same direction and someone waves a flag if there is something dangerous on the track. I hope some of you will join us at Jennings or Homestead again this year. I look forward to seeing some familiar faces.
9-5-04 Lots happened this weekend at Loudon. They decided to make some changes in the race track. We used to use what we call short 10 in bad rain storms to keep out of the deep water in turn 10. A decission was made to use that this weekend. I am one of the few racers that liked it. I had all day Friday with the school to practice it. It adds three turns and about three seconds to the track. Below photo shows new track in green and old in white. As you can see it really tightens up turn 10 and adds two more sharp turns. The new bike loves it. Me too. I entered in race no. 6 the Heavy Weight Super Bike on Saturday. My bike is Sportbike setup so I was out motored and entered last to grid at the back of the pack of 27. I finished 15th without pushing very hard and was very happy with the way I and the bike felt. I am sure that next year I will be setting personal records for myself again.
Photo taken by Roger in practice on Friday
8-27-04 I purchased Eric Woods last years race bike. It is 10 years newer than the Kawasaki and lots of imporvements. I got to spend two days of teaching on the new bike and love it. It turns much better and I am able to get the power down much earlier. Have not done any time checks yet but I am sure I am faster on it. I planned to do the GTO race on Sat. but we had very heavy rain and I skipped it. Promised my self I would not race in the rain any more. I have won many races in the rain but after it is over I still can't say I had a good time raing in the rain. I hope to race next weekend in the same race. I love the long races best. Last weekend there was standing water in Turn 12 that was over 10 inches deep. Not fun for me. The new bike held the lap record with Eric on it last year. He also got a 3rd place at Daytona last year on it. "The bike only has 142 HP but weighs lots less than the Kawasaki. It also has a lower center of gravity and that helps get the power down and it can go lots deeper in the break zone that the old one. Now the slow part is me. 
7-13-04 I had planned to be at the track from Wed. to Wed.. I was teaching on Friday with Penguin School, Helping John with his three bikes all weekend, teaching on Tues. with Bruce at his track day for Ducati bikes, and finally teaching with Hawk school on Wed. The week started off bad with my race bike having trouble. I will get into that later. We had a bad crash in turn #3 during practice on Friday and it involved Bryan from the Dunlop garage. He forgot to put the pins back into his front breaks and all 4 pads feel out after turn #2. He entered turn three with not front breaks. The speed at the beginning of the break zone is about 120 MPH or more. He used the rear break but that does very little on a race bike. He hit the wall at high speed and his bike went another 400 feet or more without him. I helped load his bike but he was already in the care of the Ambulance before I got there. We were told he was talking but had a possible pelvis broken. His 13-15 year old son got into the ambulance with him for the ride to the hospital. His wife was notified an got to the hospital in time to talk with him before he died. This was his first day of practice getting ready to race again after some years of retirement. We will all miss Bryan and hope his family knows we all care. My motorcycle problems are nothing compared to our loss of Bryan.
6-24-04 A wonderful weekend of weather and racing at Loudon. I just spent 11 days at the track. I was teaching With Eric at the Penquin Roadracing school on Friday and helping John Scheehser with setup and engine work for Sat. and Sun. Then on Tues. and Wed. we did the two day pro school at Penguin. My bike started to act up with only running on three of the four lungs. I didn't even try to find out the problem because I was spending all my free time working on Johns bike. He also had trouble with the engine of the "A" bike making noise the we figured could be terminal. We went to the "B" bike and it took days to get it as good as the other bike was. We had spent all of out time on the A bike and that was a mistake. When I started having trouble with my bike I got on one of the schools new Ducati 900cc bikes. Jeff had set a very fast lap on one just like it and so I had complete confidence that the bike was tested. The big problem is that Jeff is about 30 lbs. lighter than me. I was in turn #9 when the bike picked up on the side stand and exhaust system. The bike went into a big slide with the rear wheel off the tarmac. I slid about 10 feet sideways and pushed off on my knee and picked up the bike. It hooked back up without highsiding me and I went on my way. Only the student behind me got to see it. I sure wish there had been video. I have only had one other time that this worked for me and that was in the rain. Not a scratch on me or the bike except for extra ware on the side stand. A big alum. stripe on the track showed where it happened. A really big surprise for me happened on the second Friday when Shannon (the girl from Australia) showed up to thank me again for teaching her to ride last year. It was really nice for her to go out of her way to look me up at the track with the help of track personal and give me a big hug and thank you. She made me feel very good. Thank You Shannon! One of the bigest events of the weekend was when we had the Supermoto race. We had set up a jump on the front