[openwheel44]

Yep......that number 44 has brought me a lot of luck in a lot of classes for a lot of years!!! A direvitive of 144k (novice) that I was assigned a number from AMA when I flat tracked. Now that was racing!

[DAD]

Phil

OK I'm what kind of bike did you race? Do you walk with a limp?

Honest Dad Himself

[DAD]

Phil

Sometime back in one of these threads you said something about not wanting to slow our cars down and be slower than the little 600cc sidewinders. They are as fast and as squirley as they are because of their lack of weight and wheelbase.

You also said you raced AMA flat track in your day. Back in the late 60's and early 70's we had a 1/2 trotter track in Louisville. They covered it with Limestone for the horses. Once a year the AMA would bring a race to town. I can remember watching the pro's like Lawwill, Nixon,Markel, and Mann race. It was like watching a Ballet or Champ cars on the dirt at Do Quoin. The only way to explain it was beautiful, a little boring but amazing to watch.

When the AMA amateurs came out to race it was more like football. Those guys had something to prove and I think put on as good or perhaps a better race than the pro's. It wasn't the speed that made their race, it was the determination of the riders that showed through and made their races great and a lot more interesting than the Pro's.

Honest Dad himself

[openwheel44]

I ran Louisville a couple of times. That track surface was really hard on leading surfaces like fork tubes, number plates, helmet shields, leathers.......everything. But it was a blast. Feet up, fork lock slides, WFO. You just didn't want to get caught it someone's roost. Slow your a$$ down big time. I loved the half miles and miles. Short track was fun but more like a mini-war every time you went out on the track. Mainly ran Yamaha's since a local shop helped me out. Got to run another guy's Harley a few times. Novices and Juniors were all the "hungry" guys trying to get up to the Expert class. Kill or be killed attitudes for us hungry guys. Whatever it took. Never had very many laps to dial one in or prove yourself. Total chaos from green to checker. Loved it. I quit racing about the time they started putting brakes on the flat track bikes. Family coming and needed to be responsible anyway and quit running all over the United States. Hated the brakes. Messed up the racing in my opinion. Saw more guys hurt due to brakes than without. Other than having a family.......If I hadn't got old and fat.........I would still be flat tracking. Thought about some vintage racing but there isn't enough around here to do it. I still have my short track bike setting in my shop. Still got my hot shoe too. And nope........no limp but I got banged up plenty of times over my flat track career. Due to racing flat track bikes, I usually have a nice warm fuzzy feeling setting inside a caged race car all strapped in.

[DAD]

Phil I have been told it was really hard on the face as well. But that big white roster tail was sure impressive.

Let me see now 2015 take away 1970 equals 45. If you was racing bikes at 20 that would make you ??.

Wow is your Race Car equipped with an Oxygen tank.>>> Must be all that climbing around over and below them machines that kept you in shape.

Honest Dad himself

[openwheel44]

Do the math all you want............I'm still 64. With a mind of 10 year old.

[RoyaltonMiniSprint]

And can still drive too I can attest to that!!!

[TQ29m]

Originally Posted by openwheel44 Do the math all you want............I'm still 64. With a mind of 10 year old.

Your assesment of the oil problem is pretty much spot on, something a lot of fellows haven't stumbled on to yet, sounds like. Back in the late 60's, Cummins Diesel had just ventured into the V series of engines, and were experiencing some oil related problems, so we bought a large tilt table, about 8' square, and about 6' off the floor, and it also swiveled, which allowed me to not only tilt the engine, but tip it at all angles. I took oil pans, valve covers, gear covers, anything I could put a window in, and ran engines on this stand for over a year, and you can't imagine what goes on inside an engine. At some speeds, everything was as it should be, but increase it even a little bit, and the rear gear train would pick up oil, and suddenly the overhead was full of oil, and the oil pan was dangerously low, then it would stabilize, then it would just be a mist, all the oil was in suspension. To make it short, I finally got vents located where this was manageable, and the problem was solved. In these modern bike engines, especially with a wet sump system, probably close to 80-90% of your oil is in suspension, very little left for the pickup to get to, hence blown engines. Anything you can do to help this oil vent, and get the air out of the crankcase, will let your engine live to fight another day, more baffles around the pickup, better locations for vents, bigger vent hoses, more oil capacity, sometimes it doesn't take much, just in the right place, the cam chain carries up a lot of oil, and also adds air to it, making it hard to get back in the sump. Look at the inside sometime, and imagine where you could make it better for racing purposes, it just might make your engines last longer. Bob!

[whiteracing27]

You couldn't have said it better. Hence the dry sump.

[openwheel44]

Or......spend the minute amount I did and be a little creative with baffling the oil pan and possibly fix the issue? Hmmmm.......

Less than a $100 or possibly $1600-$1800..........let me think about that. LOL

Seriously though.........doesn't the same issue arise in a dry sump system? The oil could literally hang in the motor as described in both threads? It still has to get to a "pickup" point. All the factors are still influencing the oil unless I am looking at this wrong???? Put more oil in the motor to offset the suspended oil? At what point does the motor have too much oil in it when going from high rpm to a pace lap speed?