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A Real Racing Week-end

99007

El Dookey loves to ride.
saturday night I went out to the local 1/2 mile circle track for my chance at a ride in the Sobe Adrenaline Rush two seater. whoooo-hooo. i parlayed my status as a part time sports reporter to land a free ride in this little beauty.
the weather was supposed to suck, but it turned out to be fairly decent. well, the sun was shining and it was around 45 or so as i headed out on the 30 mile trip to the track. (there were two other bikes parked at the track - both hondas an older wing and a new something or another. during the summer the cruisers are so thick you can hardly get by them.)
 

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a few minutes before my turn one of the racers smacked the bejabbers out of the wall while warming up. nothing like a little bone jarring crash about 75 feet from where we were to get the heart pumping.
 

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well i got suited up in my xxl flame proof suit and a dang opened faced helmet. (i attached mine to my bike - i could have brought it along so they told me...i had no idea.) jumping through the little window was no problem for my finely tuned athletic self. DANG, my feets are big.
 

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i was privileged to be the passenger of a very experience driver, one Tim DeVos (later in the evening he won the Late Model feature race). here we see him waiting patiently while another driver straps my a$$ in the car. boy, those race seats sure are snug.
 

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i asked another driver to take a couple good pictures of me since they do not allow cameras in the car. this is his idea of a good pic - (jeez, i am glad i wasn't drooling when he snapped it!)
 

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another one on the passengers got to wear the cow suit! kelley white got the ride as a present from her sister Lori. dang, my sister always gets me socks......
 

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they kept the instructions simple for us. we hauled out of the pits and around the track a half a dozen times. there was some smoke after the take off, but what do i know? it seemed that the tail end of the car was giving tim some trouble, but i had a real case of perma-grin as we spun around the track. yeee-hah!
 

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as we pulled into the pits tim was apologizing for not being able to go as fast as he normally does. it turned out that there was a problem with the right rear wheel. that was why things were not hooking up right for tim on the track. i was the last passenger to ride that night.
even if it was slightly slower than normal, i had a freakin blast at the berlin raceway in marne.
 

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sunday afternoon i boogied out to the us 131 motorsports park in martin michigan. it is a ride of around 45 miles from my house. i dressed warm as it was windy and 42. the radar looked good before i left (HA!). i was able to pull the snow queen in alongside all the other bikes that were there (zero, zip, nada, nil). here she is by a mustang.
 

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i was there to cover the NMRA Ford Nationals. drooled on a couple of the new mustangs....saw a lovely gray old cobra. did i mention the weather in michigan...here is the jet powered track drier after the rain that turned to sleety-snowish blah blah pelted us for while. brrrrrrr.
 

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told you there were some pretty ford products to be seen.
 

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close up view of the sign in the yellow cobra
 

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in addition to the action (or non-action according to the weather) on the track, there was an all-ford car show. i kinda liked this old beauty.
 

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i would not mind taking this to the grocery store on sundays......
 

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since i was out there on a mission to write a story for yet another small town paper i had to get down to bizniz. ended up writing a story about this young lad and his family. (got to ride out the rain/snow/sleet storm in their motorhome whilst i interviewed them) this would be 20 year old ryan piechocki and his 86 mustang.
 

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the reason ryan is smiling so big is that he dusted off a guy ranked #7 in the nation in the Toyo Tires Open Competition Class in which ryan competes. this guy hauled his rig all the way from washington state to get beat by a 20 year old in the first round. DANG!
unfortuneately ryan "broke out" in the second round which means he won the race down the track, but his ET was too fast compared to his dial in time and so he lost. (drag racing can be wierd that way!)
it started sprinkling shortly after ryan got eliminated so i suited up in my plastic pants and scooted for home!
thus ended my first week-end of racing fun. put 150 miles or so on the snow queen, met some cool people, saw races for free, rode in a race car, and will get paid a little to write a couple stories. life doesn't get much better.
(oh yeah - i get to deduct my milage to and from the tracks on account of the fact that i am a paid freelance writer...not that you would know it from my posts.....)
 

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cliffy - great report. your bike looks sweet, thats a great photo of it.

now of course i'm going to be difficult and have a single-man caption contest with a few of your photos. :D
 
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"for the love of god, inhale!"


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"another 'Dukes of Hazzard' fan takes a break from riding the short bus to get in the car."

or "Owwww my leg doesn't bend like that!" "that isn't your leg, it's your ass!"


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"what's got two thumbs and likes race cars? THIS GUY!"

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ok, i want to watch this thing and a zamboni duke it out! what a cool machine!

thanks cliff. ;)
 
I thought the screaming eagle kit was installed wrong!

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How many times do I have to tell you, the loud part faces away from the car?!?!? Dang!
 
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