streightaway and that is where I watched from. Doug Henry led from all but the first lap. Jeff Wood did a great job of staying with him without the use of a rear brake. Jeff bent the rear rotor and it didn't work for the race. That turned out to be a big handicap with the sharp two corners before the jump. Doug was able to get the bike backed into the sharp turns and jeff had to slow to make them. He still kept Doug in sight for the whole race. One of our friends (Joe Kesler) crashed landing off the jump. He did a face plant from about 10 feet up onto the tarmac. Only one corner worker was at hand and he was lying on the track and so was his bike. I jumped over the wall onto the track and used my corner worker skills to direct race traffic around the down bike and rider. I picked up the bike and got it off the track. Eric Wood also did very good and was in third place when on the last lap he lost his chain. Doug Henry is one of the nices people. You would never guess he was a Celeb. Very laid back. He had two mechanics come in from Calif. to prep. his bike and rebuild the motor. The motor person was from Australia and fell in love the Shannon when he saw her. So did everyone else in the garage area. I have been home for over 24 hours now and I am still tired. We worked from about 6am. until near midnight on John's bike most days. One of Johns friends (Chris) came up to help and it took some of the weight off me. He is lots of fun and a very big help. Thanks Chris!
4-26-04 Except for the weather on Friday the weekend was great. Friday it rained all day and I didn't even teach on the bike. There were enough other instructors and I just helped with talking to students and the classroom session. Apex was just great. He barked for a little while in the trailer and then was quiet all weekend. He was a pleasure to have with us. I wrenched for John Scheehser all weekend and then on Sunday Eric Wood asked if I would help him. He said that he had two reaces he needed to win. He broke his middle finger last week and was having trouble with the front brake. I gave him signals on pit road so that he could just stay in front of the pack without going any faster than he needed to and still win. He got two first places. John also had a good weekend with three podiums. Made some money in the big race and we got his new 1000cc bike ready to race. I also got to spend some time with Doug Henry. He is racing this year in Supermoto and wanted to get better at the race track. He was a real pleasure to talk with and work with. What a nice person. Lots of talent as well. He was real fast right away and fun the watch. He was backing the bike into every corner at full lock and spinning it up on the way out. He was on a Yamaha 450 with slicks on it. It was a tricked out dirt bike. The other shot is Eric Wood with Doug Henry. 
4-1-04 I finally bit the bullet and got a new dog. He will never replace Mac, but I am sure he will try. The new one is going to be called Apex. I got him from a woman that had already partially trained him. She had hand surgery and couldn't take good care of him anymore. I promissed he would be treated as though he were my son. People that know me, know that is the truth.
1/8/04 Happy New Year to all. I had a wonderful trip to Florida and have not had time to write an update on the site until now. Alan, Athena and I went to Jennings in Alan's rig. We had a good ride down with lots of laughs. I got together with Eric Wood and we tought the Advanced School with only about 25 students in the two classes. More basic students than advanced, so everyone got one on one training for the price of the school. We had a very good time except for Athena crashing early in the day and breaking two bones in her leg. She had surgery and was out of the hospital in two days. We waited for her and went to Homestead to teach. Alan raced after the school at Homestead but I didn't want to put the extra laps on the new race engine. I will race more this year at Loudon and want the motor to last the whole season. I wrenched for Eric Wood and he won every event he entered. He and Jeff did very well at Homestead just like last year. Alan also placed well and got to bring a trophy home for his good work. We went to the Keys for a few days after Homestead and got some nice sun on the beach. I did some hiking as I do when I am home to try to stay in good shape. We got home to lots of snow on the ground but had good weather for the drive in both directions. All and all a very nice trip. I may go down again to scuba dive later in the winter and possible race at Jennings.
10/24/03 I have been planning a trip to race at Jennings and Homestead for some time. I will be teaching at Jennings the 3rd of December with Penguin Roadracing School and then going to teach at Homestead on the 5th of December with Penguin. I am going to stay at Homestead and race the following weekend. I had a visit this week from my good friend David Evans and he asked me if I wanted to travel with him at the end of Feb. to race Vintage at Jennings and then go to Daytona. I have no desire to race Daytona again already taking a first place there and crashing big but I will pit crew for Dave at Daytona. I will enjoy racing vintage for the first time. They have a very nice group of racers with a different attitude than CCS or AMA racers. It is much more laid back and friendly. I think that I can do well at Jennings seeing that it is my favorite track and I have some experience there. The class for my superbike is new and I do not know if there will be much competition. Time will tell all.
