2006 Gene Romero's West Coast Flat Track Series - Season Opener - Salem Shootout
First of all, click on any image to see a larger version. Last night (February 25th) was the first race of the season for Gene's Series. This is the second year that Gene has opened the series with an indoor short track at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in the Pavillion Building. The track was in great shape and there were more than 50 motorcycles there ready to start the sliding season. Saw some friends and new bikes and had some nice chats with some fellow racers. My friend from Cottage Grove, Kay Bell, was there on his number 18 Rotax as well as Kevin McDowell on his supermoto KTM. 

Kevin has a website and sponsors racers. (Go to www.civilrock.com and learn about him and how he can help you with your mortgage issues.) Kevin secured the nick-name T-bone after more than one encounter with a fellow racer a Suzuki. Now, in his defense, both times it was the Suzuki riders fault as he got sideways directly in front of Kevin. Didn't stop us from giving him the name though. So, T-Bone had borrowed a set of wheels from a fellow supermoto racer (thanks Uncle Ron!) and was here to try this slidin' thing. Stock suspension and all. He even the took the front lever off even though he had his hand guards on and he was petrified that he had no front brake to fall back on. After the first practice session he was sure that he could go faster if he had one. 

The night was not as much fun for me. Showed up and did the first two practice sessions and was having a great time! Track was great and the bike seemed to be running really well. Then, during the second practice sessions, coming into turn three, the bike stopped running. Barely a noise and then it died. Tried to restart it and there was no compression. When we pulled the plug, the electrode was bashed and bent to one side, indicating that something was not right inside! [Postmortem Report: Once we tore it down, it appeared as if the valve spring retainer for the intake valve broke, letting the valve bounce around on top of the piston destroying the guide and actually breaking off a chunk of the head while putting the valve stem into a nice Z shape. Not a good thing. We rebuilt her though and she is good as new and just went supermoto racing! Click here to see how that went!]

Racing all evening long was pretty good. There was some really close and aggressive racing and some questionable passes. Not everybody thought it was just good racing though and there was at least one altercation in the parking lot after the race. What a shame. I overheard one gentleman say that this was the problem with flat track, that there was so much fighting that it ruined the spirit. It certainly does it no good. We had spent much of the evening bragging to friends about how friendly the flat track racers were. Thankfully they did not see this incident. It is something that people need to be conscious about though as it does reflect poorly on the sport. Click here to read a story in the local paper on the event. All in all, good coverage, except the part about the fight. Regular folks read that and just bash us motorcycle riders. Keep it on the track folks. 

The images are not great. The flash on my little digital camera just did not work too good. So, I know they are grainy and not real clear, but it is all I have for you. Outdoor events will be better! Remember, click on the images to see a larger version. If you have images you would like me to include, send them to me and I will post them too!

One last thing - it was confirmed at this race that there will be a NATIONAL DOUBLEHEADER at Castle Rock on August 12 and 13!! A short track and a TT at an incredible venue!! This is just the greatest news we could have heard all night!!

Kay Bell shows off his new FlatTrackStuff.com hat during the opening ceremonies.	Kay doing his best to wrestle his big Rotax around turn four.	Kay Bell running around the outside of the group in one of his races.
Kay Bell on the start line watching for the green light!	T-Bone during the opening ceremonies. 10 seconds prior to this he was sitting in the stands with us when riders started appearing. "Should I be out there?" he asked. Yep, we said and he sprinted off to get his bike and get in line.	Here, we think T-Bone is asking the guy next to him about air pressure in his tires! Maybe he was asking how the hell to do this without a front brake. Lack of front stopping power was a real issue with Kevin at the beginning of the evening.
T-Bone on the start line ready to go. Nothing like the tension of waiting for that light to go green.	T-Bone looks back over his shoulder before entering the fray again. if you look closely, you can see his fingers searching for that front brake lever that would give him the control he needs.	T-Bone is following the racer that would soon give him his nickname.
T-Bone is beginning to get the hang of this flat track stuff.	WOW! He is looking great!!! I think he likes doing this!	KT-Bone picking his KTM up after the big first corner pile-up. Click on the larger image and you can see the whole thing. The rider down on the inside of the track did not get up for some time. He finally did though and appeared to be alright. Our best wishes to him and hope he is OK.
	This is T-Bone's only broken part after a night of racing. No other damage and he seemed to have a pretty good darn good time doin' it! Thanks for the nice evening Kevin! If you look at the two gents in the front of the image, you see that they had old Oregon Sidewinders jackets on. This was a club that put on flat track races in Oregon for a long time. Long gone by now unfortunately.