Wow., what a brilliant weekend weather-wise for racing, we couldn’t have asked for better weather all round!. It was hot, very hot, but that’s ok, we like it hot!!!.
First up, we would like to thank the following people who volunteered to passenger for 4 teams and helped put 4 rigs on the grid.
1. “Junior” from Maryland for Pete Demerski, racing an F1. From what I understand, Junior has raced just about everything and anything that has wheels on it! And this gentle giant standing at approximately 6’2” wasn’t going to give up the opportunity of trying out a sidecar to add to his list.
2. “Bill Johnson"from Baltimore for Bobby, racing an F1. Bill races vintage 2 wheels with WERA and when he first saw the rigs in the pits thought to himself “I think I’m in this way over my head”
3. “Phil Marr” from West Virginia for Chris Wells, another F1. Phil’s racing experience has been on “dirt” and passengered for Ken Kyler on an MX sidecar.
4. “Matthew Parry”, originally from Twickenham in the UK races a Lightweight 900cc Ducati in the US, was good enough to passenger for Marcus Poisson on an F2 Kawasaki. This is the second time Marcus has raced with the SRA East. Marcus is an expert Vintage BMW sidecar racer.
Second, we would like to thank all those who (a.) took their bikes out for the Marshall’s parade laps, and (b). to those people who provided and handed out cold drinks to the riders after our race, and during the parade laps. Way to go everyone and thanks again.!!!.
So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of the weekends racing at Summit Point, racing with CCS at one of our most favourite tracks in the US.
The weekends racing went well with no major mishaps to write about, everyone had a blast up until Sundays race, when Pierre & Mark's F2 engine quit Crying or Very sad
Team Fletcher had another real exciting weekend pulling in another 2 wins on both days. The bike handled well, with a little exception from the heat from the exhaust that started to burn through Steve’s boot, he decided to tape exhaust wrap and heat resistant tape to his right boot, to help prevent this from happening, and that’s when Bobby started singing “Ground control to Major Tom" by David Bowie, coz it looked something like a space boot!. Laughing Laughing On Sundays practice, their clutch cable snapped, and big thanks to BFD who loaned them a spare clutch cable they shined through the rest of the weekend. Oh, and according to the official race sheets, on Saturday, these 2 guys were a whopping 17 seconds ahead of the 2nd place bike, and on Sunday they were 19 seconds ahead of the 2nd place bike!!!!! Well done Steve & Brett!!
Savage Racing also had another great weekends racing. No mechanical problems for these two. Not sure what George had in mind during one of the practices on Saturday, George was ahead of Double Trouble when George and Russ decided to leave the track somewhere after corners 7 & 8 , all I saw was flying dirt and a beaten up Oil Pan rolling over in the dirt. Savage Racing took 2nd place both days, pulling in another 36 points!!. Way to go guys!!. (ps. my bill is in the mail for the wheel polishing done at the weekend Wink )
Kazmik Racing – OMG, yet another great weekend for Mick & Karen, pulling in 2 firsts in the F2 category, these guys are determined more than ever to get that 1st place trophy for F2 this year!!. Their F2 rig is still having some “overheating” issues on the cool down laps, so once back in the pits, a lovely “oscillating” Shocked fan was placed over the rig to help cool her down. Congrats to Mick & Kaz on your wins, and not only that, placing 4th overall on both days.!!
