Sacramento Mile...Part 3

 Meanwhile, back at the fair...

You have your candied apples, cotton candy, corn dogs, sno-cones...

Your deep-fried kool-aid??!!??

Your JUMBO corn dogs...

And for Mrs.BC and GBC we have mamas and new borns...

Moooooooooo...

Your colorful whirling Strawberry ride...

Your multi -colored and whirling whatcha-ma-callit...

And one of these, of course...

Monday, while driving between Monterey and Oakland, I spy this ahead of me- and snap a couple of cel-phone pics. It's known as a Berry-go-round. And portable I might add...


AND NOW, BACK TO THE RACES.

Hard to miss these Day-Glo wheels...

Hard to miss Chris Carr in his red outfit, fellas? Talking about the racer in the red...never mind...

A purpose-built new Bonneville flat tracker. WWW.BonnevillePerformance.com for more info.

Dash for cash...

A replay of the start of the "Mile"...

Zoom zoom, again...


The rest of the pics were taken after the races were over, and the fans were invited to go into the pits and have a close up look at bikes still warm from the race....very cool.


Next year I'll bring better photo gear for better action shots. It's good to see the "Mile" back in Sacramento.

Chris Carr interviewed on the podium.

Champagne is spraying...

10:00 fireworks signal the end of the race , and the end of the 2011 California State Fair.

Fans moving around the pits...

Slammin' Sammy Halbert

An Aussie with two American fans...

"Looking for adventure..."

This pic of a Yamaha, taken outside the stadium before the race.

New Bonneville based racers and street trackers.

I believe the man said 26 large bills (American), They'll build you a copy...you provide the base bike of course. Nice street tracker.

Then it's time to load them up, and hit the road to Oregon.

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.

And now, a Moped intermission...

A while back I posted this moped

 It looks like a survey party has been through, and the cactus have grown  quite  a bit.

Decided to stop by and see if it was still there, and see what changes had happened in the garden. Caught my friend in the middle of yard work, sprucing up for a  visiting mother-in -law. Got to be tough to weed around those prickly cactii. He told me his daughter and boyfriend were looking for another moped, this moped thing seems to be catching on.

This moped caught my eye as I was driving by.

A cafe inspired moped.

An interesting double silencer equipped expansion chamber.

It said Moto Minarelli on the engine cover.

Looks like it would be a fun one to ride.




So SFB and Kawa , what have we here?  I'm assuming it is someones custom work . I did a quick web search and came up with pretty standard looking mopeds. With the K& N air filter, expansion chamber, seat and tank, and racing crouch bars, I am assuming this is a custom. Unfortunately the owner wasn't around to query. I'm wondering, do people race mopeds,well- other than street racing? Any way , presented for your viewing pleasure.

And the winner is...

One of the early races, the big screen and flying through turn one.

In the main event the winner is Bryan Smith over Chris Carr by the proverbial wheel and a half...

Looking across to the main pit area.

     

Kicking up dust coming through turn four.

Start of  the main event

Out on the track

Zoom, zoom.

Back from the races, have a bunch of pics to go through. Since I had luck posting some vids, here's a few and a couple of pics. Will post more tomorrow. Was an excellent day at the races. Some amazing action .Too tired to deal with blogger.

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?

Travels through the neighborhood-continued, one for Mat

Built in 1935-1936

 The bottling can be viewed through these windows

 Great mexican food now, used to buy motorcycle parts here when it was Sarkees  Honda/Triumph/BSA

This blogging stuff can drive ya nuts!! Since I can't seem to put any more pics where I want them, it must be time to start typing. I gave up trying to add a video on the last post, maybe I'll try again some time.

The Coca Cola bottling plant is just up the street from where I live. I drive by it every day, to and from work.
The other day as I motored by I thought about how Mat, of "Mat Versus the USA" works at a Coke plant down under. So these pics are for Mat. After visiting a website I can tell you that Coke was introduced in the Sacramento California area in 1909. This "Spanish Colonial Revival"  building was put up to replace the early 20th century plant.

Nice little Motorcycle clubhouse

This club has been around for a while

Not far from where the bike shop was on Broadway is Tower Theater, and not far from there is the Clubhouse for the Capital City Motorcycle Club. I've run into guys from this club over the years. It's a family oriented motorcycle club, and according to the website they have, they have gotten back into competition stuff. I'm not sure, but it seems that one of the guys told me that way back it originally started out as a bicycling club. 

As I headed home I stopped in at Willie's and had a "Slammer" (Chili burger) ,with fries and of course a coke.

Here you go Mat

Tower Records Sacramento

Tower Theater building that housed the drug store that Tower records got it's start in.

 Shot of Tower Records on Broadway-Going out of business sale.

 For awhile Tower became "R5"

 Now it is Dimple Records, at least they didn't paint over the cool murals.

 A shot of the old neon sign that was restored and returned to the theater building where the first record store within the drug store  was. Looks like the neon could use some work...

Right about here was where I was gonna add the snazzy "movie" I made with a Windows program on my lil' puter....but Blogger doesn't seem to recognize it as a video...so looks like I get to upload stills instead. Anyway this hasn't a lot to do with motorcycles, but is a look at an old local business that has gone by the wayside. I spent way too much time and money at Tower stores, but where else would I have bought my copies of "Classic Bike"to read at the local coffee shop? The Tower name was sold on and is an "on-line" business now. I haven't given up on the "video" yet. It shows the murals on the building...might have a "lo-tech" way to add them...we'll see. Did you have Tower outlets near you?