10/2/03 I finally got back on the track to race again. I have had problems getting insurance this summer to race. I finaly found a company that doesn't care if I race. Now I can get back to the sport I love. I planned to do 3 races last weekend, but the weather didn't like that idea. I got to race in the GTO (unlimited endurance) race. I am up against all the kids with big bikes in this one. I got a sixth place which didn't make me very happy. I went out in less than perfect conditions. The track had been wet and their were wet places everywhere. Also lots of dry places and this makes for a very uneash feeling when racing. You never know if you are in exactly the same place with the wheels as the last lap or if someone went through a puddle and splashed the spot you have chosen to place your wheels. Not good for going full out. I got a very good launch and passed two or three rows of racers on the start. I got into turn one in third or forth place. I was much slower than when I last raced. I never got into a good rythm and never felt on my game in the race. I got to try Eric Woods race bike in morning practice with part wet conditions and went .5 seconds faster than on my race bike. I think it is time to move up to a modern race bike. My bike is over ten years old even with all the modfications it still is not as good as a new one. I was being very careful with Eric's bike and still went faster than on mine. I spent all day monday at the track teaching for Hawk racing and the weather was great. Warm and dry. I started to feel good on my bike again with all the laps I did. I also spent one session on the Hooters superbikes. Steve DeCamp let me do a session each on the GSXR-1000 and the GSXR-750. The 1000 is amazing. Way too much power everywhere. It is very user friendly however. The front wheel is off the track between every corner but it hooks up very well. It also stops much better than my bike. I want it.
8/2/03 I went to the track this weekend to race a vintage bike. Dave Evans and Jeff Feran were going to race a two hour event and wanted me to take at least one leg of it. We had very bad weather and didn't run the race. I spent many hours with Fred Nearguard from NHIS. He is in charge of the media and I spent hours in the media center talking with him. A very nice person to deal with. They had a guest radio person doing live comentary in the media center on Saturday morning. There was vintage car and motorcycle racing going on outside the center and interviews inside. Fred asked me if I would be kind enough to be interviewed in behalf of the motorcycle people. I accepted and was interviewd by Jeff Broods of "On The Road". He is from the area and does a nationl sindicated radio show about cars and bikes. I was on the air for about 15-20 min. and was told by friends that I did just fine. We will let the listerers make up their minds on that one. I talked about how I got into racing and why. I also talked about the Penguin Roadracing School and racing in general. A good weekend and no riding for me.
7/25/03 This weekend at the track I have a friend with me, Colton. He loves motorcycles and I got his mother to let me take him to the track with me for the weekend. He is now outside my office riding my xr-100. He has been on dirt bikes before and seems to know what he is doing. He has never seen a road race in person and is excited to get to the track. I will be able to take him on the track with me on the back of my road bike and at least show him what it looks like at speed.
7/7/03 This last weekend at the track I did something different. Eric had broken both of his feet at VIR and had to teach from a seet on a golf cart. He is trying to heal up for the race at Mid-Ohio in 10 days. The class went well and we had a number of students tell me that they got a lot faster from the school. That always makes us feel good to hear. It was very hot and I had a one on one student for the day. He got over-heated about 2:30 in the afternoon and decided to work on getting faster another day. He wrote to me later and really enjoyed the school. He is planning to attend the next class and work with me again. He was about my age and we had fun. I am planning to call him and do a road ride soon. I really enjoy road riding with people that know how to ride. Safe and fast. Some people don't think that those two go together, but I do. We just don't do stupid things to get into trouble other than go fast. No passing where there is a chance of getting into trouble or causing trouble for others. We never pass each other until we come to a stop and discuss it. We work as a group not as an individual. I worked with John Scheehser all weekend. His dad is usually there to help him but not this weekend. I asked if he could use the help and he needed it. He is a great person and I wish I could ride as well as he does. I was able to teach him a few things and it worked the other way as well. I love it when that happens. He took a second place in the middle weight GP and was in second place in the 600cc race when he got a little over use of the gas and went on a flight out of turn 12. He didn't get injured and the bike only has about $100 in damage to the looks of it. I spent a little time riding his race honda 600rr and just to bed in the brakes. It feels great and very light. I am used to the Kawasaki that is a 10 year old design and the new bikes are lots better. John and I had a lot of laughs and worked well together.
