After my fifth place overall at the last round in Sweden, we were all loaded up on the ferry and on our way across the Baltic Sea to next weekend's race at the Hyvinkaa track in Finland. It was a nice trip, as shortly after the ferry launched it was time for bed. There were small rooms (similar to small motel rooms) for a good night's sleep. By the time we finished breakfast the next morning it was time to unload the ferry and just like that we were in Finland. Like the trip from the Barkarby track to the ferry in Sweden, it was another short trip from the ferry to the track. By Monday afternoon we were checked into our motel, and Francois and Jeff had the bikes unloaded and washed. This is where we would stay for the next five days before the race. It was nestled in a beautiful rolling pine forest and was populated with friendly Finnish people, especially the women. The guys had been telling me stories about the Finnish women, and I soon found out they were not exaggerating. I don't know what Finland is like today, but back in the early 80s, Finnish women were looking for men who were not from Finland. This, coupled with the fact that women outnumbered men three to one, made it a place like no other. It turned the normal men seeking women into a complete 180. The reason Finnish women favored other men, as the story goes, was because most all Finnish men were obsessed with sports and alcohol. So when European or American men came to town, well you know, game on! This time of the year and being this far north there was not really nighttime. As the sun was setting it was already starting to rise. It sure was a unique place. Needless to say, those five days went by too fast. But maybe on the other hand, just in time as one young lady wanted me to meet her parents. She thought she was going to join me when I returned to the US. I thought we were just kidding around but when she seriously invited me to her parent's house for cookies and coffee I knew I was in trouble.
During the week in paradise my health was finally beginning to return. For the first time in months I felt well enough to do some running. Graham and I ran on some nice running trails through the oxygen-rich pine forest where our motel was located. Other than that it was pretty much R and R. Being on the road like this, we seldom got to practice during the week between races. The mechanics were busy getting the bikes ready for the race, interrupting that process and going to a practice track just wasn't practical. But I sure didn't complain as we did so much practicing and racing on the weekends that it wasn't like I was anxious to practice more. Through all this routine preparation we still found time to have fun. Someone that the mechanics knew had a small rent-a-car parked near a tree in the motel's parking lot. They tipped it up against the tree and left it there, propped up on two wheels. We all waited and watched as the owner came out and saw his car leaning high against the tree. Yes, we all find ways to have fun...it was a good laugh.
The Hyninkaa track was sand, but not so soft that it would form big, deep rollers. It was more of a hard sand that formed a lot of bumpsl but not too big and deep. This track was also very fast. One of the main straightaways, that had just two small single jumps, was fifth gear pinned looking for sixth on my '82 production 480 Honda. The start was also very long into a wide sweeping left hander. Not a favorable track for my production bike, which was outpowered against all the factory bikes, but I wasn't thinking about that. I was finally feeling well, the weather and track were awesome, and I just had a great week. I rode and rode and rode through Saturday's practices and qualifying. Saturday evening was the usual, mechanics getting the bikes ready for Sunday, riders getting their gear cleaned and ready, eating and relaxing until bedtime.
Sunday morning's weather was just like Saturday's, perfect conditions. All went well through the practices and the final 30-minute timed practice for starting positions. As always Tina had our lap times and I was right up there somewhere in the top 10. Before the 1st moto the last minute bike preparations were being made. Andre Malherbe chose to use a 110 rear tire instead of the usual 120. He said it worked better on this track so he wouldn't get too much traction and wheelie. It made me wonder if I should be using a 110 on my 480. I didn't know, and it was too late to change but nonetheless that was his choice. Soon we were all called to staging. Then we would be waved to the gate one at a time according to our times in the final practice. We would all leave our engines running because once we were all lined up the starter would put the one minute card up (I do believe it was a one minute card back then), the card would go sideways and we would be off. There was no time to shut your engine off, get some last motivating words from your mechanic and prepare yourself for the task that lay ahead, like nowadays. Usually no one except the riders were allowed past staging.
