Tony Read

Been awhile, but I was able to make it back to the track for the Barber Vintage Festival this year.  Luckily, my friend Tom Sharp let me ride his Trackmaster framed Triumph 750 in the Sportsman 750 class. 

He's had issues with it over the years with some serious vibrations.  As in, the handlebars feel like tree trunks vibrations.  Tried several different tricks to see if it would at least lessen the amount and nothing ever seemed to work.  The bike will hold a line well enough, it just beats you to death.  Well he tried some other new things and put a motor in with some nicely domed high compression pistons and said, let's see what it'll do this time.  Still vibrates.  But, I did manage to beat my fastest time around the track by 2 seconds by the end of the weekend. 

Race one I ended up 5th but managed to beat my fastest time.  With a mechanical rev limiter in the shape of severe vibrations, plus the amount of arm pump it took to wrangle the beastly Trackmaster, I felt pretty good about that.  Not to mention the fact that it had been 2 years since I've been on a 750 or at Barber.

Race two, I got a better start and was 4th.  For the first half of the race I was right on the asses of 1st through 3rd.  We got into some lapped traffic from the class ahead of us and I lost touch of the dice for the podium.  I was eventually awarded the 3rd place after the race because my buddy, Jerrett Martin, was nice enough to forget to switch his transponder over from his other race bike. 

Knocked another second off my fast lap in that race and managed to stay a little more consistent.  This winter I should be able to finally finish my Triumph after a long time without it.  Trying to get some free time away from work to do that and try a few Mid South Cross Country races as well on my woods bike.  I also have a vintage Cross Country bike, MR250 Elsinore, I'm halfway finished with that will get some action next year.  Should be a fun year in 2014.  Thanks again for the support!

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Tony Read

Hey FTW Co,

Here's a few pictures and a little story...

On a last minute decision, I figured I'd ride down to New Orleans to the AHRMA season opener to watch since I still haven't finished my Triumph.  Talked to my buddy Carl Anderson down in Decatur, AL and he said, just ride with us.  Bring your leathers in case someone wants to let you race their bike.  Deal.  Ended up racing Carl's little Trackmaster Yamaha CT175 in the 250GP class on Saturday. Then Sunday Jack Parker, a 200GP champion, let me use his custom made tiny framed version of the same bike in that class.  Both bikes were a blast to ride.  Really lightweight, especially Jack's at 180lbs. 

Had to get used to racing a 2 stroke, which wasn't exactly easy, but I got some decent lap times.  The hardest part was getting them off the line at the start.  Normally on my Triumph, I've been the holeshot king for the last several races I entered it in.  Not the case with a 2 stroke unfortunately.  I bogged out on Carl's and got swallowed, then Sunday on Jack's, I wheelied like a bastard and almost lost it at the line.  Thankfully, no one hit me. 

Ended up taking 2nd on Saturday on Carl's bike...lonely 2nd I might add.  Sunday after almost looping Jack's tiny bike, I got swallowed up again by everyone in 250GP and about everyone in the class behind us, Classic 60's 650.  I got going and passed about half of them into turn one, but then got sort of stuck behind a BSA that had the drive out of the turns, but was slow in the mostly fast sweeping corners killing the much needed momentum I had to have to get around the track on the little giant killer. 

Had a few laps of trying to get enough speed in the slow turns to make a pass while also fighting off a pretty quick CB160 that was in my class.  He was able to motor past us in the fast "esses" section, but I lost my momentum.  I finally was able to get some good drive out of the last few turns to get enough of a gap so he couldn't pass down the very long front straight.  I tried to gain some ground on the CB160 and was closing in until I almost collected a Harley in the Classic 60's class in a section of about a 4 apex right hand turn.  He was having some mechanical issues and I tried to pass on the inside and he didn't see me coming.  Had to get on the brakes and yell, "SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!"  Then drop a gear and take off.  By that time, the little Honda was too far away to catch up to before the end of the race.

I figured I had last place at that point, but I ended up in 4th.  All in all, pretty pleased with my first time roadracing stink wheels.  Going to do it again this weekend in Talladega on Carl's 250 Yamaha.  We'll see what happens.  Hopefully this one is easier to get off the line than the 175s.

Tony Read

Tony Read

Hey FTW,

I finally got around to doing one race this past year.  A hare scramble with some badasses on new bikes.  Here's some words on it.

On Sunday, the 30th of December, the North Alabama Trail Riders Assoc. had a "buddy race" down at a place called Westpoint.  This is a leased land with about 17,000(?think that's what they said) acres of dirt bike heaven.  The scramble was a 5 mile loop, do a lap, tag your buddy, then he does a lap...and so on.  It's been raining like shit the last week or so off and on in TN so it was muddy as all get out.  Being used to roadracing, but dirt biking whenever possible, I thought it would be fun.  So me and my buddy, Jonas, went down to scope it out.  We rode my '95 XR250 and we were the oldest bike there.  Everyone else was on either a new KTM, Honda, Yamaha, etc. 

I really had no idea what to expect because I've never done any dirt racing.  Getting to the starting line in the C group, you had to straddle the front wheel facing the bike, jump on and start it when the flag dropped and away you go.  I started, and got a decent one, about half pack going into the woods.  Got past a few people on a run from one woods section near the pits into the main woods area.  Some people got stuck at the first hill climb and I was able to get around them and up to the top of the first descent.  Somehow stalled the bike on the way down that first hill and it took forever to restart the thing.  Usually it's only like that if I drop it. 

Got back in the groove and was keeping up with dudes on bikes that probably weigh 50lbs less than mine and probably have years more experience racing in this situation.  Got to another tricky hill climb 2.5 miles in that wasn't real steep, but about 7-8 bikes were stuck there so I had to wait for some to clear out.  Then I got stuck.  Spent the next 20-30 minutes trying to get up the thing in various ways.  Helped a few up, then I said the hell with it and found an alternate route because I'd already been lapped by the A and B groups.

Got going again and was making up some loss of time and having a great ride through the woods although it was a constant struggle keeping the thing upright due to the slick mud.  Fell a few times in the slick and bent the shifter and my left hand guard.  At one point I couldn't even get the thing out of 1st gear from bending it.  Stopped and pulled it out with my hand and was able to at least put it in 2nd and continue. 

Got to the finish of my first lap, embarrassingly about an hour after the start.  The fastest guys were doing the lap in 20 minutes.  Told Jonas to meet me at the van, we had some fixing to do.  I tried getting the hand guard back to normal as well as the shifter.  Told him about the awful hill I was stuck at forever.  Told him my alternate route in case he couldn't make it up it either, tagged him and sent him on his way.

After we both had only completed one lap, we were done.  Wore the hell out.  It's a lot different from when we just go ride together and we can stop every now and then.  We both didn't think we would make it through another lap without hurting ourselves so we called it a race.  Still didn't come in last though!

Tony Read #176

Vintage Road Race - Tennessee