6/18/03 What a great week at the track. I had roadracing school to teach on Friday and the following Tuesday and Wednesday with Eric Wood in the Penguin Roadracing School Advanced class. We had a good turnout and a fun school. Some of the students were from the Vintage racing that happened on Monday. I have always said that most of the vintage racers could use the school to better learn the fast way around Loudon. Most of the vintage racers are there more as a club event to show off their restored beautiful vintage bikes. There are a few racers that really know how to ride and race. Dave Evans and Greg Nichols come to mind and both of them usually win their races or at least on the podium. We had a student named Zack on a 125cc bike and he cut off about 4 seconds a lap with the school. That is a big drop in time. That would usually take years of practice to do. One thing we teach is how to best spend your time learning a new track and what pays the best lap times with the least time. Zack really took that info and made it pay off. I did the same thing at this event that I did at Daytona. I worked with Eric Wood in the garage and pits to get him going as fast as possible. Eric is very good at feeling the bike out and knowing what it needs to go faster. He can stop in the pits and ask me to do a 1/4 turn more rebound and when he goes out, he is lots faster. He can feel what the bike is doing under him and he analizes the problems and fixes them. He says if you have to roll out of the gas it needs to be fixed. We didn't need to make many changes from the Daytona setup to go fast. Eric was only a few tenths off his track record in practice and I was sure he would take first place if we didn't have bike problems. I do my best to check everything on the bike to make it safe for him and to make sure he is ready to win. I even try to make him comfortable while in the pits and make sure he has enough liquids. All the work payed off with the Suzuki. Eric got first place and only had to go fast enough to win. His only competition was Eric Gulbranson. He almost high sided in turn 12 and that slowed him down for the rest of the race. Eric managed to spray me with alcohol after the trophy presentation. It made me feel as though I was part of the celebration even more that I already did. Eric always makes me feel very good about helping him. He always thanks me and at Daytona said that He wouldn't have been on the box if it wasn't for me helping. I realy enjoy working with him and I learn a lot about bike setup. 
6/1/03 Loudon is about to get a real big race weekend. Next weekend is the start of the biggest thing that happens in the North East on motorcycles. We have a Friday Penguin School and racing on Sat. and Sun. The following Monday is Vintage racing and I will be helping friends on Monday and may race a vintage bike as I did last year. On Tuesday we start the two day pro school with Penguin. I will be working with Eric Wood teaching for the two days. We often get some of the big name racers taking the school to learn the track for the following weekend. Fathers day weekend is the big race. This year it will be FUSA that is racing. There are racers from all over the world at the event. It seems that Australia is very well represented with good racers. I will not be racing that weekend but helping Eric Wood in the pits as I did in Daytona this year. I learn a lot working with Eric. Things that I would have just put up with in the suspension, Eric will tune out. It is very nice to learn these things. Both Eric and Jeff Wood stand a very good chance of winning their classes at the event. Always nice to work with the best.
5/17/03 This weekend at Loudon I had a class to teach on Friday. When Jerry Wood (Owner of Penguin Roadracing School) arrived at the track, he asked me to do him a favor. He needed someone to teach a girl to ride a motorcycle. She happened to be a good friend of the owner of the track. I was a little disappointed at first thinking, I would not get to work with students on the track. Then she appeared! She just happened to be a twenty year old, super model from Australia. She also had a wonderful personality. The two do not usually go together. I spent all morning working with her, first on a scooter and then on a dirt bike. She picked it up fast for someone that had never driven a standard trans. in a car or motorcycle. I took her on the track when no one else was out there on the scooter to show her the track. She said she would like to do some laps on a race bike on the track. I could not let her go out there without a license, so I took her on the back of my ZX-11 for a few laps. She loved it. We didn't wick it up much for those two laps without any corner workers or medical people out there. Later in the day, I took her for about 15 laps at speed with the novice riders also on the track. We passed all of them and some more than once. She had the biggest smile when we came into the pit area. She will remember that for some time. She said it was better than any park ride she had ever been on. She also wanted the track owner to do the same ride, but he was busy working at the time. He will try it sometime.