Soon the gate dropped and we were off and racing. I don't remember exactly my track position after the first corner but it was somewhere around 10th. While exiting the second corner Andre looped out a few positions in front of me. It was gnarly-looking and I was surprised. I thought, too bad for him, and I was glad I didn't use the 110 rear tire. I think his 500 works bike was spinning the tire so much that when he left off the throttle it actually got more traction and looped out. I'm not sure but after the race that's what I thought must have happened. I was having a good race, battling with riders one after the other and moving up steadily. One rider was Dave Thorpe, who was on a works Kawasaki at the time. On one big single jump that shot you really high I was looking straight down at him, right under my front wheel. I was glad that he landed on the throttle and just barely cleared my landing area in time. By the end of the 40-minute plus 2 laps moto I had worked up to fifth and was only five seconds behind the leader (Andre Vomans). Of course that means the top five were very close.
The second moto was similar, with another descent start. I remember holding Lackey off for much of the moto and all the way to the finish. That felt good, as he was the one who was telling me how difficult these GPs were after my disheartening, unfortunate reality of not qualifying for the first round in France. Brad was so mad after the race he took off his Ohlins shock, laid it on the ground, poured gas on it and lit it on fire. Needless to say, the Ohlins people were not happy about that move. Our pit was happy as Jeff and I had another fifth overall on our production Honda. There wasn't time for much celebrating though, other than a good feeling deep down inside, we were quickly off to catch another ferry. This time, all the way south to Denmark and then south again to the next round in Sittendorf, Austria.
The next morning I was eager to explore the ship. I made my way around it seeing many people I knew from the circuit and many other people I didn't know. One person I knew was Lackey. He was already training with his personal trainer, who was with him at all times. Brad was doing these short sprints back and forth on a portion of the deck. In this setting it looked very unusual as many people were looking at him like he was mental. I thought maybe I should be training too but on second thought I wasn't going to push it. After all, I just started running one day last week. Soon the rest of the boat trip became boring and I was looking forward to getting back on dry land. That's a racer for ya, we don't idle well. We like to be wide open or shut off. I guess shut off is sleeping. So after a long nap I was up and moving again. Soon it was dinnertime, so several of us ate in one of the ship's restaurants. Then we passed more time in the nightclub which was pretty uneventful. It was early to bed and early to rise, as we were docked and unloading the next morning.
Before long we were in our trusty race van on the road again. It was too far to go back to our main base in Genk, Belgium, so we were making a B-line straight to Sittendorf, Austria. It was still quite a long drive. Jeff and I got separated from our usual traveling caravan of Graham and Pam in their Mercedes, which was pulling their travel trailer, and François in his Team Honda Race truck. We were several hours from the track when the normally trusty race van would not start after stopping for fuel. For well over an hour we tried everything we could think of but it just wasn't going to start. It was already Friday so we were beginning to worry about making it to practice the next day. The gas station attendant knew of a good mechanic nearby. Soon the mechanic was there looking over our van. He said he would have to tow it to his garage. Luckily for us he was a big fan of the GPs. He let us use his truck and would bring our van to the race the next day or Sunday. We loaded our two bikes, toolbox, riding gear and the other stuff we would need for the next day's practice and we're on our way to the races again. Talk about good luck replacing bad. We arrived at the track just after dark Friday night. There was nowhere to sleep in this borrowed truck and our traveling tent was left behind. Jeff slept in François' truck again and I was lucky to have one of the Honda Team's motorhomes all to myself.
Saturday morning was looking good with nice weather conditions for racing. One Saturday chore was tech inspection. Tech inspection of the bikes was serious as they even weighed every bike from a hanging scale. Some of the riders would stand by the scale to watch a few of the suspicious bikes being weighed just in case they were under weight. I don't remember them ever catching one, but some were very close. Who knows, maybe they had a chain hidden in the air box that was later removed? I didn't have anything to worry about with my production bike.
