I raced at Willow springs for a number of years.
An old friend dug out some pics I sent and scanned them for me.
This is an FZ-600 predisesor to the FZR I sold this bike to a friend and picked up a brand new FZR-400 off the showroom floor a few days after it arrived and took it to the track imediatly in 1988.
Willow Springs 1987
Not sure if this is Willow Springs or the old Riverside california raceway.
Willow Springs late 1987 or early 1988 just before I bought the FZR-400
Fast forward 22 years & 30+ broken bones later....me on my FZR-YZF hybrid a month ago.
Well as luck would have it my mother gave me a hug box of pictures to sort through on my last visit to the states. She had been saving all these pics over the years.
I found these oldies but goodies in there. to add to the originally posted hmmm shit I guess now legally able to call them vintage.. what is vintage over 20 years old? Crap I am old now huh? When did that happen?
Most of these pics are from 1987 and 1988 (This is a bit long winded - You have been warned)
The od Riverside Raceway out in Pamona California - me in the front This track had a few really technical "Issues" which made it a great place to learn how to read the road surface i.e. camber of camber.. or like on turn which is semi banked I Which draws you into the corner then goes to off camber in the midle and back to a lite bank on the exit.
You would rush in an slide the bike through the apex due to the off camber, getting your atention, all ass puckered up and then hook up near the exit and gun it the hell out of the turn. It crashed a lot of riders. I only survved because on practice day I followed a seasoned vet and saw what he did and then tried it and it worked. It took a lot of practice but it worked. I worked on that corner exclusivey to figre out how to get through fast more important upright. It paid off big time in races.
It was the first corner I put my knee down on the ground in competition as a newbie. I learened you needed to relax when you went through here or you would eat it fast. That corner is just ahead of me on the above pic. Its right in front of the grand stands.
Also just behind and out of frame wa a big dip I found one spot on the track that was tre width wide where the dip was about half as dramatic as the rest of the track and shot for it every time. I learned then about referance point
There was a yellow line painted in the road and a foot to the right of that was exactly where I needed to be So when everyone else was backing off the throlle due to the corner after the bunp comig up, I Did not have to do so quite as much so I had just a split second of a better entry and could carry a fraction more speed.
When that all clicked I realized just how mi-nute incriments, all over the track is what racing is about. Not just one corner its little things all over the track a split second here a 1/10 there.
Before a race I like to take a nap followed by a half hour of stretching then off to the grid.
I can sleep anywhere and here I am at the pits garage area in front of our stall. I still do this before a race. If I take a 30 minute nap I find it forces me to relax internally and help get my head in the game.
This was taken just as I arrived at my mechanics house to show him his new project. I bought the bike at first site on a whim so he had no idea I was coming home with a new FZR-400. A few hours earlier neither did I.
It was the first one on the Long Beach Yamaha Floor and I got it a few days after it hit the floor. I saw it and I bought it .....within 3 mnutes I was sitting with the manager of Long Beach Yamaha, who sponsored me parts at cost at the time, talking to him about how I could own it. He gave it to me for not much more than what he got it for as a sponsorship plan and I jumped on it and bought it right then and there.
My buddies VFR1000RR is on the right. My FZ-600 is on the left note the ram air system I made to bring cooler air to the carbs to help cool them off. I was running a jet kit and air pods with a D&D pipe so I had to run super street. Which was fine I hated a stock bike.
My riding career changed dramatically after I got this bike and learned how to ride it or more exactly how much she would let me get away with over my competitors.
For the time the cornering on this bike was as close as you could get to a GP 250 bikes handling. That is why I chose this particular frame for my Super bike project.
This is me and my race partner Jeff Wells. Whe jsut placed 3rd in a WERA National 6 hour endurance race. My 400 was bone stock with out even a steering dampner. The race was Held at Willow Springs in the Spring of 1988. I went on to get 1st in my class the next day.
My head is a bit chopped off in this pic but it shows us holding out spoils of our efforts with a WERA official in the back ground.
We had no money and no it pit crew so we used a soft front and medium back and never changed them. When we came in the pits the next rifder filled the tank while the previous rider held the bike. My buddies girlfriend would hold the fire extinguisher which was required.
The last two sessions on the bike had us sliding all over the place. We chose too soft a compound combo and were just getting stupidly sidwys in some corners. I had to put my knee on the ground and push up one time to save my ass. Jeff was more seasoned and he took the last leg as planned and said he was riding like it was on ice out there.
It was also in 1st time I felt the true differance betwen DOT and slicks. I had been running only on DOT tires before that. I loved slicks after that for sure ha ha. I think the differance in those days was far greater than it is today between DOT and slicks.
Here are a few pics from a 3 hour endurane race at Loudon New Hampshire in about June of 1988. It is an AMA-Camel Pro race and these pics are of the AMA/CCS 3 hour endurane race that was run on Saturday prior to the AMA superbike series race run on Sunday.
Dave Sadowski who I now teach with at a super bike school, on occation, here in China won the covetted 750 Title and went on to win the Daytona 200 a few years later. I think John Kozinski won the 250GP spot that weekend.
In those days it was Hells Angle type bikers on the outside of the fence of the truck yelling waiting for one of us to crash to their loud cheers of "Horra! Another Jap bike dies!"
We were warned not to leave the pits at night if we were camping in the pits over night because they would not be responsible for our safety. It was a all night Party and no sleep was to be had.
Bike tug of wars constant yelling and screaming - just insane. The fireworks made it look like a frigin war zone. No restrictions back then I guess.
In very unsportsman like manner (Who me?) I flipped the bird to a 750 rider who went under me and forced me really hard and nearly high sided me. I had to slam the brakes and come to a near stop to avoid getting hit. That was this guys style and he would take you out if you did not move. He took out Freddy Spencer thsi way at eh Dayton 20o some years prior.
After he passes and I slowed to snail pace. I flip him the bird and shook my fingered fist vigurucly at him and all the bikers on the side line and on top of their parked trucks and Winabegos cheer at the sight of it. I could hear them clearly over my bikes engine.
I thought "f*ck, that just made their race day the moment I flipped this rider off - WTF? this is the nationals?" ha ha ha. The track as you can see is the old crappy track they had back then. But it was still AMA Approved. At one poitn UI had bikers through M-80 fire crakers at me as I came over a blind rise. Scared the shit out of me to tell the truth I thoght my engine blew up they cheered as I flinched at the corner entry.
We went and visited a few of our fellow racers at the hospital after that weekends race. I think Jamie James was one of them. It was a California rider, anyway, we raced with him at Willow but in a differeent class and though he just kind of knew us and we kind of knew him. He was pretty happy we did stop in and thought it was cool we stopped in because we were track mates back home.
I enjoyed the rest of the race and we ended up 15th in the 600 class on our 400 with 63 bikes total starting on the grid I was in spot #62 at the start I think about 25% of the 62 bikes were 750s the rest 600s except another person out there with a 400. But I smoked him.
The above pic is coming into the last turn before the grand stand. I am just popping up from behind the buble to set up for the turn. It was a fast 180 degree type corner. I came out of it once and almost went right up against the red and white stripped wall you see in the back ground.
This pic shows the Camel Pro decked out truck in the back ground. Not sure what it transported.
The cones seperated pit lane from the race track. Pull in left to pit or stay to the right to keep racing.
Well thats all the old photos I own. Not many biut a slice of bike history for ya from the later 80's era
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