My Weekend at Mid-Ohio

[storm 64]

My weekend at Mid-Ohio Vintage Motorcycle Days. Friday my buddy Paul came over to get the bikes packed and ready. He's riding my BMW I'm riding my 81 1100e. The bikes are all polished and looking good. We plan on leaving at 7:00am Saturday. Saturday I get up and look at the weather radar. I see this big blob of green and red. Oh shoot we are going to get wet and get wet we did. So were cruising in this rain storm with thunder and lighting all around. Still making good time, then the Zuk starts to miss. We pull off at the next exit. I figure rain is getting sucked in through the K&N's. We go to a Auto Zone, I get a old antifreeze jug and carve out a piece that will slide in front of the carburetors and wrap around the sides. Off we go. A few miles later still missing. So now I'm thinking wet plug wires. We stop again this time looking for dielectric greese. I can't find anything at Lowes but get some WD-40 I spray the plug and wires. We take off again, cool problem solved. We get to the track about 11:00 I go straight to the VJMC tent to work my shift for getting new members. I do a lot of talking but I sign on one up. I need to sign four people up to get my dues paid for the next year, oh well... So now it's time to set up camp and drink beer. We camp next to a cool group of folks from Kentucky. I end up partying with them to 2:00 am fun fun. Sunday I wake up sweating in a 90 degree tent. Feeling a little sluggish we watch some racing in the hot sun. I tell Paul we got to get out of here lets head home. We leave about 2:00 We're cruising up 71 north the Zuk starts sputtering again! I'm thinking what now? We pull over OUT OF GAS oh shoot, I have no reserve. I have one of them Pingle Pro Flow pecocks on the GS. So my buddy Paul rides up to the next exit gets some fuel then off we go again. this time we don't stop till I'm in my drive way. The rain kind of hampered things. No motorcycle show, muddy mess, I never did see Dick Burlson, (the grand marshal) not a big turnout. I did meet Jeff Saunders from Z-1Enterprise real nice gentleman. I saw Chuck76's bike and his wife's bike and his KZ buddy's. Met some good motorcycle people. Overall it was a good weekend... Norm

 

[Kyler]

did you watch the vintage sidecars race? I was at NJMP racing otherwise I would have gone to Mid-O and competed.

 

[redstedman]

No side car races. Only 3 showed up.

Crowd was WAY WAY down. No vjmc tent in the infield. No cbx tent, no 0HI0 cbxers @ the Honda pavillion. Lotsa MUD in the swap meet.

I did like the 2 NEW race classes.

I had a good time but I've had many many better VMD down there. 40 bucks per day?????? concessions closed EARLY. The new owners blow.

 

[Kyler]

No side car races. Only 3 showed up.

odd - I got emails from friends who said they raced their sidecars.

Accomplished 2 major goals in racing this weekend! One was to stand on the podium at mid Ohio! 2 was to be able to mix it up with the big dogs of sidecar racing!

 

[jeff.saunders]

I didn't get to watch any of the racing. I did look through the pits quickly and it looked like a better turnout than last year. I know the most recent years have far less racers than 3-4 years ago due to the friction between the AMA and AHMRA.

We had some of the hardest rain I've seen in the last 11 years there. There were rivers running through the swap meet - 6"-8" deep streams.... We'll post some pictures in a day or two...

Friday we had some rain move through - but the turnout was decent.
Saturday was wet to start the day, and really didn't clear until noon - so far fewer people showed up.
Sunday was fairly busy for us for the first 3 hours of the day, but come noon sales stopped and we packed up and headed home.

I am very disappointed in the lack of work being done on the facility. Three years ago they forced us to change booth spaces as they were 'installing showers' in the swap meet. That still has not happened. The back road into the facility is as rough as ever, and the swap meet area was a mess again after the rain. Once some of the roadways turned to mud they belatedly poured some crushed stone in those areas - why not do this before they are a mud hole!

Yes, the passes at the gate are very expensive - I heard a number of people complaining about this. However, if you pay early, they are just $30 for AMA members. (booth space prices and ticket prices are the only reason I still belong to the AMA).

Booth traffic was steady for us - both sales and meeting customers and various forum members. I didn't get to walk around as much as I wanted, but I thought the swap meet was better attended this year than the last 3-4 years. When we came in on Thursday, there was clearly more people setting up than the last few years. Sadly the rain (and flooding) on Saturday caused a few to head home early.

One of the booths next to us closed up early as the person sold all his bikes the first day - so he didn't stick around.