Flying Poutine – Man are these two guys ever moving up fast in the F1 category. I don’t believe they had any mechanical issues at Summit Point, in fact, Bill & Andrea are working so well together on & off the track, that they placed 4th both days in the F1 category and came in 5th overall both days. Beware, the top 3 F1’s you’d better watch your backs coz these guys have you in their sight Cool Cool
Team Frog– Had an awesome day on Saturday, placing 2nd in the F2 category, even beating Essaff Racing on that one!. WhooHoo. Unfortunately this wasn’t going to be the same for Sunday, after an exciting start off the grid on Sundays Race, they were forced to pull off after the 3rd lap at corner 3 as their engine died! Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad (Mark mentioned afterward he thought it was a piston). However, having said that, when this rig is running right, it sure as hell is fast!. Hope you get the bike fixed Pierre for the last round at Shannonville later this month. Very Happy Very Happy
PJ Racing – Judy Demerski had to take a seat on the sideline for the weekend of Summit Point, after having had surgery 6 weeks prior to the race weekend, she was given Dr’s orders – NO RACING! Mad Mad However, I’m sure that didn’t stop Judy from working her butt off in the pits!.(And I did see you get a ride back from pit lane after the parade laps!. Tutt Tutt Rolling Eyes Rolling Eyes ) Anyway, Pete’s passenger for this weekends racing was no other than “Junior” when you first look at Jnr, he does not match his name!. Junior, who stands at approximately 6’ 2” and probably weighs around 260lb was about double the weight of Judy and over a foot taller! Shocked Shocked Shocked However, that didn’t stop Pete from tearing round the track. I understand that on Saturday’s practice they had a problem with the rear wheel, they came in and got it fixed. So, on Saturday’s race, when Pete saw the white flag in the corner of his eye, he thought it was the checkered flag and pulled off early Embarassed On Sunday’s race, Pete & Junior started off at the back of the grid, and I’m not kidding, by corner 1 I think they were in 5th place!!. Holy Cow, they were flying! Pete & Junior came in 5th in the F1 category on Sunday and 7th overall. Way to go Pete & Junior!!
Chris Wells Racing saw Phil Marr, a local WV man on the back of this rig to help Chris make it on the grid, Chris & Phil seemed to be plagued with exhaust problems all weekend. During the race on Saturday, I saw the muffler from Chris’s bike smoldering in the grass off the back straight! On Sunday we got word in the pit area that a 2 wheeler had a spare exhaust system if Chris needed it, so saw in hand and with a little help from others Very Happy Very Happy , they manufactured another muffler for the exhaust on the bike, unfortunately, this wasn’t going to hold till the days end, and Chris lost another muffler! Mad Mad And as Chris put in his recap, “if you can’t beat them, starting throwing parts off your bike at them!” Laughing Laughing Phil did an awesome job in the passenger seat, and they came in 3rd place overall both days and 3rd place F1 both days. Way to go Chris & Phil!!
Essaff Racing had a good weekend of racing, actually taking out both their bikes on Saturday and Sunday. Adi wasn’t sure how the weekends racing was going to go as she was nursing a minor injury to her left shoulder, so Adi’s thoughts were, “if it’s gonna hurt too much, just hold on tight!!” Shocked Shocked Shocked Saturday’s race on the F2 gave them a 3rd place finish, They were having engine problems where the revs were not going higher than 9000rpms. I think maybe both Pete & Adi may have been a little disappointed here, so, just to spice things up a little, did a switch with Marcus on Sunday and they raced their ever faithful Kawasarki!!. Cool Cool (I think the tactic here was to pull off a first place F2 finish, but KAZMIK RACING were not going to let that happen) and so Pete & Adi took 2nd place finish F2 on Sunday. Awesome finish guys and Adi, I hope the shoulder heals before this upcoming Cayuga weekend !! (I think the tactic here was to pull off a first place F2 finish, but those Boyles were not going to let that happen) and so Pete & Adi took 2nd place finish F2 on Sunday. Awesome finish guys and Adi, I hope the shoulder heals before this upcoming Cayuga weekend !! Oh, and Team Fletcher said “thanks, for letting them be the first team ever to lap Essaff Racing”.
