21,22 May, 2011 Vintage Celebration, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H. I just took my '46 Moto Guzzi Dondolino and just raced it in one event at this vintage car and bike event. Sat. morning I waited on the pre-grid waiting to go out for practice several minutes, but when we were finally told to go, my motor died. I tried push starting the bike but it didn't pop. I found some rollers, but it still wouldn't fire at all. My first thought was that the magneto has finally died. I rolled it back to my pit and whipped out the spark plug to find plenty of spark. Then I noticed the intake valve wasn't moving, easy to see with exposed valve gear. Pete Talabachhappened by and we dove into the rocker box and found the intake pushrod had come out of the socket on the end of the rocker arm. I had had the head off prior to this event cutting and lapping the exhaust valve seat and evidently didn't get the pushrod properly seated when I replaced the head. There was no damage done and we got it back together and I got three laps in the 2nd round of 'fast' practice. I came in and re-adjusted the valves, then went back out and did three more laps in the 'medium' practice. The bike ran strong though I felt the seat give way and when I came in, found the seat frame had broken. This is aluminum, but I was able to weld it there as Erik Green had brought a neat little air cooled tig welder that work great. I was entered in the Pre-65/Pre-50 combined race on Sun. When I went to check the grids shortly before the race, I found there were no Pre-65 entries and only one other Pre-50 entry: Randy Hoffman on a '49 Norton 'Garden Gate' Manx. I lobbied to combine our race with another class, but it was too late at that point. So, Randy and I lined up in very light mist and did our 6 lap race. The Guzzi worked great and I enjoyed my romp, though it was hardly an exciting race. The grids have been thin at most of the races I've been to this year. Is it the economy and gas prices, or are people just loosing interest? Don't know, but I'm still having a ball and expect to keep doing it as long as I can.