Daytona Vintage Races

I don't get around to posting very often, but I'm home with a nasty cold today and thought I'd share some photos of last weekend's Vintage Races held at the Daytona Speedway. Most of us bunked at Mike Carter's farm in Altoona, FL....Mike's a real stand-up guy who, along with his brother, Dave, dedicate all their free time to keep British bikes on the road. So last Sunday our thundering herd of 4 Nortons and 1 Triumph headed over to the tech inspections being held at the Volusia County Fairgrounds. I'm pretty new to the race scene, so I was completely amazed at the collection of Norton, Triumph, BSA, Vincent, AJS, etc. racing machines at the fairgrounds that morning. Bummed that I didn't have my camera with me.

Anyway, the next morning our group (pictured below) headed over to Daytona for the first day of races.



It was early yet and the races didn't start for a few hours, so we spent time in the garage area where owners were busy prepping for the day. As you can see, I was definitely biased in my photo selections.





The races got underway around noon...unfortunately my pocket digital wasn't up to the challenge of zooming in for crisp shots, so I'll pass on posting those. The absolute HIGHLIGHT of the day, however, was attending the famous "Turn 6" party held every year by the Atlanta Norton Owners Association.



We pulled up to no less than 50+ Nortons parked in a long line. Needless to say it was a great day of hanging with lots of Norton enthusiasts from around the region, kicking tires and LOTS of tall tales!

Thanks for sharing the great pictures... it looks like it was a beautiful day :!:

I wish I could get out on a motorcycle... any motorcycle. The roads here are cr*p... gravel, salt, dust...

Great shots and beautiful machines! My friend Arthur Kowitz won the Heavyweight Superbike race on his evergreen Z-1. He was AHMRA Champ in 2008 and is running a limited schedule this year. Arthur, who raced the Z-1 back in the day against Freddie Spencer and company, is an inveterate bike nut with a '68 BSA Lightning in his living room.

Excellent pix, Chip!

Mike & Dave are really super guys, they treated me like royaly when I bunked in the garage; "anything you need".

I garaged next to Arthur at Grattan in '08, nice guy and fast to boot.

So, how did Kenny Cummings go? He'll be running one of my heads this season. With standard valve sizes no less. Just to make life interesting for everybody concerned.

Fullauto said:

So, how did Kenny Cummings go? He'll be running one of my heads this season. With standard valve sizes no less. Just to make life interesting for everybody concerned.

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Kenny did all right. In fact, he went 3 for 3 in the BEARS class between Roebling and Daytona. The photo of the Seeley Norton above is his ride for the week - A Herb Becker/John Magyar 750 Short Stroke on loan while his new motor (with beautiful Fullauto head) gets prepared by Mr. Comstock.

How do I know all this???? Well... I am Kenny Cummings. And I'm a racing junkie.

I think I see Klaus's bike in one of those photos.

Good onya Kenny! Its the only type of junkie to be!!! I visit NYC regularly with great interest and watch your progress.
Regards FOXY :mrgreen:

Thassa my boy!! Well done. Hope you do as well with my cheap crappy head.

Fullauto said:

Thassa my boy!! Well done. Hope you do as well with my cheap crappy head.

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That cheap crappy head is going to cross the finish line in the front many, many times!

And Kenny will have the smoothest running Norton because it will have my 200 gram pistons and longer/lightweight Carrillo rods. Low vibration means more reliability - fewer things breaking and a little more HP thrown in for good measure.

Jim Schmidt

http://www.jsengineering.net

jseng1 said:

And Kenny will have the smoothest running Norton because it will have my 200 gram pistons and longer/lightweight Carrillo rods. Low vibration means more reliability - fewer things breaking and a little more HP thrown in for good measure.

Jim Schmidt

http://www.jsengineering.net

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Jim, you took the words out of my mouth.

In a couple of weeks I will have in my possession one badass motor, with Jim Schmidt Lightweight Pistons and Long Rods, FullAuto Head, with CNW/Comstock sponsored porting and motor build. I was waiting to make it all public, but... I can't wait.

Neither can I !!!!

Fullauto- Are partially machined heads also available? - that is without guides or seats machined for doing big valve conversions? Thanks

Haha, you guys gotta get around a triumph before you can cross the line first. All in fun guys ,just playin







Tim Joyce # 309/ 1

phantom309 said:

Haha, you guys gotta get around a triumph before you can cross the line first. All in fun guys ,just playin

Tim Joyce # 309/ 1

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Pim,

Get the hell out of here! This ain't your sandbox.

Don't look behind you. You know it's coming soon. :twisted:

auto- Are partially machined heads also available? - that is without guides or seats machined for doing big valve conversions? Thanks

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Yeah - and without the spring pockets machined so we can raise the ports, use longer valves and get more flow than ever before.

Jim

jseng1 said:

auto- Are partially machined heads also available? - that is without guides or seats machined for doing big valve conversions? Thanks

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Yeah - and without the spring pockets machined so we can raise the ports, use longer valves and get more flow than ever before.

Jim

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Your gonna need it Home slice, you can't hide.

phantom309 said:

jseng1 said:

auto- Are partially machined heads also available? - that is without guides or seats machined for doing big valve conversions? Thanks

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Short answer? No.

The object of the exercise was to offer replacement heads of better quality with updated porting to offer a usable increase in power and torque. Job done.

Let me sell a hundred or so and I'll think about it. Actually, if somebody gives me a firm order from the next batch, changes in stuff like that can be done. Up to a point.

should be easy to leave off a couple machining steps.