2/2/03 Poor me, I have to go to Florida again this winter to race. I had planned to race at Jennings again this winter, but my friend Eric Wood asked me to pit for him at Daytona for the CCS week and for the AMA event. I will be working on his Suzuki while Kyle takes care of the Buel. Eric is racing both at Daytona. I get to learn a lot while pitting for Eric. I get to understand how much bike set-up does for lap times. It is real easy to think that the bike has a problem and I will have to ride around it. Eric doesn't think like that. He says that anything that makes you get out of the gas needs to be fixed. If you can stay pinned don't worry about it. I have always felt that the problem was something I induced in the bike but I now realize most problems with handeling can be tuned out. At Daytona we will also be changing tires in the race as well as fueling the bikes. A whole lot to do in a few seconds. The top teams do it in about 7 seconds. We will not have a single sided swingarm and it will take longer. The bottom line is that I have to spend two weeks in Florida again this winter.
11/22/02 We are getting ready to go to Florida again. I will be working with Eric Wood teaching the advanced Penguin school at Jennings on Dec. 4th and Homestead on Dec. 6th. We are leaving early to spend some time in the Keys as well as racing. It is always nice to go to Fl. this time of the year. Come home with a nice tan and all ready to work again. I plan to photograph Donna when I am at Jennings. She is the beautiful blond in the next article down from this one. The bike is about as ready as is possible. Do not have the big motor ready as yet and there was so much damage that it probably won't be ready until spring. The back-up motor is working fing but doesn't have a starter and I sure like having a starter. You always have to impost on friends to get the bike started.
11/4/02 I am a little late in updating this page. I spend 10 days in Florida two weeks ago and have not had time to get this updated. I drove the Team Pepsi/Suzuki rig to Jennings and Terry and I had a class to teach. I rained all day which was not the best situation but we had a great time with the people in the class and at the track. I worked teaching a classroom session in the morning so everyone didn't have to stay in the rain all day. The students felt at though they learned a lot in class and that makes me feel good. When I wasn't teaching or riding in the rain I spent some time working for the track helping to pick up crashed bikes. I was there for two days before Terry got there and worked with Donna, driving the pick-up truck with her and her kids. We cleaned up the track and the riders. I was very impressed with Donna. Not only does she look great, but she is a very hard worker. You do not see that combination very often. I had a very good time working with her and the other track workers for two days in great weather. Donna is in the photograph below with the Pepsi rig behind her. This is by far my favorite track so far. It is only for motorcycles and very safe. The layout is like a GP coarse and very smooth. I can scrap the bodywork on both sides of my bike at this track. I also had a fun time with Lo and her girlfirend track worker. We had lots of laughs and I sure wish I could have stayed a few more days with them. I hope to see them again when I go back in December.
10/5/02 Last weekend was lots of fun at Loudon but I managed to blow-up the superbike motor. The #2 piston parted at the ring grove and the motor started to make lots of noise. I was at full throtle going into turn #6 down the hill when it blew. I grabbed a hand full of clutch and didn't crash. Pat took apart the motor on Tuesday and I took the back-up motor out of the other race bike and we put it into the superbike. I needed to get it done fast because I am headed to FL on Friday of this comming week. I will be teaching at Jennings, FL on Wed the 15th and then going to Daytona to help Team Pepsi/Suzuki and Eric Wood in the pits. I fugured I have taken a first place at Daytona and crashed big, that is enough of that track for now. We have a condo on the beach and will have lots of fun getting tan,and helping in the pits. I am driving the Team Pepsi rig to FL for Terry. They have a 45 ft. trailer that is a goose neck hookup.
9/23/02 I had to put my friend of 15 years to sleep this week. Mac, my dog just got too old to make it on his own. He was having lots of problems with his rear legs for the last year and needed help to get up on anything. In the last few weeks I have been thinking that it was getting close to the time I would have to do something so he wouldn't see pain. I had made up my mind that I would take care of him as long as he could enjoy life and not have pain. I don't think that he has enjoyed life very much in some time but I just couldn't get myself to do what was necessary. I am sure I did the right thing but couldn't feel any worse if it was my child that died. I sure loved that big moose. He has been to every race I have done except Daytona. 
7/6/02 We had another great weekend at the track. This was the best weather weekend of the year so far. It was very hot on Thursday with track temps. of over 120 deg. F. The temps dropped on Friday and the Penguin School had great weather. I had a lot of fun as usual teaching with Eric Wood in the advanced track classes. We had a good bunch of students and I got a lot of track time. I am starting to get used to the new race bike and feel like I am going a lot faster. The track had some changes this weekend and so times done really count. The track had some new pavement put down and we had to stay off the new tar. A new set of "S" turns were added to keep people from going too fast in the dangerous areas. I really liked the new section. It was so fast the it felt like a tank slapper when you did it right. It is always nice to learn something new and try a new track. I worked with Eric Wood most of the weekend in his pit and on pit lane with the bike changes and lap times on the board. I always learn a lot when working with Eirc and his crew.
