Dave,
Could you share a bit about your experience racing Vic World’s sandcast 970 kit bike?
George
Sure!
I got a call at work prior to the end of April 1999. It was pretty much, "Hey, I saw you race at this place against a CR750 (against Kurt Liebmann's CR at Mid-Ohio...1996 or 1995). Would you like to come to Sears Point to race mine?"
The only other CB750 sandcast F750 bike I had raced was Harlan's bike. That was a Dresda frame. I think it was described in the Motorcyclist article as being more of a late 70's endurance racer kind of bike. And, with all this Phillip Island Classic racing going on, it all reminds me of Harlan's bike.
The World bike was completely newly assembled. Had only recently ran, and it had never been on a race track. I think the plan was that they were going to run it on Friday practice, then do practice and a race on Saturday, I'd fly in after work, race it Sunday, then come home. I think there were problems on Friday, even some on Saturday. I mean, it's a completely new build. Plane ticket was in Chicago for me. I made a call to see if things were on, and it was. So, after work on Saturday, I drove to O'Hare, flew to California. Vic picked me up and we at a very late meal, showed me the shop, and then slept for the night.
Up early to Sears Point, which I really enjoy despite the dangers there. Everyone was new to me, so that was something to learn. My local mentor was a long time NASA engineer and AFM school instructor, and he arrived for support. My sister-in-law stopped in too. I would have one race, F750. I don't remember anything going poorly, but I only managed third. I always have issues and information for changes and ideas. I think Vic World might have raced it in Formula Vintage later, but his friend Mike took me to the airport so I could get home. I was in California for about 19 hours.
Vic raced it at Mid-Ohio. I was doing the NASB thing in 1999 with Kawasaki in addition to my riding school. I can't remember if I was invited out or not or what. Either way, it probably helped things move along.
I raced the bike in 2000 at Daytona. Vic had never been to Daytona, and it can be a real grind. Things to learn for both Vic and I. I was able to get into the lead ahead of Don Canet and Adam Popp a number of times. I think AHRMA was only one day then, and each time out the bike and I made friends. Finally putting in some good laps, I recognized that we were geared too tall. I don't remember the wind changing directions or anything, but we also had no prior data too.
Anyway, after leading off and on, the transmission started shifting very poorly, and that was negatively affecting my ability to be consistent mixing it up with Don and Adam. I decided to bring it home safe. Third was decent, but I still wanted more. I felt it could do it. It was also puffing smoke. I think that a small part failed and was pushing on the cylinder wall.
Not a valid vimeo URL
I think I had some desires and complaints from the race, and those were supposed to be taken care of for the next time at Daytona 2001. Talk and translation is hard sometimes without having your hands on things. Kawasaki pulled the plug on their support program that 15 of us had for the prior two seasons even though they talked big at Daytona to us in October 2000. So, I had a scramble putting together a Suzuki and the school program prior to Daytona. The guy Vic had doing suspension was very good, but something got lost in translation. I was spinning the CR very, very hard going through the infield kink. I'm not a flat track rider, but I could see where is was really going to give me problems. I got mad. I walked on the race. Pretty unprofessional, but I didn't hurt myself or the bike on track.
Vic was really pretty understanding after my mentor in California talked with him about risk. Eventually, we came to the understanding of how little time we had on the bike. Hands on. We decided that I should come to California to test in the Fall of 2001 to prep for Daytona 2002. Did I mention Vic was really understanding?
Sears Point was having a track day or test day or something. I get to his shop, and he's got another CB750 race bike, sandcast. Asks me what header pipes it has, and I instantly recognize the nice curve coming from the head all the way down. "Yosh!" I say. He says that he thinks it is the original Yoshimura CR750 that led the 1971 Daytona 200.
Off to testing. Well, no. It rains, and the one hill collapses into the track in a mud slide.
So, no actual riding, but I did get to push on the bike to compare to what it was (which was obviously going to be a problem when I pushed on it at Daytona 2001).
I don't know if AHRMA was a two day event in 2001, but it was in 2002. I was pretty "on" for the event. The Yosh CR750 was completed...I have no idea how that got done at that level and that quick. And Gary Fisher, the rider from the Daytona 200 in 1971 was going to ride it. He hadn't raced since the Boldor for BMW in something like 1977 or something. Gary and I clicked. Then again, maybe he clicks with everyone.
Short story: I won F750 and FVintage at Daytona. My first and second wins at Daytona. Bike didn't really feel stronger, but the chassis was right. Really right. I think we set the fastest vintage lap at Daytona, but we just weren't on the caring side of some of the stop watches of those that keep those records. It's a nice thing that others can boast about for you, but I think we were just focused on doing better. I think Gary and I believed that I was going to win.
Longer bits: Some starts were aborted due to huge crashes, and I was nearly collected in them. On one occasion, I was in the grass with the beautiful bike. But, I need to remind myself, I crashed in Monday practice in what seemed to be someone's oil in the International Horseshoe. That was terrible as it beat up one of the original CR pipes pretty bad. It was quite a bit of work for Vic to get the ignition side all cleaned up and set. Vic continued to use points. Weight, reliability, I think.
The bike carried Vic's number 970. 970 is the Honda prefix for all Honda CB750 Racing parts.
Before I crashed, the bike had an original 970 part number windscreen. The original tag was on it even, and it can be seen in some pictures. I went through that as I low sided in the Horseshoe. Vic had amassed the parts over decades, and, as other CR750's and CR750 replicas started to come out, he decided he'd assemble all of his parts...and I think that made it the largest number of 970/CR750 parts ever on one bike. I would think that they were hard to get a hold of in the time period, or they were even rejected by teams and riders.
2002 was a post 9/11 world, and shipping things around became more complicated. Previously, the bikes could be flown via air freight from California or Ohio for a reasonable cost. In 2002, the bikes came by truck from California to Ohio, and then I traveled from Wisconsin to Ohio to take them to Daytona. The snow was bad. Dangerous. But we made it. I think now doing a lot of that is more prohibitive cost wise. I think that's what has hurt international entries from years past.
Works Performance shocks reworked by Aftershocks in California. Similarly, Works Performance spring kits in the front forks with various things done inside to the damper rods, etc by Aftershocks. I think the guy with Aftershocks has since passed away as has the owner of Works Performance. I wanted the calipers moved to the other side of the forks, but this was something that Vic was absolutely standing his ground on maintaining for an authenticity of appearance. In the end, I went really, really fast with it that way. No modified triple clamps. As a result, I needed the front end pretty darn high for me to clamp down on the DP Brakes pads. I tend to use a lot of trail and run in on the front brake hard. I think we used a smaller front tire. Vic had a very good reason that I agreed with on principle, but I don't remember what it was.
Good times!