Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127585
eROADRACE e AHRMA Historic Cu SerieslBMW Classic Cu Series: Rounds 9/2 . Stuart Rogers (I22) and David Roper (71) ha d se veral close races over the weekend, with Roper win ning th ree times. Todd Hen ning was dominant at Loudon, winning six classes before crashing hard in his final outing. • emu au sat Lou on By Matt Benson WUDON, NH, JULY 3-4 n til Tod d Henning fell hard enough to bring out the ambulance in the weekend's final race, the 3rd Annual Vintage Celebration at New England International Speedway belonged to the Provincetown, Massachusetts, racer. Henning piloted a U 28 fleet of fast Yamaha s and Hondas to five American Historic Racing Mo torcycle Association class wins, and he earn ed several first - and second-place finishes in Un ited States Cl assic Racing Association classes as well. But despite Henning 's ironm an per- form ance, the real s ta rs o f the show were some supposed ly over-the-hi ll racers. The likes of David Aldana and Yvon DuHamel dueled in the BMW Battle of the Legends and then went on to give th e r egu la r AHRMA National contenders fits. In fact, Henning was furiously chasing DuHamel for the Formula Vintag e class lead when he lost the front end of his Yamah a TR3 and crash ed heavily in Loudon's turn six. Henning cam e away from th e cra sh intact, wh ile DuHamel and the Team Obsolete BSA Rocket III notched a seco nd win. Aldana, after w in ning bot h legs of th e BMW Leg end s e ven t, fin ished a so lid seco nd to cl ass cha mp Da vi d Rop er in th e Premier 500cc class an d third beh ind Du Ha mel and Jerry Wood in Formula Vintage. Both rides ca me aboa rd a Team Obsolete Matchless G50. Am on g the othe r Legends riders, Don Vesco rode a Norton to third in Form ula 750cc - again behind DuHa mel and Wood - and Don Emde was a respectable eighth in 500cc Premier on yet another Team Obsolete machine, this one a 350cc AJS 7R. "It was a lot of fun being in that fast com pany:' said Wood , a uctio nee r and Peng uin Road racing School operator . "I race with Todd all the time, but to race with Alda na and Du Hamel together th ose guys were bump ing eac h other, racing like the old days. I felt honored to be there and riding with them ." Sharing track time is nothing new for vi ntage racers; be ing o n the program with modern bikes is a fact of life when it comes to ge tti ng eno ug h en tries to rent a race track and eve ryt hi ng th a t goes w ith it. But fo r th e Vi n tage Celebrati on , mot orcycl ists are pa ir ed with vinta ge ca r race rs at th e s upe rb Loudon faci lity, and the match seems ag reeable to all pa rties. There was also a swap meet, a BMW moto rcycle displ ay where the Battle of the Legends rid ers cong rega ted, a Pen guin schoo l, pa rade laps of the 1.6-mile course, and a car and motorcycle show that featured a mix of ve hicles ra nging from an 1895 Roper steam cycle to a 1991 Fe rrari F-40. Weather started out d rizzly on Saturday but fittingly was sunny and hot for the ' Fourth of July. . Rope r go t to work immed iately on Saturday morning with a close race on a slippery tra ck aga in st En glishman Stewart Rogers in AHRMA's Pre-1940 class. Rop er ' s TO Velocette KIT held the lead, so me times on ly sligh tly, over Rogers' Nor ton for the entire race. The second time th e pair met, they were on the sa me machines in the Class C event. This time, Rogers sna tched the lead at the start and held off Roper for four of the six laps . Roper then ope ned a small gap, which tightened up agai n as the two began lapping riders. At the finish, Roper aga in was the victo r. "I followed him a few laps and then out-dragged him int o tu rn three: ' Rop er said. "The bike was gea red pe rfectly and everything worked well." "I like ridin g with Dave. He's a good, sound rid er;' sa id Rogers, th e Briti sh cl assic rac ing front -runner. Thou gh Rogers had been planning to ride another Norton owned by Bob McKeev er, a gea rbox p roblem mad e him decide to compe te on a machine he has kept here in the United States this year. "You need ev e ry thing yo u ca n ge t when racing against Roper," he said. Roger s fo und himself chasi ng th e lead er again in the Classic Sixties race, this time in pursuit of Stephen Mathews on the Barb er Dairy Products Matchless GSO replica . After Sa turday's Classic Sixties success, Ma thews, th e 1991 AMA Pro Twins cha mp, was looking forwa rd to a good fight in 500cc Premier on Sunday agains t Roper, Aldana and Craig McLean. The Barber team has spent the seaso n sorting out its Premier bike, the George Beale-built ultra-lightweight G50 replica, and Mathews sai d it seemed like things were getting close. However, the race proved otherwise.