Comments from
Jack McCornack:
(re: the photo on preceding
page) "Cool! The stance and face shape looks Torish to me but might
be Tipical.
Yes, I well remember the
race. Endurance racing was great fun; I liked it
better than sprint racing
because I was never that good a 10/10thser,
particularly not compared
to Tip--I might have been happier with my performances if I'd had less
lofty peers to compare myself to.
The crash was a memorable
one. Endurance racing is hard on the equipment and exhausting to the riders,
y'know, and I was within a dozen laps of my stint being over when, coming
out of the fast right-hand sweeper at the end of the
straight and braking-and-entering
the slower left-hander (which came up pretty fast and was the only thing
that made the preceeding sweeper interesting-- the fast right sweeper was
hellaciously interesting on a 750 but it could be ridden full throttle
in fifth on the 'taco)...oh yeah, as I was saying, when the left footpeg
came off the bike.
Imagine my surprise. Without
its traditional support, my weight came down on
the brake lever and locked
up the rear wheel, then my foot slapped the ground (still going 50 or 60
or so) and I fought for some vague semblance of control while waiting for
that eight-second bell. Anyway, I ran out of room and left the course but
was only going tennish or so when the front wheel washed out on the dry
grass--man, it's amazing how the details come back-- and the bike fell
down on its left side, rotating its left clip-on handlebar in pretty close
to the tank.
It was pretty hot that day,
so I rested for perhaps two seconds before
getting the bike upright,
putting it in second gear, and pushing it all the way to Turn 3 before
the engine finally caught. Man, I was sweating! I had to bring
the bike to a full stop
to climb back on board; none of that sprightly LeMans
Start stuff which we'd all
honed to an art. I motored around the course, panting and gasping, pulled
into the pits, where my riding colleagues of Team Colitas were taking a
cigarrette break. Being the only guy wearing his leather
pajamas at the time (remember,
I wasn't due in for a while and it was godawful hot) I went out for another
lap while Tor dressed for success and Tip pulled a footpeg off his bike
(which had expired from some Bultaco malady earlier on).
My pace wasn't blistering;
riding with one foot on the engine case and no useable rear brake (I found
I couldn't work it without the footpeg; I'd just touch the brake pedal
and the rear wheel would lock), but I got around without passing out, and
next lap, traded places with Tor.
My memory is not sure-fire
on this point, but I recall the two pits stops as
being very quick. The first
was me pointing and gasping "Gasp need footpeg
gasp pull the bar gasp"
and Tip heaving the handlebar to its normal position and braaaat off I
went, five to ten seconds it seemed like. The second stop was max 15 seconds
and might have been 12; Tip installed the footpeg with a ratchet and an
extension bar, spinning the ratchet around with airtool-like
efficiency, while I dismounted
and Tor mounted the bike and somebody (Cary?) tightened the clipon clamps;
Tip pushed himself back from
the bike and yelled "Go" and Tor was off in a cloud of Castrol. I made
some witty comment about how I though Tip had beaten the flatrate book
on that one, and then I think I got a drink of water and laid down for
a lap or two--and then Tip said it looked like second place (Bill?) was
closing the gap and suddenly it was a spectator sport and I was back at
the pit wall with a stopwatch in my hand.
However, I do remember one
thing very clearly, and it differs from the other
accounts:
When I dropped, we had more
than a lap advantage on 2nd Place, and nearly two laps. It was getting
close to the end of the race, and we were into strategy, not style. I wasn't
dogging it, but I wasn't smokin' either; my job was to keep the bike runnning
for another half hour--I could see Bill at the end of the main straight
when I was at the beginning of it, but I had no incentive to catch him
and we had the win in the bag.
But my crash turned it into
a race again, and it was an exciting finish, and... well hell, when the
results were posted we were a lap down because the
timers hadn't counted the
lap I'd done between the pit stops. They showed one pit stop of around
two minutes instead of two quick pits. We were all very
disappointed and Tip pointed
out that if he'd been going as slow as I was going, he would have stayed
on his bike regardless of footpeg presence.
Oh well, that's endurance
racing for you. Timing those things has got to be
tedious, and having the
pit road running past the start/finish line on the
track added to the confusion.
But I've always wondered (actually, I haven't
wondered it for twenty years,
but your letter brought it up again) if the lap
counter maybe got it right
the first time, then later thought he'd written it down twice 'cause two
apparent rider-change stops one lap apart didn't make any sense, and corrected
what wasn't wrong to begin with. Or maybe he just missed one of the stops,
but whatever way it happenned, Team Colitas got scrooched out of a hard
earned lap.
Thanks again, Tor (guys,
please forward this to Tor for me), for letting me
ride your bike. Had it been
you and Tip, you guys would have reeled Bill in and lapped him and his
teammate twice, and we'd still be celebrating."
Next: AFM
-- 4
Back to:
AFM -- 2
Tip
On Racing at Vaca Valley Raceway
Tip's
Story of his Most Interesting Race
|