Maxton in-FULL

The only sign I could find telling me I had arrived.

Jon and I pose with the BonnePan post-storm as the sunset went off.

Dennis and Gene admire the flatty.

Gene added a dual carb set-up to his LSR for this falls go.

I arrived so late on Saturday all I could show for the first day of racing were these semi-dramatic shots of the Pan at dusk.

After the sun set Jon and I headed out to the course to check the line...

We decided to take a slow roll down the course to feel it out a little. The sky was eerie that night, we also knew earlier that day the track had taken another racers life which added a heavy weight to the night air. The sky was doing the spooky thing too.

Here was the trickiest part of the course. We studied it over and over trying to figure out the best possible line through the battered blacktop. As it turned out the best strategy at full throttle was just keeping your bucking hardtail as close to the white line as possible.

Late night meeting of the minds...

Early the next morning Brian and Jon begin to prep the bikes for Sundays events.

As the sun comes up over the tree line last minute details are nailed down.

One of Dale's entries from the Wheels Through Time Museum. Dale came down with the flu on Saturday which ended up putting him in bed for most of the day. Sunday he decided to become our crew chief/den mother for the days racing. His helping hand was much appreciated by me.

Gene prepping the flatty as Dale looks on.

Jon was the first one of us to take a run. Unfortunately he only improved upon his last years record by 1 MPH - @ 98. According to Jon the bike never seemed to really clear out it's lungs and scream. Jon's flathead would not be the only bike in our stable feeling under the weather.

Detail of Gene's dual-carb clean machine.

Our support vehicle for the day got more attention at times then our race bikes...

A lot of waiting in line on Sunday due to the horrible events the day before which shut racing down early and forced everyone to stay and compete on Sunday. Thats Rivet from Jersey on the far left - a good guy!

Lifer.

Brian about to get his record run for the day. I think he went somewhere in the 100mph range which was very respectable even with a strong 12MPH head wind.

Brian beaming after his record run. His shock dampening set-up came right out of the history books and proved to be very helpful on the bumpy course.

Had a great time overall at Maxton. The event was somewhat down due to the death of a rider on Saturday. The weather was so-so at best and the direct/constant head wind took a huge toll on the top speeds. I ended up taking only 2 runs and suffered jetting problems at full-throttle both times. Even after dropping 8 teeth on the rear sprocket which should have given me Bonneville speeds, I only managed to muster a 110 top speed at the traps. Wish I could have taken one more pass with a larger main jet just to see what would have happened...

Having said all that I did have good time in N.C. with the crew. We got to play with cool old bikes for a couple days and slept under the stars (so to speak). Will I go back next year? Not sure at the moment - I heard there is a track in Maine that is a smooth as a babies bottom and as wide as football field.