DTRA race is OFF

Just heard the weather forecast is too bad. Saturday's race has been cancelled.

This Saturday...

...if the weather behaves. The final round of the 2016 DTRA season. Racing all afternoon, but finals from 6pm. Free to spectate.

Psychomania at the BFI

Thanks to our friend Tom Baldwin for alerting us to this:

Spotted that the latest film review in Sideburn, "Psychomania," (one of my long time guilty favourites) has just been remastered for HD DVD, and will be released on the 19th September. To coincide with this, they're showing it at the BFI (British Film Institute)with a Q and A session with the lead actor, Nicky Henson. Find out more at BFI Flipside Psychomania.

Hope it's of interest to you, and perhaps to other Sideburn readers? 
All the best, Tom


READ ABOUT PSYCHOMANIA IN SIDEBURN 25.

Springfield and Santa Rosa

I've stopped posting round-ups of AMA GNC racing the day or two after AMA GNC races because Fanschoice.tv posts full races for the world to catch up with at their leisure. It's awkward for European viewers to get to see the races live because of the time difference, so I don't want to spoil the possible excitement of watching a recorded race you don't know the result of.

There was another great race at Springfield last weekend. If you haven't seen the result, I won't mention it. Click fanschoice.tv to watch the 25-lapper. It'll take less that 18 minutes of your life and this is one of the few mains of the season that didn't get red flagged and restarted.

Mile racing is what people think of when they think of dirt track, but there isn't often the same excitement as good short track racing. This race is an example of cat and mouse and pure racecraft. I loved it.

Also on the agenda for this post: the commentators, Chris Carr and Scotty Deubler, regularly refer to Bryan Smith's appeal. Not a lot has been said about this on public AMA channels at least, just that it happened. Here's what I know....

At the previous race, the Central NY Half-Mile on August 20, Smith came second to championship leader, and reigning champ, Jared Mees. Meanwhile, there was a protest, it seems, by Mees' Las Vegas H-D, Rogers' Racing team about Smith's Crosley Kawasaki.

READ ABOUT BRYAN SMITH'S RADICAL CROSLEY KAWASAKI TWIN IN SB26

The protest, from what I can discover, was about an overweight rear wheel. If you're not 100% embedded in flat track that may sound strange. Every other motorsport spends £1000s making their wheels lighter, right? Well, yes, but a heavier rear wheel, in some circumstances and only up to a point - you wouldn't want a lead wheel, aids traction. Because of this, there is an upper weight limit in the AMA Pro Racing rulebook, for complete wheel and tyre assembly.

Riders fit the heaviest, heavy-duty tubes to help their bikes hook up, some riders have even been known to fill tubes with water rather than air to weight a rear wheel, but no one would risk that at an AMA race. So Smith was disqualified and his team appealed. Some buzz is saying they had approval to run the wheel and tyre assembly that later led to their disqualification.

Below is the report from AMA Pro Racing's tech log. It doesn't mention any pre-approval.

The Smith/Crosley Kawasaki appeal is a week today. That is crucial, because the final round is coming up on Sept 24 at the Santa Rosa Mile.

Conspiracy theorists are pointing to this being the XR750's final year and H-D doing everything they can to win the title. Firstly, teams are still going to race XR750s. No private teams are going to ditch the XR for an unproven XG750 until they're forced to, and XRs are still legal as far as I'm aware. Indian have just entered with a bespoke race engine, that has no production bikes roots.

Others point out that Mees was accused and proven to use banned tyre softening chemicals last season, but didn't lose points. Other conspiracy theorists point out that Mees now does a burn out celebration to cover up his continued use of those chemicals. I don't believe he'd risk getting caught and losing a hatful of points, he's too good and is always in with a chance of a win/podium, but what do I know?

I'll tell you what I know, Santa Rosa is going to be a great, high pressure finally. Including 2016, the season has gone down to the final race, between Mees and Smith three times in a row now. Bryan Smith has been second in the championship the previous three years (to Baker is 2013, the Mees twice). But don't believe he's going to win just because it's his turn. Ask Dani Pedrosa about coming second...

Our good friends at the CFTA are involved with promoting the Mile race. CFTA head man, Randy Kremlacek, has contributed features to Sideburn for years, before he got to busy race promoting.

There is going to be racing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

And it sounds like Sideburn is going to be there! G

Supercars made from Scrap

Off-topic, but too good not to share. Incredible full-size works of art made by Polish artists from scrap car parts. Blowing my tiny mindholes. G

Via Colossal

Indian FTR750 x Kopp at the Santa Rosa Mile

Big news from AMA Pro Racing. This is taken from the press release, but I cut out some of the over the top marketing hyperbole. This is going to be exciting. Sideburn is going to be there...

