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Part II It
was 10:30 by the time Charlie rolled into the garage with the broken
bike. Brian tried to fire
the engine and it started, but the sound of marbles rolling around
inside was a little startling and he quickly shut it down. I watched Brian and could tell he was in a bit of a quandary.
In order to even think of fixing it would mean hours of labor to
take the motor apart to find out what exactly went wrong. That’s a lot
of work late at night with no promise of success. As
the pit area slowly cleared out, Brian was making the decision to go for
it. He decided he’d already invested too much time and come too far to
give up without a fight. Patrick
agreed and so they began. It
wasn’t the first time that a team would pull the all night flog to get
ready for a race the next day. One
of my favorite Reg stories is the time in 1977 when, after totally
destroying his Z1 Superbike in a qualifying crash, his mechanic Pierre
Des Roche worked all night to put the bike back together.
Since Reg didn’t qualify he had to start from the back of the
grid and went on to win the race over the likes of Yvon Duhamel, Wes
Cooley and Mike Baldwin. Small
world: today, Brian O’Shea owns that same Z1 Superbike. But it’s
stories like that that make the all nighter well worth it, even when
there’s not any money or a national championship involved. By
this time, Reg, Charlie, Em and I had left the track and headed back to
Madame’s. The day had
been heaped with emotion – excitement, elation, relief (I’m always
relieved when everybody’s back safely at the end of a race) and then -
disappointment, and we all needed some sleep. We were tucked in
having sweet dreams by the time the faithful team owners started to take
the big Honda motor apart.
Meanwhile, back at the track there was a party going on.
The teams were all up late and since a large percentage of them
were camping in the paddock, they were having a great time.
There were fireworks celebrating Bastille Day and the wine and
ice cold beer flowed readily. And back in garage 39 there was a
surgery underway. New
friends from all over were coming by to offer their support and help in
any way they could. One
team loaned Brian a work bench, others brought tools and several had
ideas to offer on how to get it done.
But Brian and Patrick were starting to see exactly what they
needed to do.
They got the motor out and took the cylinder head off to find that the head of an
exhaust valve had snapped off and lodged itself in the combustion
chamber. This was not
repairable, unless of course they were able to find another complete
cylinder head for a Honda 1000. Just what were the chances of that at
midnight on a Sunday?
Not too bad as it turns out. Remember the “motley crew” two garages down.
Allow me to give them a proper introduction:
They are Team Bimota. The
head of the team is Denis, a French gent with long flowing hair who
seemed to have an aversion to wearing clothes and worked the whole time
in his underwear. I’m sure it was just because it was so warm out.
It first made me giggle when we were in line to get our
credentials. The first
thing I saw when we got to the track was this guy in his underwear (and
they are brief!) and I cracked up. But
hey, this isn’t my country and out of curiosity I asked Patrick if
this was a common custom. He stopped laughing long enough to tell me,
no, it was an unusual sight, even in France. The only thing to add to
that would be when Denis was doing engine work, he had his white gloves
on, and during the race, he was fully clothed – I think that may have
been a rule for the hot pit!
Denis’ son Stanley and his son’s best friend David were the Team
Bimota riders and though they were quite fast, we found out that they
had never raced before. I
recall that the two boys qualified 26th.
It was Denis’ lifelong dream to be on this side of pit lane.
His time had passed, but it was time for his son.
They had saved for many many years and put together their #1
bike, a Bimota with a Honda engine.
They also brought along a parts bike, another Bimota with a Honda
1000 engine and well, you know where I’m going with this.
Denis jumped right in and offered the cylinder head off his parts bike
for our bike. In a
stranger’s time of need, he was the first one there donating a big
part of his spare motor to help a competitor finish the race. Brian and
Pat gratefully accepted and the race against the clock was on. They worked through the night with Denis staying until about
3:30 to help. At 5:30,
Brian and Pat called it a night and went back to the hotel for a couple
hours sleep. It was a full
moon and still dark as they drove back – a very surreal setting for
the French countryside, seen through their exhausted eyes.
The next morning at breakfast they relayed the whole story to us, and
they looked a little tired. We
were surprised to hear the developments but very excited that it looked
like the #3 Honda would race again.
“Hopefully.” Patrick explained, “The motor’s not in the
bike yet”.
Monday’s race was scheduled for 3:30 pm. which gave the guy’s time
to finish getting the bike back together. Brian and Patrick worked
furiously completing the engine and then putting it back in the bike.
Finally, the tank was on, a little gas was in it and now came the moment
of truth. By
this time a crowd had gathered at our pit.