Double Trouble had a great experience this weekend. Bobby has never raced around Summit Point, but had passengered for a couple of practices a few years ago, so at least had some idea of the track. Bill Johnson, Bobby’s passenger had never been on a Sidecar before but knows the track like the back of his hand!!. and so were both pretty anxious and yet nervous for the 1st practice on Saturday. Alas, this was not gonna happen. As we made it up towards the pit lane, following Team Fletcher, we did a turnaround up near the tower and snapped the clutch cable!. So Bills first experience and exercise for the weekend was to push the rig back to our pit area Razz Razz (thanks to my mechanics), we got out for the 2nd practice. Things seemed to be going pretty well, I think it was lap 3 that I went into corner 5 too hot and we ended up dirt and grass tracking for about 3 seconds, but having full control, got back on the track and finished our practice. After our first Race on Saturday, we came in and Bill was “wrecked”. Shocked Shocked Bill put it down to being “out of Shape” I put it down to he was probably “over passengering”, as I’ve been there and done that. Rolling Eyes Rolling Eyes Sundays race however was much better, after picking up some really good race lines, settling down to the contour of the track, and Bill, what an awesome passenger and no chair lifts! was more relaxed and content with his passenger skills. (see, those tips that we squeezed out of some of the more experienced passengers really did help! Laughing Laughing) we shaved off 4 seconds from our first race on Saturday to our 2nd race on Sunday. Our slides round corner 1 were better controlled and we did not come in last! Wink Wink
Last but not least, "Scrubber Rubber", aka Marcus Poisson and Matthew Parry. Marcus, not quite an SRA East member yet, but I think that possibly this may be something that Pete & Adi are working on Very Happy Very Happy Marcus had a loaner passenger Matthew who was racing 2 wheelers that same weekend, we soon learned that Matthew had been a sidecar passenger some 29 years ago back in the UK, and was hoping that it would all come back to him!. Marcus on the other hand is used to racing vintage sidecars, and was out to try his best again on Team Essaff’s F2 Kawasarki. From what I have heard, the start of Saturday’s race didn’t go too well, as when the flag dropped, they had no gears Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad After the gears kicked in M & M started to catch up to the rest of the pack. Even passing Double Trouble on the last lap on Saturday! Evil or Very Mad Sunday’s race was different though; with Pete & Adi having F2 points in sight, they ended up giving the Honda F2 to Marcus and Matthew to race on the Sunday. Keep in mind, that Marcus had never driven this bike before and in Matthews' words “Well I can tell you we made the best of it in the race - new rider, new monkey, new hand holds, different gearing etc considering what was against us we did good - I don't know where we finished, but we did finish!" - Way to go Marcus & Matthew.!!
And so the closure..................................
One last thing I would like to mention, is that there was a great downfall to the race weekend at Summit Point this year, these downfalls are Personal to Steve & Bobby Fletcher.
Sometime on Saturday between our 2nd practice in the morning and early afternoon, approx $700.00 US was stolen from Bobby’s purse, which was sitting inside their RV, hidden down the side of her chair and the RV door was closed.
To the person who STOLE our money: Did you ever think or have any idea whether or not we had any other money to travel home with, or whether we had any credit cards with us?. We have been so upset over the entire thing since finding out that the money was stolen that we hope by now you are feeling as guilty as hell for what you did and that if you have one single solitary decent bone in your body, you will discreetly return the money in an envelope and leave it on the stairs of the RV at the upcoming race in Cayuga this coming weekend just as the same way you so discreetly took it then this will go no further.
After all the racing was over, Bobby’s Chest/Back protector was “MIA” (missing in action) after all the packing up was done. Searches were done with the tower, and club members were asked if by any chance they had packed it up with their belongings by accident.
After numerous e-mails, and a few phone calls, Bobby’s chest/back protector has been located, Bobby’s passenger Bill J had accidentally packed it away with his gear, and is sending it back via Pete & Adi in time for this upcoming race at Cayuga. Thanks to all those who showed concern and turned their things inside out with hope of finding it. Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy
Bobby, Race Director Smile
and other irrelevant chit-chat 
That was awesome! Saturday started kinda bad. A bad wheel bearing job on the rear wheel keep us out of the first two practices. We got it fixed before the race. Needless to say, I only had two half pace practice laps 
. So saturdays race was more of a practice then a race. What a ride, I was out of breath and over heating by lap 4 
. Its no joke, These bikes rock! 
. It even impressed my 15yr , thats not easy. Thanks agin ken for the hook up.