Soon the first practice was underway on this fast, hilly, rocky, hard-packed track. There was one exceptionally long, steep uphill, which had a 180 corner a little ways before the bottom. As you started up the hill it got steeper and steeper. By the time you were almost at the top of this 100-yard hill it was very steep and covered with embedded rock, no dirt, all rock. I would have the 480 pinned in third gear halfway up this monster hill but would have to downshift to second before the top. By the end of normal practice (before the two groups of qualifying timed practice) the entire track was developing choppy bumps everywhere. Marty Moates was there, but not able to race because of an injury. I remember seeing him watching practice. After practice he invited me into his truck for a cheese sandwich and I asked him how my suspension looked compared to the factory bikes. He said, as I suspected, they looked smoother. If you remember I tried the White Power shock in practice at the Norg, Holland, race and said it was better on the choppy bumps but bottomed out on the big ones. This Sittendorf track had way more hard, choppy bumps. My Olins shock was having a hard time absorbing all the chop but it was too late to change now. I had to focus on what I had and not what I didn't have. I had to get good results...period.
In one of our motel stays during the previous week I had managed to get DeCoster on the phone, who was in California. I had already put the bug in his ear about possibly getting a works bike. After the Swedish and Finnish rounds I had two fifth overalls to add in my hopes to get "The Man" to pull some strings. He also knew I was only five seconds behind the leader in the first moto in Finland and similar in the second moto. I told him I could have surely made up that difference on a works bike. RD couldn't give me any guarantees, but he said he would see what he could do. I knew this race would be the tipping point, one way or another!
Earlier on Saturday I had found out that Honda of Japan had sent one of their head people of Honda's racing division (I don't remember his name) to find out what the problem might be with the Factory Team (Graham Noyce and Andre Malherbe) not getting the results they expected out of them. This guy, let's call him Senor Honda, would join the team for the remainder of the GP season.
Another specialty of this hilly, rocky, hard packed track was a cement start. To my memory it's the only one on the entire European GP circuit. For our qualifying timed practice we were allow to line up on the gate and do one practice start as we began our timed practice. I asked Jeff to see if he could find a bucket and shovel and take them to the gate. He got a few buckets of moist dirt and packed it onto the cement just wide enough for my tires to stay on the dirt. I practiced my one and only start on it and thought it would be an advantage. Qualifying practice went well and I was easily in the race for Sunday.
Sunday morning brought another perfect day for racing, with partly cloudy skies and mild temperatures. All my practices went well Sunday morning and I would have a good gate pick. We got everything ready in our makeshift pit area, minus our race van. It still hadn't made its return, and waited for the call to staging for the first moto. Finally the call came and soon we were all heading to the line one at a time. As soon as Jeff knew what gate I had he quickly packed our little dirt launching pad. I know I said earlier that mechanics were usually not allowed to the gate with their rider. Well, that was usually the case but not here at this particular race. When I lined up on the dirt pad I was so high that I could barely reach the ground, just balancing the bike from my tippy toes. As the gate dropped I launched off the concrete, raced down the long hard packed start straightaway, through the first two wide 90-degree corners and into a solid top five start...
During the week in paradise my health was finally beginning to return. For the first time in months I felt well enough to do some running. Graham and I ran on some nice running trails through the oxygen-rich pine forest where our motel was located. Other than that it was pretty much R and R. Being on the road like this, we seldom got to practice during the week between races. The mechanics were busy getting the bikes ready for the race, interrupting that process and going to a practice track just wasn't practical. But I sure didn't complain as we did so much practicing and racing on the weekends that it wasn't like I was anxious to practice more. Through all this routine preparation we still found time to have fun. Someone that the mechanics knew had a small rent-a-car parked near a tree in the motel's parking lot. They tipped it up against the tree and left it there, propped up on two wheels. We all waited and watched as the owner came out and saw his car leaning high against the tree. Yes, we all find ways to have fun...it was a good laugh.
The Hyninkaa track was sand, but not so soft that it would form big, deep rollers. It was more of a hard sand that formed a lot of bumpsl but not too big and deep. This track was also very fast. One of the main straightaways, that had just two small single jumps, was fifth gear pinned looking for sixth on my '82 production 480 Honda. The start was also very long into a wide sweeping left hander. Not a favorable track for my production bike, which was outpowered against all the factory bikes, but I wasn't thinking about that. I was finally feeling well, the weather and track were awesome, and I just had a great week. I rode and rode and rode through Saturday's practices and qualifying. Saturday evening was the usual, mechanics getting the bikes ready for Sunday, riders getting their gear cleaned and ready, eating and relaxing until bedtime.