Photo by Ken Mitchell
This shot was taken in turn number 9 with Ray Little and some other students following me in open practice on Friday. Ray told me that he used to chase me when we were both just starting to race. Ray crashed on Sunday and his bike look like shit, but he is just fine.
6/24/02 Last weekend John, Link, and Ray Ray, racers from Loudon came to my dirt track and we practiced on the XR-100 for about half a day. It was very hot and we were all spent except for Ray Ray who is in excellent condition. He was also the best of all of us on dirt. I had not been on the dirt bike for way too long and it sure is good practice sliding. You can get the front to push and bring it back with ease. The rear will come around anytime you add gas on the corners and you can get the feel of controlling the slide with the gas and body English. We had a lot of fun and plan to do it more often.
4/4/02 Just got home from a wonderful long weekend with Team Pepsi/Suzuki. Terry and I drove down to Jennings, FL in his new truck with 8.1 L. engine and I couldn't believe how well that pulls a 30 foot trailer. We were able to do the speed limit and then some with that big trailer. It had the load leveler system with sway bar and boy does that work well. You wouldn't even know it was on the back of the truck. She school went very well. We had to break in the motors of the Team Pepsi bikes before we could try any speed at the track but that was done in the morning while getting the students ready for the track. We had 28 students of all different abilities. We only needed to have two groups and that worked well with a track of 2 miles in length. We did a lead aground all morning and then I held a class session after lunch while Des tried getting up to speed at the new track. We all had a great time at this track. The layout is like a GP track in Europe and it flows real nice. There are a few very intimidating turns where you would leave the track at about 160 if you get it bad. You are changing to a tighter corner a few times while already dragging a knee. These multi radius corners are very hard to tell yourself that they can be done at speed. Your head is telling you, "You are going to go on your ass if you try this without getting out of the gas". After enough laps you know it can be done but not easily. We had a great time and only one crash without injuries.
3/25/02 I have fixed the new race bike that I crashed at Daytona with the help of my friend Bob. He has been here just about every day to help sense I got back. He has the strength to remove bolts that my shoulder will not allow as yet. I am still not sure as to weather I will be bringing my bike to Jennings or not. Terry has to decide if there will be enough room in his trailer for my bike. It depends weather Des is bringing his new race bike. I hope there is room because I really like that track and want to teach it on my bike The shoulder is starting to feel like some of the strength is coming back but I am still very careful with it. I know there hasn't been enough time for it to heal yet. I just want to make sure I don't crash again or I will be in deep shit. We are leaving on Friday morning and will be back next Wednesday. I hope it is warmer in FL this time than last time.
3/5/02 We had a wonderful trip to Florida. It was a little too cold but other than crashing it was just great. We went to Jennings first to practice on the new track called North Florida Motorsports Park. The track and the people were really nice to be around. The owner and his wife were the greatest. Can you imagine the owner of any track helping to push start my motorcycle every time I went on to the track. Well that is just what he did. When we arrived the track was rented to a pro rider and we were not going to be allowed to even watch. The facility was for private use and no one was allowed to watch the testing. I looked over to see Jason Disalvo and he hollered "Hay Carl". The track owner was surprised that I had known Jason and we went over to talk with Jason and his mom and dad. They invited us to stay and watch as well as unload our trailer. I told the girls that Jason would set a new track record that day and he did in about one hour. He was working on set-up for his 250cc and his new 750cc bikes. He had never raced a 750 before and that gave me some time to spend on the track with him on my new Superbike. I had never tried the bike before I got to Jennings. I loved the track layout and it is very challenging. There are two left hand corners with three radius changes that are taken flat out. Like 168 MPH and changing direction. You are sure that you will be going off the outside of the track each time the direction changes. It takes quite a few laps to get your balls big enough to keep it wide open. The track has almost perfect pavement and I was able to rub the bodywork on both sides of the bike in the corners. The new bike spins up just about everywhere. You must be very careful with the throttle or you will be on your ass. In the front straight the bike would spin the rear tire in 4th gear. There were some sharp "S" turns with knee down left, right, left, right, left. One right after the other. There were places where you thought you would have to get on the brakes hard for a corner that later in the day you took wide open. I got to go out with Jason for a few laps and have some photo's of those laps. I tried to stay with him seeing as he had been at the track for two days longer than me I figured he would stay on two wheels and he did. I had been doing 1:26's and when following