Well, it was the last Saturday in June yesterday and everybody knows that means flat track racing in Lima!
This year was more than a little special with Jimmy's grandson racing and Raven coming down from Canada making this a truly international mini meetup.
Thomas has been working in Bloomington and with me in Cinci we decided to meet at the best sandwich shop in all of Darke County Ohio, Made Right. If you're ever in, or near, Greenville, check it out!
We took a little tour of rural Ohio, always fun, and then super slabbed the last little stretch to the Allen County Fairgrounds home for the last thirty some years of the Ohio National. Raven met us upon our arrival in somewhat of a miracle of timing and we watched some practice.
Lima is a cushion track, quite familiar to Ohioans and Canadians but increasingly rare on the circuit these days. We two Bruces (raven and horosho) watched some practice and got sprayed with pea gravel. Just the little bit hurts a bit, imagine how Bronson Bowman feels here:
Jimmy took a break from his team duties to say hello and we all gathered around Thomas' slow black XR.
From the grandstand we had a pretty decent view of start/finish and the podium
Poolpawpaw's grandson, David Wiggins, was a super impressive young man. He and his family spent some time talking with us and all of us came away impressed - nice work Jimmy! Looking forward to watching David mature and seeing what he can do both on and off the racetrack. I would not bet against him!
The Canadian Bruce was somewhat surprised with the number of helmetless riders. We do that here. In rural Ohio, motorcycle generally means Harley Davidson and helmets are strictly optional. To be fair though, we get a lot of folks riding to the race and have for many years.
The singles race was an extremely popular win for Shayna who ran away with it and the Twins race was a back and forth between Carver and Mees that, once they got going, wasn't decided until the final turn. Well worth the price of admission! I also got to see something I have never seen in a flat track race when Brian Bowman had a tire come off the rim. Odd issue, that.
Probably also worth mentioning that the Production Twins race was won by Chad Cose with Cory Texter coming in 2nd and an XG750 making the podium, piloted by "Rocket" James Rispoli who some of you probably remember from his ama pro racing days.
All in all it was a really good time. It was nice to finally meet Raven after so many years talking on the forum and Jimmy's family and it was really good to ride with Sadwingsrgn, as always. If you're on the fence about next year just do it!
Of course, as is required by our bylaws, whenever two or more more forum members meet and are photographed together, we salute you!
This year was more than a little special with Jimmy's grandson racing and Raven coming down from Canada making this a truly international mini meetup.
Thomas has been working in Bloomington and with me in Cinci we decided to meet at the best sandwich shop in all of Darke County Ohio, Made Right. If you're ever in, or near, Greenville, check it out!
We took a little tour of rural Ohio, always fun, and then super slabbed the last little stretch to the Allen County Fairgrounds home for the last thirty some years of the Ohio National. Raven met us upon our arrival in somewhat of a miracle of timing and we watched some practice.
Lima is a cushion track, quite familiar to Ohioans and Canadians but increasingly rare on the circuit these days. We two Bruces (raven and horosho) watched some practice and got sprayed with pea gravel. Just the little bit hurts a bit, imagine how Bronson Bowman feels here:
Jimmy took a break from his team duties to say hello and we all gathered around Thomas' slow black XR.
From the grandstand we had a pretty decent view of start/finish and the podium
Poolpawpaw's grandson, David Wiggins, was a super impressive young man. He and his family spent some time talking with us and all of us came away impressed - nice work Jimmy! Looking forward to watching David mature and seeing what he can do both on and off the racetrack. I would not bet against him!
The Canadian Bruce was somewhat surprised with the number of helmetless riders. We do that here. In rural Ohio, motorcycle generally means Harley Davidson and helmets are strictly optional. To be fair though, we get a lot of folks riding to the race and have for many years.
The singles race was an extremely popular win for Shayna who ran away with it and the Twins race was a back and forth between Carver and Mees that, once they got going, wasn't decided until the final turn. Well worth the price of admission! I also got to see something I have never seen in a flat track race when Brian Bowman had a tire come off the rim. Odd issue, that.
Probably also worth mentioning that the Production Twins race was won by Chad Cose with Cory Texter coming in 2nd and an XG750 making the podium, piloted by "Rocket" James Rispoli who some of you probably remember from his ama pro racing days.
All in all it was a really good time. It was nice to finally meet Raven after so many years talking on the forum and Jimmy's family and it was really good to ride with Sadwingsrgn, as always. If you're on the fence about next year just do it!
Of course, as is required by our bylaws, whenever two or more more forum members meet and are photographed together, we salute you!