John Lilley Racing

DAYTONA

This trip to America was firstly an adventure, then sport and certainly a trip of a lifetime.

The racing took place at Deland airfield track on Feb28th and Mar 1st with the Daytona meeting on Mar 4th and 5th, all run by the AHRMA:-.American historic racing motorcycle association.

In all the logistics of shipping bikes and organising entries was a headache, which Gerry O'Sullivan, ably assisted by Godfrey Shaw took care of. Accommodation and transport once stateside was another unknown, hiring R.V.s gave us the gypsies option but without help from Oonagh and Tom Christie of the Celtic MCC of New York we could not have hired the box trailers for the all important machinery.

We flew as a group from Gatwick to Orlando, then an overnight stay in a motel to acclimatise. The R.V.s were not far away but involved several hours of admin before we rolled down Orange Blossom trail in search of the U-Haul trailers. Near the R.V. centre the local Harley shop invited inspection, where a 6ft4in Hawaiian introduced himself as a brown leprechaun , descended from a potato farmer and hence named Fitzgerald!

From there we continued south to Kissamee on the hunt this time for the container with our bikes. After one month on the high seas we were relieved to find all intact and with a series of minor hurdles already crossed man handling the bikes off a 5ft high lorry bed did not seem much of a hardship. The group consisted of 9 at this stage so the two R.V.s went in separate directions for a while. The crew in ours consisted of myself, Godfrey, Gary and Collin Dawson and Billy Lyle. Our first location was a scenic R.V. park beside Orange City with great facilities and good rates. Most importantly it was in easy driving distance of Deland airport. Deland is a normal airfield track, laid out in the silhouette of a boomerang. Dirty dusty, grippy sometimes, sun shining and follow the cones. The days started cold and warmed up nicely, we wore shorts, the Yanks kept on their thermals and woolly hats. Certainly a good chance to blow out those winter cobwebs.

A few mechanical problems arose, Gary's Aprilia had fuel starvation, My bike had clutch slip and Kevin Callan was to succumb to valve damage on his Honda 500. Raceday for me was one of those dreams where you have to wake up at the best part! As an unknown I was put to the back of the grid on my Spondon XT690.A short dash to the first corner saw me move from 12th to 6th place. The Americans really do want to go back to work on Mon. morning-perhaps it is that healthcare costs! The leader was Al Charles on a factory Ducati Supermono, at the end of lap one I had moved into second place, with seven laps to go I relaxed and was very surprised to have reeled in the 4-5 sec's of the leader. Then the red mist dropped and I passed him on the brakes into turn three, working the engine a little too hard. I felt her tighten a little just then and it wasn't long before I was black flagged off the track for showing too much smoke! Game Over.

For the rest of the crew things fared better, Gary Dawson, Billy Lyle and Kevin Callan all collecting trophies, no-one hurt and most of the machines in running order.

After Deland we moved location to the Finishline RV park which is in walking distance of the impressive speedway stadium Now in the centre of the Daytona Bikeweek we got to see the carnival unfold, enjoy the beer sold by pretty girls on the sidewalk and watch the poseurs. Scrutineering was held the day before racing began for us at the American Mechanics Institute a few miles south of Daytona on speedway drive. Registration, safetybriefings and bikes checked we were 'good to go 'as they say. My objective was now just to complete a few laps of the 2.5-mile circuit, which includes most of the banking and a large part of the infield. The Spondon had lost power and developed a top end knock consistent with a piston seizure. Being a long way from home repairs were not an easy option so I was just glad to coax eight laps from the bike in practice. She twice tightened on the warm down lap, which convinced me that it was time to park her up. The steep banking is all the more impressive when the engine might fail as you enter a high turn.

Collin Dawson managed to blag a ride on a Yamaha TZ250 and squeezed into my leathers for a run out .His fate was sealed with a seizure on lap one of his race. The circuit is renown for being hard on machinery and next on its list of victims was Billies normally bulletproof Honda 500 which broke two cylinder studs. Gary Dawson however cured his fuel starvation so that in his race he was able to maintain an early lead in the supermono 2 class to take a very special win. The Honda 350's of Kevin, Gerry and Godfrey all took the punishment, rewarding each rider with good finishes. The team Meta mechanics- Art O'Hare and Gramps O'Connor would have had an easy time of it if it wasn't for bump starting duties.

Once the racing was done a few of the Bikeweek landmarks had to be found -Boothill saloon, Pub66, Cabbage Patch, Main St., Beach St. and even a paddle in the other side of the Atlantic. For myself and Gary it was pack up and go home time, while the rest stayed on to watch the full International Daytona 500 races. A success? Certainly on some levels and not an experience to be missed, the biggest surprise for me was the friendliness of the Americans and lack of attitude from stereotypes you might imagine.