him I got my best time of 1:23.6. That lap time was timed by Jason's mother and father standing at the side of the track watching me try to stay with him. He later went out on his 250 and set a new lap record of 1:17.53. I am really impressed with Jason's talent. He has the potential of being the best in the world some day. He is only 18 now and was just 15 when I worked with getting him up to speed at Loudon, NH a few years ago. Jason and his family are just the nicest people to be around. His dad used to race and has a good handle on the whole picture for Jason. Mom is right there every lap doing lap times or whatever it takes to have things ready for Jason to race or practice. Jim (his dad) had fallen off a ladder two weeks before and was using crouches to get around. I really hated to leave Jennings and so did Jackie. We had a really nice time there and loved the track. I can't wait to go back next month to teach with Team Pepsi/Suzuki. We headed for Daytona on Monday morning. It only too a few hours to get to Daytona from Jennings. We went right to the hotel across from the track and then went to the track to see about sign-up. We went to the beach the next day and it was nice and hot with blue sky all day. I just wish we had more days like that while we were in Florida. We needed to be at sign-up early the next morning to get into the Hammer School classes. I was one of the first into the track in the morning and it felt good to be back. I found the school a large waste of time as far as the classes went. I would have been better off to just take the track time and save the extra money for the school which had very little to offer. We started on the track at about 9 AM with 20 minute sessions. With very cold track temps. (27deg. F) in the morning it took 3-4 laps before you had enough heat in the right side to push it at all in the infield. I was amazed how fast the new bike is. About 190 MPH in the banking and the tri-oval. The new bike is just wonderful to race. I got a lot of laps in at the school. Had some problems starting the bike at first until I got used to the flat slide carbs. We were able to leave all our equipment at the track in the evening and that sure was nice to do. The trailer was full with 4 bikes and all our gear for 14 days. Thursday was a practice day but it was too cold to want to be pushing it very hard on cold tires and track. My first race was the GTO (unlimited endurance) race on Friday. I got a bad start with the new high gearing and tried too hard to make it up soon. I passed three bikes in turn one and one in the short shoot. Got three more in the International Horseshoe and one more in the dogleg. I got a good drive out of the other horseshoe and headed for the barrel turn. I saw three bikes ahead of me and I was gaining fast on them. I headed for the middle bike that was on my line and as I approached him in the braking zone, I braked very hard but he wasn't letting off his breaks when he should have to keep his corner speed up. I figure it might have been his first lap at this track and he didn't know what to expect. I didn't expect him to go in so slow and I was on the brakes so hard the rear wheel was up off the ground. I had no place to move in that shape the bumped the rear wheel of his bike. He didn't go down (I feel good about that), but I went over the bars at about 90 MPH and did a face plant. I broke 6 ribs, my right collar bone, and my right scapula and bit most of the way through my tongue. The hospital also found that I had a small bleed into my brain and they tell me that isn't a good thing. They did a number of MRI's to keep tabs on that until the bleeding stopped. The x-rays also showed a compressed #13 in my spine but we figure that happened at some other time in my life. I had to spend the next two days and night in the hospital. No more racing for me this time at Daytona. I am just very glad I didn't take out the other rider. I have never taken out another rider as yet and would like to keep that record. All and all we had a wonderful time on this trip and with a few exceptions, I wouldn't change a thing.
2/18/02 Dan came to the office with his crew today and did a very comfortable interview. I was impressed with how at ease he makes you feel in front of the camera. He asked all the right questions and I hope I gave a set of good answers. If any of you get to see this televised next Monday, please record a copy for me. I will be racing at Daytona next week and won't get to see the interview. I can't wait to hear from anyone that get to see it what they think. I have never done anything with TV before and it will be nice if anyone I know gets to see it. Please call if you do get to watch it on the news Monday. He was fairly sure it will be Monday. (860)922-8710
2/14/02 I recieved a phone call from Dan Kain of TV-3 WFSB yesterday and he is planning to stop by the office on Monday and do an in interview with me. Dan does great interviews with many differend unrelated subjects and I am sure I will enjoy working with him. He will be covering the old man that still races at Daytona. The show will air the same week and I won't be here to see it. If anyone that reads this can make me a video I sure would appreciate it.He will be taking some of the video I already have that was shot at Loudon and using it in the story. The video I have is shot from a camera mounted on my gas tank and some taken by another camera at track side. The interview will probably only last a min. or two but will still be nice to see. I will add to the news after the interview next week.
