Diamond Dons

Wow, that CZ looks great!
I'm building a couple of 380's and I hope I can get mine looking like that.
Anyway, we're locked in for DD's, see you there. Tony
 
The pre entries are up for everything and the race order for Vintage is up too.
HA HA HA, my buddy Sam has to race back to back race 14 and 15!
I'm race 7 and 11, my favorite numbers!
PVMX race order will probably be up tomorrow I imagine.
 
Races six and ten for me on Vintage Day.

Diamond Don Rainey called me yesterday, looking for a CDI unit/coil for a RM500 (I have both). He also said he needs a set of wide pegs to put on his '83 RM250 ( I have those, too).

He went on to say that the '89 and '91 World Champ Trampas Parker will be there again this year. Parker and Danny LaPorte will be racing a pair of matching YZ490's. Also, the 'flyin' Hawaiian, John DeSoto, is reported to be making an appearance as well. I've seen DeSoto ride both back in the day at North Forty a couple of years ago. He still flies. He's well into his sixties, but he will find the occasion to walk around shirtless. He's tanned, muscular, in shape, and he sports a lot of interesting Samoan-looking tattooes. Plus, I think he still thinks chicks dig him.

If things go as usual at DD's, I imagine there will be plenty of other notables along with many regular dudes that show up to post-enter.

Pray for good weather.
 
ha ha ha!
I check Jefferson TX along with my local weather!
Do you know if they have water or do I need to haul 1600 lbs across the country?
 
Friday Mostly sunny, High 75°F, Precip 10% Overnight Low 52°F, Precip 0%

Saturday Sunny, High 75°F, Precip 10% Overnight Low 52°F, Precip 0%

Sunday Scattered T-storms, High 75°F, Precip 40%
 
Here's what NOAA has for it, looks good to me.

Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79.

Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 57.

Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 73.

Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 49.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 70.

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 46.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71.

Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 50
 
I've been watching the weather there for about 2 weeks.
It hasn't really rained much at all.
It will probably be dusty on the cross country race.
Google maps says 15.5 hrs and with pit stops will probably be more like 17 at least.
99 bottles of beer on the wall, ya know?
 
When are you leaving? Are you guys gonna drive straight through? I'm leaving Wednesday morning with a buckeye friend (Keith Boyd, 60+ Int. from Wapokaneta. He's fast enough to win.). In previous years, I generally have left at 0500hrs and drive all the way. It's 13 hours. This year, since I'm not alone this time, we'll probably get a room somewhere near Little Rock or beyond and arrive at the track on Thursday to get everything set up. In additon to our racers, Keith is taking 3 Maico objet d'art for sale. I'm bringing the '84 RM500 for the same reason. I want to be there the full day for cross-country. Not racing in the CC, but wanna volunteer somehow.

What are your actual names and where are you from?
 
We're planning on leaving 5 am wed.
Looks like we're going through nashville, memphis, little rock.
We're from Mount Airy, NC, actually Toast and Lowgap NC.
My name is Tony Harrell and my buddy is Sam Chappell.
Him and another buddy talked me into getting back into it last year after a 20 year hiatus.
First bike I bought was a CR500-sweet!
1992 CR500
1997 CR500
2001 CR250 best bike I've ever ridden
2-1992 KDX250
1982 CR480
2-1974 YZ125
1974 MT250
1969 AT1E
1969 AT1M
2-1973 MX250
2-1971 CZ380, 1 has a radial engine.
Harry Taylor 1974 MR50
2000 Blaster
boatloads of parts
Oh yeah, I'm picking up a 1974 TY250 at the races I purchased in Denver.
My buddy Sam has the collection to die for.
I think I went overboard, all that in a year!
 
Is Keith Boyd the guy with the pristine looking , white painted , Maico's ? If so , those are some of the coolest vin bikes I've ever seen and , yes , he is fast !
 
Yep, that's Keith. He brought along 4 nice Maicos with price tags attached. I'll post pics later.

We're here at DD's now. Well, actually at motel, using their PC.

Man, it is great out at the track. Huge crowd already, unbelievable motorhome and trailer rigs, fantastic bikes everywhere. CC and Trials tomorrow. I'm only watching. Will try to make a lap through the pits and around the redesigned grass track with video in hand for you guys still at home. It's a party, to be sure.
 
