As I said before in the Dyna coils post, I had a pretty good year racing with AHRMA. I did 2 events, Road America and Grattan. I run my Pantah in the vintage superbike mid class, which is pretty stacked. This is only my second year racing so I am still a beginner. That being said, when a well built Honda 450, built for the novice production light class, came up for sale I bought it.

I also did some extensive work on my Pantah over the winter. 900ss carb cams, high comp wiseco 82mm pistons, and some light head work. I was trying to fit some 41mm intake valves in a spare set of heads, trying to emulate the 620 heads. I was able to them installed with a TON of help from Mike V. However I soon came to find out that the pistons only had cutouts big enough for 38mm intakes. It took so long to get the pistons that I did not have time to flycut the pistons, so I ran the bike with stockish heads. I also drilled and lightened the clutch basket, primary gear, oil pump gear, and belt drive cross shaft gear. The 650 ran FLAWLESSLY and like a raped ape! I could not be happier with it. And it was really a model of reliability. It never gave me any problems. I did have to replace the regulator rectifier, but the original was 35 years old so I have no complaints. I will get the pistons flycut this winter and get my big valve heads working!

So I took 2 bikes to RA. Practice day on Friday was cool and overcast. I was out on the Honda in the first session and had a low speed low side. I was fine but the bike hit the curb and bent the forks....the honda was done for the weekend. The Pantah ran great on Friday and race day Saturday. I took a third, my first podium. Sunday it rained so I did not race.

The next week I fixed the honda and headed to Grattan. Race day on Saturday was overcast but traction was good. I took first in the production class on the honda! I also took a fourth on the Pantah, but that 4th only reinforced to me the fact that while my Pantah is fast enough on the straights, I need to get faster through the corners if I want to be a consistent podium finisher. Sunday rained and the track was terrible so I loaded up and headed home.

My other big news is I picked up a bucket list bike this past weekend. It is a 1973 Ducati 750GT. It was a former drag race bike, I know makes no sense to me either, and needs a lot of work. But it is a roundcase with and original paint tank and the original title from 1974. Should be a year long project and it is about 80 percent complete. Right now I am sifting through the big box of parts that came with it to see what I need.

Below are a pic of me at Road America and a pic of the 750GT.

Dave

Sounds like your having fun there Dave !