2/1/02 I recieved a phone call from Terry of Team Pepsi Suzuki last night asking me to teach at the track day he will be hosting at Jenning, FL track. The new facility called North Florida Motorsports Park is designed just for motorcycles. I will be practicing for two 8 hour days this mo. in prep. for Daytona at Jennings. I will also be taking lots of notes for the class with Terry. The new track is designed with safety in mind. There is lots of run off everywhere and a very nice layout.I have worked with Terry in the capacity of instructor many times at Loudon, NH. and look forward to working with him in FL.
12/2/01 I took the new bike out for a ride on Saturday and Sunday. Most of my friends came over to see the bike, congratulate me with the new bike and my business deal of the week. Friends sure can make you feel better. The Saturday ride was only about 300 feet up the road in front of my office. My friends helped me to push start it (no starter or gen.), and when I cranked on the gas the front of the bike just about slapped me in the face. It came up faster than I expected or have ever experienced before. My friends though it would go over, but no problem. My Sunday morning ride was just over to Betty Bluenose's house for breakfast with all the people that stayed over night after the party. It took me a few min. to get it started alone but after I got it going, I took it up the road. It is a race ready bike with my numbers on it and no registration. It stands out like a sore thumb on the road. I thought I would try the wheelie thing again but this time with cold tires, it spun up like it was on ice. I first thought it poped out of gear, but it was wheel spin. The first time I tried it the bike didn't move, but the second time, it got very sideways on the road. What a rush. This thing is going to have a very steep learning curve on the track. I can't wait for Daytona.
April 28, 2000 The first race weekend of 2000 had a few problems. Thursday practice had rain and cold in the morning and I decided to wait for the track to dry and the temp to come up a little. I only got one hour of practice in by waiting but I still think that is better than a crash for no reason. Friday was Penguin School and we had a very good turnout. I think that there were about 70 students. I helped Jerry Wood with the Advanced class session and on the track I took the newest students to give them extra attention. The school went well as usual with no crashes that I got to see. The weather was good but a little cold. On Saturday morning I went out in the second practice session to avoid the cold morning temperatures. The engine was running a little lean but I figured that the warmer afternoon race would fix that. My first expert race was race number 4 and was GTO (long race). I lined up and went out for the warm-up lap. When I got to the grid I went to find move the shift lever and it was stuck in first gear. I couldn't fix it and got off the grid before I got run over. I was in row 2 and would have had a lot of experts trying to get past me if I was stuck in first gear. I spent the remainder of the day fixing the problem with the transmission. I missed my GTO race and the Unlimited Superbike. It turned out to be a stripped bolt in the transmission and was fixed with the use of a Helicoil. The good news is that it cost nothing to fix but sure cost me a lot of race practice. On Sunday morning I went out in the second practice session again and the bike was feeling good but I was still going slow. About 5 seconds off my best lap time from last year. My first race on Sunday was Unlimited Sportbike and I went a little faster but only managed a tenth place finish. My friend David Ardvison got ahead of me and I was trying to stay with him. He entered turn one a little hot and had to go into the grass to do a little soil sampling. I saw that he was able to stay on two wheels and it wasn't long before I got to see him go past me again. He is really going well this year. My first Expert race under my belt and now get ready for Formula 40. My hope was to get into turn one before Jerry Wood and if he got stuck in traffic I might have a chance of staying in front of him. I got a great start and Jerry got a bad start so I figured things were looking good. About two laps later Jerry shows up on the hill into the bowl and comes over to lean on me and move me over off his line. I have never had anyone do that before and I did just what he wanted me to do. I got off the gas and let him go past. That will never happen again. I learned something. I had a few big front end slides in turn 3 and one in turn 6 but other than that the race felt good. My lap times got better but still about two sec. off my best. My friend David Knox did very well and got a third place. I got a sixth place in Formula 40. The new motor is strong and it will takeme a few more laps to get the shifting changes, caused by the motor having more mid range power, figured out. I had a number of friends show up to watch and wish I could have done better. In three weeks I will get more practice before that event and will try to get the lap times down again.