Indian... today confirmed that its all-new Indian Scout FTR750 race bike will make its racing debut on Sunday, September 25 at the Ramspur Winery Santa Rosa Mile AMA Pro Flat Track race in Santa Rosa, California. The race takes place at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds at 1350 Bennett Valley Rd. in Santa Rosa, with gates opening at 11 am PDT. The Indian Motorcycle FTR750 will be piloted in its debut by AMA Pro Flat Track racing legend Joe Kopp. Joe is one of 15 riders to complete the Dirt Track "Grand Slam," with victories on short track, TT, half-mile, and mile courses. In addition to his 2000 AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship, he took the 1999 and 2000 AMA 600 Hotshot and Supertracker Championships. The Indian Scout FTR750 will feature Kopps' #3 for the weekend.

The Indian Scout FTR750 is a clean-sheet design racing machine developed by the Indian Motorcycle Racing engineering and design teams. The bike is powered by a purpose-developed, high performance 750cc V-Twin engine and features a unique, ultra-light steel frame, large centrally located airbox and sleek lightweight carbon fiber body.  Much like the design philosophy behind Indian Motorcycle's family of production bikes, the design and engineering teams built the FTR750 to artfully combine state-of-the-art technologies with design elements from legendary Indian racing models from history.

Leading up to the AMA Pro Flat Track event, Indian Motorcycle will sponsor the Pro/Am Hooligan and RSD SuperHooligan races in Santa Rosa on September 24. Saturday's action kicks off at 4:30 pm PDT at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in the Chris Beck Arena. Participating in the SuperHooligan race class will be Roland Sands as well as various special guests. Roland Sands and his team from Roland Sands Design (RSD) will be racing their custom Indian Scout Sixty dirt track racers in the SuperHooligan class in what is sure to be an epic day of dirt track racing.

Spark Eagle - Free Post

The new Spark Eagle T-shirt is now on general sale and, for two days only, we're offering free post anywhere in the world when you order it.
Get your Spark Eagle T-shirt.
Sizes Small to Triple XL.

This offer is until 8pm on Wednesday and free post only applies to this T-shirt.

Remember, you could get this T-shirt for free if you buy an 8-issue subscription. Start with the current issue, number 25, or the next issue 26, which will be out shortly after we finish it...

100% Supports The DTRA

The DTRA has some great supporters, including 100% Goggles. And DTRA riders wear 100% goggles.

Thanks to every company that supports grassroots motorsport. G

Joy at Johnny Lewis's 10 Training Camp

Earlier this year, Joy Lewis and her friends attended Johnny Lewis' (no relation) JL10 Dirt Track School in Florida and wrote this report for us. 

Above: Johnny and his son Maxsen, Joy, Shelby, Tammi

This spring I had the chance to spend a weekend with Johnny Lewis, his beautiful family and a couple friends at the Marion County Speedway in Florida. The training originally came up as a girl camp through @caferacerxxx but after being bombarded with interest my group was bumped to a later weekend. To be honest the draw for me wasn’t that it was catered to girls – whatever that means – I ride and race with mostly boys, so as far as I can tell the only perk to a girls-only camp is that we can all slumber party in the same hotel room and no one’s spouse gets pissy.

The three of us attending had various levels of experience and Johnny was able to identify immediately what our individual areas of focus needed to be. Having raced flat track for only a year in a handful of races on a shitty bike, I had a lot to learn and a few habits to break.

Mr JL10, Johnny Lewis

After covering body positioning, braking, and the cadence of corners, we started the bikes and hopped on the mini-track Johnny had made in the parking lot. To make things more crowded we were joined by the ridiculously talented and rad Oliver Brindley #24, who rallied around on a mini bike pushing our elbows up and our knees in. It seemed to only take that first session of laps for Johnny to have each of us figured out but rather than give us the answers, he makes you self-evaluate and come to whatever you’re doing wrong on your own. We spent most of day one running solo drills where we would ride one corner over and over and after every round we had to tell Johnny what we did wrong – he gave us tips for fixing it and it was onto the next. Every so often we’d stop to do donuts on the mini bike or some ridiculous exercise and then jump back into a drill and without fail something would click. Obviously the guy is good at what he does but what I was most impressed with was Johnny’s ability to completely break down flat tracking into bite-sized pieces and then figure out which we were choking on.

Tammi getting the 'look through the corner' chat

Day two we spent a good chunk of the day taking turns ‘racing’ against Johnny and Oliver. I learned that one of my weaknesses was chasing whoever was in front of me – apparently a common mistake racers make and one that rarely gets you to the top of the podium.  

Our day concluded on the big track with two-up hot laps on Johnny’s race bike (so maybe there were perks to being a girl because I can’t imagine many grown men sitting front seat holding onto a crossbar going sideways into a corner.) 

 Shelby figuring out weight transfer during direction change

I was lucky to go home to a month of back-to-back races where I could put it all together. I definitely had Johnny in my head while racing, reminding me to find my own line. All the time spent on that makeshift track focusing on weight transfer through corners paid off on the real track and I was able to feel more in control of the bike during the slide. all of this to say my time at Johnny’s was game-changing – and while I still refuse to ride a modern bike, I’m getting around a bit better on my shit bike.

Joy

A month later on my shit bike with everything clicking - photo: Scott Toepfer

Click to find out more about the 10 Training

Wall of Death!

This makes my knees go weak. Properly crackers. G