Tom Mueller has sent me some freshly digitized photos he took at the first Daytona vintage race on 3/4/81. He was working for Cycle News then and the one where I'm showing how to race a G-50 Matchless appeared in the race report then. I'm also including the race report from The Classic MotorCycle(Mortons Media Group, LTD.), which appeared in it's first issue and was reprinted for the 30th anniversary issue. This is still available from www.ClassicBikeBooks.com

As the article points out, there was a big crash on the first lap and the race was red flagged and restarted after the debris was cleaned up. The first start was a push start and Clive Watts the double Manx Grand Prix winner, riding the Ray Cowles G-50 special, was first away with me in pursuit. While we were waiting for the restart, Kurt Liebmann was really agitated and was lobbying for a clutch start as his foot had been run over in the first start. A vote was taken, and it went for the clutch start. On the restart, Jimmy Adamo, on Reno Leoni's 350 Desmo Ducati, got the hole shot while I was second and Watts behind. I got by Jimmy and eventually Watts did too, but couldn't catch me. There was some grousing about the fact that I had a slick tire on the rear. It's doubtful that it did a lot of good as I had a 19" Michelin PZ-2 on the front. And, I had a drum brake and Watts had a disc. This being the early days of vintage racing in the States, rules were far from settled. But still, it was a good start as it was a good field with some heavy hitters like Adamo and Leibmann and Don Vesco and Alan Cathcart and Tony Murphy.

Here is my final crash photo sequence, until another one comes along. This if from the Battle of the . This if from the Battle of the Twins race at Laguna Seca, 11 July, 1982. My memory is that I passed Jimmy Adamo (#1) on the first lap to lead overall. Finishing the 2nd lap, coming out of the old turn #9 (last turn), my hand slipped on the throttle and Jimmy came by. Chasing him up to the Corkscrew, we came upon the first lapee(#145). Jimmy went to the outside on the approach to be on the inside on the right down the hill. I went to the other side, silly me. The lapee freaked out when Jimmy went by and moved over into my path. I went down, he didn't. No serious harm done to me or the bike.

My memory is that these photos were taken by Madison Cox, of Knoxville, Tn. But, Madison was a frequent BoTT competitor on a 900 bevel drive Ducati, so why wouldn't he have been in the race? Maybe he just passed the photos on to me and someone else took them.

Update 11 July, 2012:  I got an email from Willie Cox, Madison's son.  He tells me Madison is dying of liver and kidney failure and he ran across this entry while doing some research on his dad's race history for an obituary.  Willie tells me the photos were taken by his mother, Kerela.  I have fond memories of Madison from BOTT days.

Update #2 November 3, 2012 Willie Cox just informed me that David Vendola identified #206 as Kevin Bracken; don't know who #145 is.

This is my final Daytona crash photo sequence (unless someone sends me another one). And, I guess technically, it's not a crash sequence since it doesn't show the ultimate crash. But, I think you can see the inevitability of a crash.

This is from 6 March, 1995. Jim Redman (six time world champion, winner of 45 world championship GPs, and the first rider to ever win 3 GPs in a day) was racing for the first time in 26 years on the Team Obsolete MV 350 three cylinder. I was riding a MV 350 four cyl. Before the race, I suggested to Jim that we play around and put on a show, but on the last lap, I was going to go for it. This may have been a bit presumptuous on my part, but I was on the later (say '71 vs '67), faster bike and Jim was 63 and hadn't raced in 26 years. So, that's what happened: we played around and put on a show and on the last lap, I went for it. Approaching turn #5, the last turn in the infield, I come up on a back marker. I guess he braked too hard while leaned over too far and asked too much of his front tire. I tried to tighten my line and go inside him, but it was too late and I hit him and I went down too. He broke his scapula, if I remember correctly. I was fine and added an MV to the long list of exotica I have crashed. Redman motored by to win in his come back race. He promptly retired from racing again, going out as a winner. He did do many parades and demonstrations with T/O on the Honda 250 six and MV's.