Sunday morning's weather was just like Saturday's, perfect conditions. All went well through the practices and the final 30-minute timed practice for starting positions. As always Tina had our lap times and I was right up there somewhere in the top 10. Before the 1st moto the last minute bike preparations were being made. Andre Malherbe chose to use a 110 rear tire instead of the usual 120. He said it worked better on this track so he wouldn't get too much traction and wheelie. It made me wonder if I should be using a 110 on my 480. I didn't know, and it was too late to change but nonetheless that was his choice. Soon we were all called to staging. Then we would be waved to the gate one at a time according to our times in the final practice. We would all leave our engines running because once we were all lined up the starter would put the one minute card up (I do believe it was a one minute card back then), the card would go sideways and we would be off. There was no time to shut your engine off, get some last motivating words from your mechanic and prepare yourself for the task that lay ahead, like nowadays. Usually no one except the riders were allowed past staging.
Soon the gate dropped and we were off and racing. I don't remember exactly my track position after the first corner but it was somewhere around 10th. While exiting the second corner Andre looped out a few positions in front of me. It was gnarly-looking and I was surprised. I thought, too bad for him, and I was glad I didn't use the 110 rear tire. I think his 500 works bike was spinning the tire so much that when he left off the throttle it actually got more traction and looped out. I'm not sure but after the race that's what I thought must have happened. I was having a good race, battling with riders one after the other and moving up steadily. One rider was Dave Thorpe, who was on a works Kawasaki at the time. On one big single jump that shot you really high I was looking straight down at him, right under my front wheel. I was glad that he landed on the throttle and just barely cleared my landing area in time. By the end of the 40-minute plus 2 laps moto I had worked up to fifth and was only five seconds behind the leader (Andre Vomans). Of course that means the top five were very close.
The second moto was similar, with another descent start. I remember holding Lackey off for much of the moto and all the way to the finish. That felt good, as he was the one who was telling me how difficult these GPs were after my disheartening, unfortunate reality of not qualifying for the first round in France. Brad was so mad after the race he took off his Ohlins shock, laid it on the ground, poured gas on it and lit it on fire. Needless to say, the Ohlins people were not happy about that move. Our pit was happy as Jeff and I had another fifth overall on our production Honda. There wasn't time for much celebrating though, other than a good feeling deep down inside, we were quickly off to catch another ferry. This time, all the way south to Denmark and then south again to the next round in Sittendorf, Austria.
The next morning I was eager to explore the ship. I made my way around it seeing many people I knew from the circuit and many other people I didn't know. One person I knew was Lackey. He was already training with his personal trainer, who was with him at all times. Brad was doing these short sprints back and forth on a portion of the deck. In this setting it looked very unusual as many people were looking at him like he was mental. I thought maybe I should be training too but on second thought I wasn't going to push it. After all, I just started running one day last week. Soon the rest of the boat trip became boring and I was looking forward to getting back on dry land. That's a racer for ya, we don't idle well. We like to be wide open or shut off. I guess shut off is sleeping. So after a long nap I was up and moving again. Soon it was dinnertime, so several of us ate in one of the ship's restaurants. Then we passed more time in the nightclub which was pretty uneventful. It was early to bed and early to rise, as we were docked and unloading the next morning.
Before long we were in our trusty race van on the road again. It was too far to go back to our main base in Genk, Belgium, so we were making a B-line straight to Sittendorf, Austria. It was still quite a long drive. Jeff and I got separated from our usual traveling caravan of Graham and Pam in their Mercedes, which was pulling their travel trailer, and François in his Team Honda Race truck. We were several hours from the track when the normally trusty race van would not start after stopping for fuel. For well over an hour we tried everything we could think of but it just wasn't going to start. It was already Friday so we were beginning to worry about making it to practice the next day. The gas station attendant knew of a good mechanic nearby. Soon the mechanic was there looking over our van. He said he would have to tow it to his garage. Luckily for us he was a big fan of the GPs. He let us use his truck and would bring our van to the race the next day or Sunday. We loaded our two bikes, toolbox, riding gear and the other stuff we would need for the next day's practice and we're on our way to the races again. Talk about good luck replacing bad. We arrived at the track just after dark Friday night. There was nowhere to sleep in this borrowed truck and our traveling tent was left behind. Jeff slept in François' truck again and I was lucky to have one of the Honda Team's motorhomes all to myself.
