JULY 2004 NEWS ARCHIVE

News articles from July 2004 are archived below, latest nearest the top of the page. Click "back" on your web browser to return to previous page.

28th July 2004

SMOKIN' JOE

My quest for perfect machinery is relentless and I have been becoming increasingly disturbed by the amount my bike has been smoking. It has been getting progressively worse for a number of weeks now.

A smoking bike (caused by excessive burning oil) can be as a result of a number of things, some serious, some not. It is imperative that excessive smoking be investigated as it can be the first early warning sign that an expensive blow-up could be imminent. Many dollars can be saved if you take a look early.

One of the causes of this can be badly worn or broken piston rings. So, I called up my supplier in the UK, Vega Racing and ordered a set. This evening I stripped the motor down to find out the cause of the problem. To my delight, I found the piston rings and everything associated with my last winter rebuild is still like brand new. So the new rings can go into storage for when they are really needed. The cause of the smoking was worn valve guides. This allows oil to seep down the valve stems directly into the combustion chamber where it is ignited with the fuel and burned.

Whilst this ailment may result in a slight loss of power, it is certainly not serious and the machine can be run without worry of major failure. So I have decided to leave the valve guide replacement to the closed season this winter as it is quite involved. I had planned to completely re-condition the cylinder head this winter as there are some other worn components that, for financial reasons never got replaced last year.

So, if you see blue smoke belching from the exhaust of #21 for the rest of the season don't worry! All has been checked out and all is basically OK. On that note though, there is a ruling for safety reasons that excessive smoking from any machine can result in that rider being black flagged and pulled out of the meeting. Obviously it can obscure vision for riders behind.

As it is rare these days for anyone to be behind me, maybe the referees will look favourably on my situation!

On a positive note, there's no better smell than methanol fuel mixed with copious amounts of burnt Castrol R40!

25th July 2004

WEEKEND UPDATE

PARIS, 23rd JULY

Without a doubt in my mind, Friday night saw the best night of racing at Paris this season! The now annual Dean Bencsics Memorial meeting was a huge success and many thanks to the Steel City Riders motorcycle club from Hamilton for sponsoring the event. The racing surface was exceptional, so many thanks also to Dave Havill for all the very hard work.

With the Canadian Nationals scheduled for the following night at Welland we were very happy to welcome some additional riders from the USA. In division 1 this meant the inclusion in the race program of the formidable Craig Estelle and super-fast Jeremy Parsons, both from New York State, and all the way from Pennsylvania, Marc Gauthier. We thank these guys immensely for showing up at Paris and providing us with such a high standard of competition.

However, when all was said and done it was our own star Kyle Legault who once again won the show with a great gate in the final. Good job Kyle! Unfortunately, the race was called after Aaron Hesmer hit the wall very hard going into turn three. Thankfully he escaped with no more than a few bumps but it could have been a lot worse. It was good to see him at Welland the following day apparently none the worse for wear.

In Division 2 Phil Mosquera out of Michigan won the main event, however keep your eyes on Aaron "The Ace" DeVeau as his improvement this season has been nothing short of phenomenal!

Division 3 honours went to my son Michael Small. This was his first main event win in competitive Speedway Racing, made all the more special as the greatness of the Dean Bencsics night provides a definite bouyant atmosphere. I'll include some pictures on the "revamped" site as soon as I can.

Michael had to do some hard work as his 250cc machine's lack of power off the start line means he invariably has to come from behind in almost every race. He picked his way through from last place to second in two of his qualifying heats and did a similar thing in the final but this time taking the win. It looks as if Michael's future in the sport could be very promising.

A nice touch from former Canadian number 1 Chris Hesmer means that Michael has been riding with Chris's front handlebar cover this season. Although Chris wants it back for personal and sentimental reasons, he is allowing Michael to continue to use it in the mean time as long as, and I quote "it goes fast". We hope Michael did it proud on Friday night. Thanks Chris!

CANADIAN NATIONAL'S, WELLAND 24th JULY

Diastrous over-watering of the Welland clay surface left the track for our most important event of the season, difficult to say the least. The track surface never really came around until the later heats of the evening. Having said that, there was some exciting racing, albeit in many cases far removed from the typical "speedway" style. For any rider short of very top ability it was near impossible to slide the bike "broadside" fashion. Most of us resorted to a "flat-tracking" method and just got the job done the best way we could.

With Duncan Luke's excellent race program format once again in use it meant that after a riders first heat, he would go through to the second round to meet competition of his own standard. This format continues through four rounds until the top ten points scorers eventually make up two semi-finals, five riders in each. The top five from the two semis, then progress to the big main final race of the evening. However, the championship is won on total points over the evening, so the winner of the final race need not necessarily be the winner of the event overrall.

This proved to be the case as Jeremy Parson's sensational last lap, last turn pass on Kyle Legault to take the chequred flag still wasn't enough to beat Kyle's overrall top points score. Hence, the fantastic Kyle Legault successfully defended the crown he won last year. We sure will miss him in Canada next year if, as looks likely, he goes to race in the UK.

The rest of the results I'm afraid I'm unsure of, as competing in the event myself you tend to be focussed on what you're doing and not on others. I'm waiting for the full race report and results to be posted in the very near future on the CSRA WEBSITE.

I look forward to presenting you with the "New Look" website soon, so keep checking back to see any developments!

Thanks, Phil #21.