Coop's Corner: AHRMA Road America 2015

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

AHRMA Road America 2015

We had a big time and the racing was good too. Officially the track opens Friday morning at 7:00 and both J.P. and I were there, waiting at the gate, Steve only a few minutes behind us.

Waiting at the gate and in line.....(5th)

Don brought a couple of his 2-strokes, one for Kathy, one for himself.

Steve brought the Yamaha this time...

It didn't take us long to make a stroll through the pits.

I believe that she's been featured here before....

J.P. was beside himself, both a GN400 and FT500 for sale....in one convenient location. Dickering was done but no deal completed.

Imagine....Cleaning Products for Men....Hah!!

Two MSF instructors on fine machines.....

These folks are ready for ALL forms of recreation....

There are numerous couples in the pits that share this fun.....

They do it in the rain as well.....

This couple a perennial favorite of mine......

I wonder (not very much and not for very long) about the day I come home, last day on the job and say, "Peg we need a retirement hobby...."

There were numerous bikes w/o combustion burning engines, this one in the 125 volt maximum limit class.

We got separated and then I saw the guys at the Aermacchi booth....

This one really caught my eye...

They're just so doggone pretty......

Kevin's Ariel is a different kind of pretty......

Saturday was a much nicer, warmer and sunnier day. I made coffee early, thanks to my Coleman propane unit but we headed into Plymouth for breakfast and more coffee anyway.

The Minnesota Hiawatha BMW contingent....I saw all of these guys a week ago.

Every year there's something going on in the Motorplex area of the complex; this year it was the Karts.

I overheard part of this discussion, a few things that needed improvement but overall a very successful run.

Will my CB200 ever look this good.....or go this fast??

He was friendly and very fun to speak with; I learned much........

His wife and daughter had just given him a Good Luck Kiss......

......still he managed to keep the HD running through it all. Some old and new in this photo.

The grid for all of Saturday's 12 races.......

Our ride through the Pits towards dinner.....

On the way back to the track, J.P. requested that we take the scenic route.....I knew of one.

Presenting the bright pink wrist band.....

Through the under-track tunnel to the pits.....

Part of our group after returning from dinner in Plymouth......

We browned some grass Friday night and are just about ready to do it once more.

After a perfect weather Saturday, things weren't sounding as bright for Sunday. Some sprinkles over night and a threat of rain that later didn't just threaten. The MN BMW crew was still around, many of our fellow race admirers were heading out, especially so before the rain actually started.

Iowa Rod was there again on his Quota, we'll cross paths again at our next Guzzi event ......and two more after that. Not that I'm tired of him.....far from it.

Definitely the way to go with bigger bikes.....when you're alone and lifting this far. His Honda 750 seemed almost anxious to climb in.

Steve packed up and left......Rod and Mike at that point were headed back to MN.

Phil and I were sticking it out. I debated about taking my shelter down while it was still dry but stubbornly gambled that things would clear. I don't know how many times we checked the animated radar..."almost gone" was heard everywhere but it took forever to "almost gone." Finally did happen though.

The KLR definitely could have used more washing and is STILL waiting. Maybe next weekend.

No one likes to see this....I heard it and saw it happen. Two riders went down hard, one taken away in the ambulance and only a few minutes later.....

From Fondy and one passenger short of full.....

Headed back to Fondy and fully loaded.

On the far south end of the pits, Pete and assistant were doing plug chops, trying to get his Sunday morning jet changes dialed in. Whichever jets he was using, Pete's XS650 sounds and runs way stronger than mine does.

At the end of the Main Straight.......

I made one last pass around the track perimeter......Thursday afternoon I went past the barn and silo on Cty J, outside the grounds and seen here on my left. Sunday I was inside.

New Cadillac Cars........

MN BMW guys headed for home.....

Loaded up at 2:30 and on the road by 3:00, Race 7 underway, 5 more races to go, the Carousel was getting very quiet.

I had to stop on the way out and take this photo, my 2nd motorcycle looked almost exactly like this one.

I did go over and pay my respects before leaving though.....

My goodness what a great time with friends, an even better connection with the old ones and always a few new ones made. Our friend Dick never made it due to a confrontation with a dog; our very own J.P. made the trip to Mt. Horeb to rescue bike and rider. Sounds like most everyone else had a safe and fine trip home. I'm already thinking about and anxious for next June to arrive.

A really great map of the track and grounds here. Our spot is right in the SE corner of the Carousel. A fraction over 4 miles of the most lovely, elevation changing fast roadway around. The engines stop and the crickets are the loudest sound around.

8 comments:

RichardMJune 9, 2015 at 11:11 PM
Nice shots of the side cars. Did it matter in the race which side the car was installed on? Or did they compete in different events?

Thank you for the virtual tour!
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TrobairitzJune 10, 2015 at 12:06 PM
You managed to pack a lot into a long weekend. I enjoyed seeing all the pictures and chuckled at the one with the pink flamingo in it.
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SonjaMJune 10, 2015 at 2:39 PM
Don's Yammy, that's a nice bike. I like it best in your eclectic collection. What a weekend!
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VStar LadyJune 14, 2015 at 5:47 PM
Wow Coop, that was quite an event. I loved the mechanic with the smart phone (googling 'how to' no doubt!)
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"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

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He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

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