Saturday morning was looking good with nice weather conditions for racing. One Saturday chore was tech inspection. Tech inspection of the bikes was serious as they even weighed every bike from a hanging scale. Some of the riders would stand by the scale to watch a few of the suspicious bikes being weighed just in case they were under weight. I don't remember them ever catching one, but some were very close. Who knows, maybe they had a chain hidden in the air box that was later removed? I didn't have anything to worry about with my production bike.
Soon the first practice was underway on this fast, hilly, rocky, hard-packed track. There was one exceptionally long, steep uphill, which had a 180 corner a little ways before the bottom. As you started up the hill it got steeper and steeper. By the time you were almost at the top of this 100-yard hill it was very steep and covered with embedded rock, no dirt, all rock. I would have the 480 pinned in third gear halfway up this monster hill but would have to downshift to second before the top. By the end of normal practice (before the two groups of qualifying timed practice) the entire track was developing choppy bumps everywhere. Marty Moates was there, but not able to race because of an injury. I remember seeing him watching practice. After practice he invited me into his truck for a cheese sandwich and I asked him how my suspension looked compared to the factory bikes. He said, as I suspected, they looked smoother. If you remember I tried the White Power shock in practice at the Norg, Holland, race and said it was better on the choppy bumps but bottomed out on the big ones. This Sittendorf track had way more hard, choppy bumps. My Olins shock was having a hard time absorbing all the chop but it was too late to change now. I had to focus on what I had and not what I didn't have. I had to get good results...period.
In one of our motel stays during the previous week I had managed to get DeCoster on the phone, who was in California. I had already put the bug in his ear about possibly getting a works bike. After the Swedish and Finnish rounds I had two fifth overalls to add in my hopes to get "The Man" to pull some strings. He also knew I was only five seconds behind the leader in the first moto in Finland and similar in the second moto. I told him I could have surely made up that difference on a works bike. RD couldn't give me any guarantees, but he said he would see what he could do. I knew this race would be the tipping point, one way or another!
Earlier on Saturday I had found out that Honda of Japan had sent one of their head people of Honda's racing division (I don't remember his name) to find out what the problem might be with the Factory Team (Graham Noyce and Andre Malherbe) not getting the results they expected out of them. This guy, let's call him Senor Honda, would join the team for the remainder of the GP season.
Another specialty of this hilly, rocky, hard packed track was a cement start. To my memory it's the only one on the entire European GP circuit. For our qualifying timed practice we were allow to line up on the gate and do one practice start as we began our timed practice. I asked Jeff to see if he could find a bucket and shovel and take them to the gate. He got a few buckets of moist dirt and packed it onto the cement just wide enough for my tires to stay on the dirt. I practiced my one and only start on it and thought it would be an advantage. Qualifying practice went well and I was easily in the race for Sunday.
Sunday morning brought another perfect day for racing, with partly cloudy skies and mild temperatures. All my practices went well Sunday morning and I would have a good gate pick. We got everything ready in our makeshift pit area, minus our race van. It still hadn't made its return, and waited for the call to staging for the first moto. Finally the call came and soon we were all heading to the line one at a time. As soon as Jeff knew what gate I had he quickly packed our little dirt launching pad. I know I said earlier that mechanics were usually not allowed to the gate with their rider. Well, that was usually the case but not here at this particular race. When I lined up on the dirt pad I was so high that I could barely reach the ground, just balancing the bike from my tippy toes. As the gate dropped I launched off the concrete, raced down the long hard packed start straightaway, through the first two wide 90-degree corners and into a solid top five start...
3/20/2015 8:28am
View replies to: Racing the 500 GPs (part 6)
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