Awesome event!
If you only do one event, this is the one.
I do have some pics and some videos but it may take a while to sort it all out.
Too much real work to catch up on.
Nice seeing you Karl, you were a blur on the track!
Are you gonna do Devils Ridge?
 
It was nice meeting you too, Tony. Regrettably, I won't be at Devil's Ridge. I have a British friend coming to do a bit of turkey hunting with me that weekend.

It really was a great weekend, wasn't it? I had loads of fun. Seemed as if the crowd was the largest ever, with a good number of good looking women finally in the mix! And, the post-entry line was very, very long.

Brad Lackey lined up to my immediate left at the start of one moto, that was kinda cool.

The pics I hoped to take didn't happen....I left my camera unprotected in Thursday night's rainstorm, dammit.

Thanks for that "blur" comment. Things actually did get "blurry" for me a time or two, and my pal Bob Adams captured one of them with his Canon. That's Rhett Smith of SC providing the roost.

RoostedbyRhettSmith.jpg
 
It was nice meeting you too, Tony. Regrettably, I won't be at Devil's Ridge. I have a British friend coming to do a bit of turkey hunting with me that weekend.

It really was a great weekend, wasn't it? I had loads of fun. Seemed as if the crowd was the largest ever, with a good number of good looking women finally in the mix! And, the post-entry line was very, very long.

Brad Lackey lined up to my immediate left at the start of one moto, that was kinda cool.

The pics I hoped to take didn't happen....I left my camera unprotected in Thursday night's rainstorm, dammit.

Thanks for that "blur" comment. Things actually did get "blurry" for me a time or two, and my pal Bob Adams captured one of them with his Canon. That's Rhett Smith of SC providing the roost.

RoostedbyRhettSmith.jpg

Arguably, the best picture on this site so far in 2011.....I have never been close enought to Rhett to get that much roost.....!
 
On the news tonight they spoke of the Texas wildfires and that parts of the state are having the worst draught in 40-some years.
How were track conditions? (besides the dust berm shot you provided above)
 
You know, that pic is underexposed and doesn't tell the whole story. The dirt that came up was black and heavy, like potting soil. It fell right back down to the ground as soon as I was riding through it. I saw that same sort of explosion of earth occur many times in many corners of the track throughout the day while I was spectating other races. Some guys were really good at getting the most out of it.

The Jefferson TX area had seen little rain for a long while. But, most of the track is the shade of 100yr cypress trees. Plus, it is almost entirely sprinkled and grass covered. In addition, there was a significant rain on Thursday night.

The cross-country and trials guys had near perfect conditions in the woods throughout the day. On Saturday, the practice and first motos were simply beautiful, in my opinion. Intermission allowed for additional watering, but there was quite a bit of dust by the time things wrapped up. I never felt as if it got in that dangerous zone, and I know of no mishaps resulting in injury as a result of it.

He must have had the sprinklers going all night long, because Sunday morning track conditions were again very good. They had evidently worked the track with their equipment as well, because all of the previous day's ruts were missing. And, the layout of the track through the woods had been altered to add even more length by using new sections.....still covered in that fine green grass. But, the dust did become a bit of a factor by late in the long set of first motos, and perhaps even more so in the second. Again though, I don't think it was unreasonable when compared to other places I have been. And, the fact that DD made a good effort to control it served to temper any complaint I might have had.

He went so far to keep a water truck constantly circling the mile long gravel loop which makes up the pit area so as to make things better.

Don't let the pics here lead you to believe that the track is flat. Once it enters the woods, the course twists and turns, rises and falls, and meanders about in a really fun manner. Then, it exits the woods over the tunnel jump and continues into the center of the gravel pit road loop where nearly everybody can watch it from their own pit area. The infield portion has a couple of good sweepers and long 80yd straights with just enough muddy ruts to be interesting. It is plenty wide everywhere, lots of lines to choose.

I think lap times probably averaged 2.5 minutes or so and we ran 5 of them each moto.

That's my perception of how it was. Others that attended might have another opinion.

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majorKAP Glad I got to meet you. I agree with what you said about the track and it was cool having so many races with huge numbers on the gate.
I plan to make DDs an every year thing. And by the way you are an expert level rider.
 
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