The silver lining of crashing at Daytona is that there tend to be a lot of photographers around to document it. It's all Hollywood, you know.

The Daytona '97 crash photo sequence I posted recently isn't the only Daytona crash photo sequence I have. There is this one from 1975:

In 1974, I made points in the Novice class to advance to Junior, but I elected to remain a novice one more year. Perhaps because of these points, I was assigned a front row start for my heat race. In those days, one actually had to qualify to make the novice grid with maybe 140 riders vying for 80 spots on the final grid. I guess we didn't do a warm-up lap then, because I remember sitting on the heat race grid as the countdown started for the start when my motor died. I looked down and saw my fuel tap was off. I had to push the bike off the grid and wait until the whole grid left before I could push off. Now I was all amped up and trying to pass most of the field on the first lap to get back up with the front runners. As I entered the west horseshoe on the first lap, #141 (with the backward 4) fell right in front of me. I tried to stand it up and get around him, but no chance, and I hit his bike. My bike (#138), however, sort of surfed along on top of his bike and eventually gently flopped over on it's left side on the grass on the outside of the corner. I quickly checked that the brake levers and footrest were still there as I picked it up and pushed it off. I sort of remember a shove, but it wasn't until I got these photos by Mary Grothe years later, that I realized that the guy who caused the crash, helped me get going. I rode my ass off for the next four laps and just barely make the cut, qualifying 20th. I started the final on the back row and don't remember where I finished, but at least I got to run the race.

I've been asked by a friend to tell the story of this sequence of photos.

photo by Henny Ray Abrams

photo by Henny Ray Abrams

photo by David Goldman

photo by Henny Ray Abrams

photo by David Goldman

photo by Henny Ray Abrams

photo by David Goldman

They were taken in the AHRMA 350 GP race at Daytona, 3 March, 1997. I was having a cut-throat duel with my arch nemesis (and good friend) Chuck Huneycutt who was riding the Barber's Dairy CB77 Honda based 350. I was riding the Team Obsolete AJS 7R and we were having a real dustup. I believe that in the first two laps we exchanged the lead 12 times. It must have been on the 3rd lap, Chuck was slightly ahead and on the inside of me in the 'Dogleg', turn #3. Chuck lost the rear end on the oil his bike was puking and went down. I yanked my bike to the right to avoid him, and just barely did so. But, now I'm on the grass of the infield going a million miles an hour. Way far ahead, I see a row of haybales and I start to try to steer to the right of them. But, I'm on the grass and I'm trying not to put too much input into steering or braking. In the end, I ran out of room/time. What I didn't realize was that at the right end of this row of haybales, there was armco behind them. So, rather than just blowing through a haybale, I hit the armco pretty much head on, with still a bit of speed. Fortunately, two excellent photographers were there to document this. David Goldman, of Gold and Goose Photography took the color photos (#3, #5, and #7), and Henny Ray Abrams took the black and white photos (#1, #2, #4, and #6) for Cycle News. They took the photos from slightly different angles but, between the two, one can almost get the flip-card version of the crash.

They took me to the infield aid station to check me out, but I was fine other than a jammed thumb from the throttle as I went over the bars. George Roeder came to the aid station to check on me. I said to George that I screwed up and should have locked the rear brake and laid it down. George said something like "you don't know; maybe you did exactly the right thing as you here talking about it and basically alright." That did make me feel better. I raced the next day on T/O's AJS 7R3, the bike with which Rod Coleman won the '54 Junior TT at the IOM, and finished 4th in the Classic 60's class, 1st 350.

With Chuck and me crashing out, my near-do-well, wannabe, back-marker teammate, Erik Green, won His first Daytona race on another T/O AJS 7R.

Weeks later, when I started to repair the 7R (which had broken yokes and a bent down tube), I found a piece of fairing from the Honda with 'Chuck Huneycutt' on it, in the 7R. When I returned it to him at the next race, he said he watched my front wheel coming towards him and just missing his head. One more example of words I live by: it always could be worse.