This week end is the Sacramento Mile 2015...

The Grand National Championship races at Cal Expo in Sacramento. 

And on Sunday, it's the Amateur and Vintage Mile

And this weekend is also the Classic Japanese Motorcycle Club Show and swap meet.If I can swing it I'll get up to Auburn and check it out as well.

The Sacramento Mile 2013....On any Sunday, well...make that a Saturday.

Sammy Halbert , as Sideburn magazine says "...He's living the On Any Sunday-making-a-living-from-prize-money life in the 21st century. A whiskey drinking scrapper too. the man's something special."

Sammy's my favorite Pro flat tracker. At his Facebook page is a pic of Mert Lawill and Bruce Brown with him...he makes Mert look tall. One strong, scrapping dude wrestling that XR around the track. He makes it look easy, but it's not...

Sammy, in the 'paddock' as the announcers have taken to calling the 'pit area', come on y'all we're 'mericans here...sheeesh quit tryin' to be so 'continen-tal'...hehe.. Really like Sammy, he's down to earth, cool, calm collected....but man, on the track...even his bike sounds meaner than everyone elses...I swear...

Sammy came in fifth in the main. It was a real battle between the top 5. Sammy was running second at one point. They were really racing. Sammy made a great save towards the end of the race, hope to see some video of that. He's doing really well for having missed some races due to an injury and recovery time. These guys are tough.  

Sammy's XR

The track looking towards turn one...picture doing about 130 MPH here and thinking about pitching it sideways in a few seconds...

Looking down the straight towards turn 4, the track groomer getting it ready for the main events...

I'm going to get back and add a few more comments...finish off here with a couple blurry shots...and I'll add a few videos later...they are tedious to put on here.

A blurry shot of Shayna Texter, winner of the Pro Singles, taking the checkered flag for a lap...the gal is fast!!

And even blurrier shot of Bryan Smith, three in a roll Sacramento Mile winner taking the flag for a lap.

Yeah, it's looking like I'll be breaking this into a 2 parter...didn't take half as many shots as last year...due to some equipment malfunctions and a not so functioning photographer, but still a lot of pics to sort, decisions to be made...wrestling with uploads/downloads and all the usual computer crap...be back with some more...

Sacramento Mile, Part 2

Since it takes so long to load pictures,I'll be having a part three to this as well. Next time I'll be uploading on a much quicker line. Also having a devil of a time making pics stay put. Lot's to learn about this blogging stuff.

Looking towards the main grandstand at Cal-Expo.

Nice sunny day, not too hot . Near start line looking over to the pit lane.

This is a man I met by the name of Bob Carlson. He's a Korean War veteran, and used to race motorcycles. He had a pic in his wallet of the Harley Davidson flathead racer he rode in the 1950's. Sorry the pic didn't come out so clear. Talked to him for a bit before the races started. He raced at the Catalina Islands (where racing has recently resumed), as well as many other places. 

Bikes in the pit area pre-race.

Ditto.

Getting ready to go.

Bikes lining up...

All lined up...

For the opening ceremonies.

Flag girls.

Smiling for the race fans.

Ready to race.

View of "turn 1".

Racing through turn number one.

More turn one.

Big screen...

It really is tedious waiting for these little videos to upload, the quality of the vids is poor as well...but at least you get to hear the lovely sounds the bikes make . And you can get a sense of the speeds they are going as they circulate the one mile track. This is probably as good a place as any to end this post. Coming up , part three of "The Mile". More pics and vids, and lots of pics in the pits after the race. Pics of the various bikes involved, even a Ducati flattracker.

The Sacramento Mile is back...

Going to the race

The Sacramento Mile is back!! After, over a ten year absence- the mile race is back at the track at "Cal-Expo", site of the State Fair. Just got back from buying my ticket. A "cheap" seat in the bleachers...only about 15 dollars less than the nifty engine stand that "Bodger" just bought for his BSA Victor. Forty dollars, but that's less than half what the highest price tickies are going for. It does also include entrance to the fair, so I guess I shouldn't grouse too much.

I live about a mile from the old State fair grounds. That was where the "Mile" used to be held. Cal Expo was opened about '68, I believe. The new site is across the river to the north-east of the old site. I can hear the fireworks go off from my house. In fact they'll be going off in about 7 minutes at 10:00. Time to vacate the McWiFi, as Mat calls it....

With any luck I'll get a few pics of the race to post here. This will be Chris Carr's retirement race. He's from Stockton, not too far from Sacramento.  You can go to WWW.sacramentoflattrack.com for a look at ticket info. It says there, that the Mile has been  at Cal-Expo since 1959, which can't be, since Cal Expo opened in 1968. In fact I've been seeing info on races at the old fairgrounds till 1970. I know a fellow who has written books on dirt track racing, I should check with him and get the real skinny.

His name is Tom Motter. He was originally from the Bay Area, and raced "Quarter-midget" race cars. He has published several books on local racing. I believe somewhere I have a photo I took of him on a Ducati out at a local dirt riding area in the 60's.This was way before I actually met him. Yeah, somewhere-buried in the "archives".

Like fairs all over the United States, there are cows, sheep, goats, chickens,cotton candy, corn dogs,and deep-fried  Snickers?