Daytona Short Track: Day 2

Kenny Coolbeth Jr wins day 2 at the Daytona GNC season opener. He had led the previous night before a red flag, but didn't restart as well. At one stage in night two he had a 2.5s lead.

Dash for Cash (for the six quickest Expert qualifiers). #5 Johnson; #80 Bonsey; #44 Robinson; #69 J Halbert; #7 S Halbert; #13 Constantine. 

It finished Johnson; Constantine; S Halbert.

Pro Singles class action. 67M Davis Fisher.

Veteran rider (born in 1964!) Dan Ingram made the main, coming 13th. Love everything about this photo: body language; leathers and full face lid. They have so much more character than generic MX pyjamas.

Stevie Bonsey had another good night. He's won on twins and this 3rd on a single shows he has the all-round ability to challenge for the title.

 2011 champ Jake Johnson came in second.

 Sammy Halbert and Kenny Coolbeth.

 Ingram and JR Schnabel.

1. Coolbeth. 2. Johnson. 3. Bonsey
Sammy Halbert came in 4th giving him a clear points lead going to the next round, the Springfield Mile in May AND SIDEBURN IS GOING TO BE THERE!

All photos courtesy of AMA Pro Racing.

Great Clunkers follow-up

When we first started the blog we'd look at others, specifically Max Schaaf's 4Q Conditioning, and say 'Wow, he gets a lot of comments and we don't get any.' We even had our patron saint put out this plea. But now we get plenty of comments, and some are amazing. The fastest man on two wheels, Rocky Robinson, left a comment on the post about himself a couple of weeks ago. Then Donald from South Africa commented on Great Clunkers, and emailed this in. Cheers Donald.
The bikes look very similar, and must be the same bike, but the one in Donald's photos is obviously a sprinter, so I still don't understand why the original clunker had knobblies.

"I left a comment on your "clunkers" post regarding the first photo [The comment was 'That first one looks a bit like Burt Munro's Velocette, apart from the knobblies. I've got photos, I'll send them to you. You can see both of Burt's bikes, the Indian and the Velo, at E. Hayes & Sons Hardware in Invercargill, New Zealand].
Here's a couple of photos of what I believe it is. I was in NZ in 07 and travelled a couple of days out of my way to see Burt Munro's hometown, Invercargill. I was disappointed with the museum where I had to pay a $10 entry fee to see a bunch of props from the movie "The Worlds Fastest Indian", and I couldn't even take photos! There was nothing original of Burt's, mostly just random bikes that had no connection to him. Later that day while sitting in a cafe with my girlfriend and perusing a local bike mag, I read that Burt's bikes were at the hardware store down the street from us. E. Hayes & Son's (I hope I got that right) was a Velo and Indian dealer and good friends of Burtg. They had his bikes on display among the lawnmowers and garden tools! We rushed over there and I was allowed to take photos and even twist the throttle on the original record making
Indian! I much prefered the Velocette, I wish that had been featured in the film as well!

Follow the link to my Flickr page
Regards, Donald Hosier, SA Motorcycles, South Africa

Also, Hugo Wilson from Classic Bike emailed to say this about the original Great Clunkers post...
'Bike in the top picture is a fairly dramatically hacked about with Velocette, probably a 350 MAC (I'd have to count the fins on the barrel to check) that is even more bastardised than mine. Second one is, I think a Harley. Third an Indian. Bottom one an Enfield.'

Keep the comments coming.

Rocky's brother Buddy

Another from Wayne K. Thanks

'Here's a cool picture of Rocky's brother Buddy Robinson stuffing Jay Springsteen at the Houston Astrodome'

Rocky VI

What is it about flat trackers? Sideburn favourite Chris Carr was the fastest man on two wheels, with a run of 350.884mph. Then the guy in the lead in this photo, Rocky Robinson, went and broke the record last year, with an astonishing 360.913.
I was in Bonneville in 2007 with SB photographer Fly Tipping and my mate Michael. I interviewed Rocky not long after a 200+mph crash. The crash was so bad his cheeks were covered in salt when they pulled him out of the cockpit and Fly stuck his Canon in his dazed face. To come back a year later and go faster than anyone on two wheels ever has takes some cods. GI
Thanks to Wayne Karcich for the photo.