More magazines had come by to interview Patrick, and the TV
cameras were watching as the final touches were made.
Everyone was anxious to see if the red white and blue Honda RS
would race again. I held my
breath as Brian pressed the starter and the engine roared to life!
The crowd cheered and it looked like Reg and Charlie would race
another day.
The bike sounded great. They warmed it up and revved it a few times,
then shut it down and pushed it back in the garage and put it on the
stand. I asked Reg what he
thought the chances were that it would finish.
He said it all depended on what caused it to break the first
time. Was it a weak valve
that just broke, or was it more complicated than that?
There was no practice scheduled for today, just the race, so
testing it was out of the question.
“Only 30 laps” Brian said as he crossed his fingers…
3:15 rolled around and Charlie suited up and got ready to ride.
It was another 98 degree scorcher, so Reg stayed in his shorts
and tee shirt awhile longer. 3:20:
They started the bike and warmed it up.
It still sounded great and the excitement grew again.
Charlie took it out for two warm up laps and pulled onto the
front straight to get into position.
We were still 4th because the grid was set in
qualifying and would not change even though we didn’t finish the race
last night. Reg held the
bike for Charlie and tension mounted as riders took their position
across the track. The
starter gave the word and the race was on – the riders darted across
the track, Charlie jumped on the RS and hit the starter button and the
bike made a funny noise, but wouldn’t start!
Reg was about to give him a push as the other riders got away but
Charlie finally got the bike to fire. He got away last and had his work
cut out for him now. We
waited as the pack came around for the first time.
Charlie had moved up passing a dozen riders or so from his bad
start. This might not be so
bad. Our riders were a
great team – and they had a whole hour to work with. A little traffic
was nothing new to Charlie and Reg – perhaps we’d still finish well. We waited for the pack to come around again.
The leaders came through. The
mid pack came through and there was Charlie.
He’s moved up to the mid pack!
Third lap, here come the leaders. Next, the mid pack. The back
markers came through – but where was Charlie? Right about then the
marshal came over to Patrick to tell him that Charlie had stopped again
– at the exit of turn 6. My heart sank. Charlie sat in the sweltering heat waiting for the truck to bring him back in this time. He finally came in – this time out of his leathers and helmet and looking very disappointed. We
watched half heartedly as the race continued and finished.
Judging by the order in which the bikes finished, Patrick thought
we probably had been given the right number, 3 – which might well have
been our finishing place if the big Honda had stayed together. Oh well,
as they say, that’s racing. Better luck next time.
Will there be a next time? Well,
if the level of fun that was had is any indication, my guess is that
there will. My guess is
that next time it won’t be as spur of the moment as it was this time,
and that the engine will be as bullet proof as the Hondas we know and
love. Brian built the 25
year old bike to show and to run occasionally. But when he built the
engine, my guess is that he wasn’t thinking 4 or 5 hours at Magny
Cours in 98 degree plus - at redline!
The team came together quickly and the bike was just not quite up
to the task, even though it did qualify 4th, get 3 practice
sessions and half of the racing in. All things considered, I’d say it was a job well done. It
was a great experience, traveling to France, the country that gets
dubious press here in the US. It
helped me to understand some things more clearly. We met a great number
of new friends and learned in a very real way not to judge a book by its
cover, even if it is a Frenchman in underwear. I’m a little worried
though. Reg has a gleam in
his eye and is trying to convince himself he doesn’t need to start
another racing career… By
the way, Team Bimota finished a remarkable 8th overall. Maybe
David and Stanley have a future in racing.
We would like to thank Brian
O’Shea, Patrick Bodden and the whole Heritage Racing team for all
their hard work making this fun trip to the Bol D’or Classic possible.
Thank you also to all of the companies who helped sponsor the team including:
Honda Riders Club of America, David Bodden’s Champion Honda in
Charleston, SC, Heritage Racing, Shell Oil Co. Charlie William’s
Everything but Bikes, Reg Pridmore’s
CLASS Motorcycle Schools, French Vintage Magazine.
Moto
Review Classic and Editions Larivier, its parent publishing company, and Motorcyclist
Magazine. Please watch for Motorcyclist’s coverage of the Bol D’or Classic by
Mark Gardiner and Patrick Bodden – on your newsstand soon!
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Cylinder # 1 was the problem. One of the valve heads snapped off and made a mess of things. |
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Brian has a big job halfway complete |
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Finishing touches... |
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To take a quick lap of Magny Cours, go to here, go to the moving Video image and click on bas débit or haut débit. I think the 'haut' is if you have high speed access. | |||
