VIP Photo Contest - Racing Commandos

Blewdy Yaink said:

Here is a photo from my California days. I am almost certain that it's the exit of the banked turn at the old Riverside Raceway (a photographer walked up to me at the next AFM race and handed me a slide saying "I took this at the last race and wanted to share it with you"). The race before this one, a fairing mount had failed from a fatigue-crack at Ontario and when I looked at the one on the other side, it was also cracked, so I took it off (I have an "AMA" fairing) and put a front number plate. That "single race" expedient became preserved for history (although I like the look of the clean bike in the photo).
This motorcycle has what I think is the first "John Baker" hopped-up 850 engine (if not the first, it's almost certainly the oldest surviving one). I had a 72 750 Combat roadster and after almost 10,000 miles on the road and some pretty intense club racing, the engine appeared to be absolutely solid and the Service Department offered me a swap -- my "unbroken" Combat 750 for teardown and analysis for an 850 assembled from Experimental shop parts. John and I built up this engine from December 72 until about February 73. It was his experiment in head work and bottom end preparation for a go-faster 850. It also happened that Service Dept. had a complete PR chassis kit that was donated (I love the Isolastic head steady). The glassfibre bits were special ordered for me from RGM in red gel coat.

Google Photos

photos.google.com

Oh, hell. How ITF do I get the photo to show up without having to click on the link ????

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Blewdy Yaink said:

Oh, hell. How ITF do I get the photo to show up without having to click on the link ????

Click to expand...

Blewdy Yaink said:

Here is a photo from my California days. I am almost certain that it's the exit of the banked turn at the old Riverside Raceway (a photographer walked up to me at the next AFM race and handed me a slide saying "I took this at the last race and wanted to share it with you"). The race before this one, a fairing mount had failed from a fatigue-crack at Ontario and when I looked at the one on the other side, it was also cracked, so I took it off (I have an "AMA" fairing) and put a front number plate. That "single race" expedient became preserved for history (although I like the look of the clean bike in the photo).
This motorcycle has what I think is the first "John Baker" hopped-up 850 engine (if not the first, it's almost certainly the oldest surviving one). I had a 72 750 Combat roadster and after almost 10,000 miles on the road and some pretty intense club racing, the engine appeared to be absolutely solid and the Service Department offered me a swap -- my "unbroken" Combat 750 for teardown and analysis for an 850 assembled from Experimental shop parts. John and I built up this engine from December 72 until about February 73. It was his experiment in head work and bottom end preparation for a go-faster 850. It also happened that Service Dept. had a complete PR chassis kit that was donated (I love the Isolastic head steady). The glassfibre bits were special ordered for me from RGM in red gel coat.

Google Photos

photos.google.com

Oh, hell. How ITF do I get the photo to show up without having to click on the link ????

Click to expand...

lcrken said:

That's cool. What year was that? I started racing with an original PR that I bought from Dan Gurney. My first race was at Riverside in 1972 or 1973, with AFM, and I raced there regularly for quite a few years. I really liked the track, except for the boilerplate wall in turn 9, but the track surface eventually degraded so much it wasn't quite as much fun any more.

Ken

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lcrken said:

This is a Commando racer photo I took at the AHRMA race at Miller Motorsports Park in 2012, but I don't recall who the owner was.

View attachment 16526

Ken

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Holmeslice said:

Hi Ken,

This is Dennis Donahoe's Commando, based out of Salt Lake City, UT. If I'm not mistaken, he's running a Featherbed Commando nowadays, not unlike your beautiful machine.

-Kenny

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Blewdy Yaink said:

Thanks to Ken, Cliff, and Jim for the info on posting photos on this forum.

Ken, I left Duarte about two weeks after "Bi-Centennial"4th of July of 1976 to go back to England to work on the Rotary Project so I'm thinking that this was taken in the first half of 1976. I had seen very few PRs in any color than yellow so I was highly impressed with your green PR. I managed to get in races at Riverside, Willow Springs, and Ontario (and the fuzzy brain is saying "somewhere else" but I can't remember where). There was AFM and another organization putting on races in SoCal -- I enjoyed living, working, and racing in CA, although the atmosphere around Duarte was terribly dire by then.
One weekend, I went to a NASCAR race at Riverside and the layout of the track started to make more sense. I would guess that that kind of use contributed to the damage and deterioration of the track surface. I'd never ridden on any track quite like Riverside -- that long back straight into the banked turn with the "boilerplate" was a real thrill.
Thanks for the kind response. Good to hear from you again. BH

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Blewdy Yaink said:

Yes, I was impressed. At the time, everyone in the Duarte race shop (mechanics and riders) were absolutely certain that anything green on a racing motorcycle was terribly bad luck and there you were with flashy green! It was a good time. My name is Bruce Henderson. I was only around there for nearly a year and a half, but there are still some great memories.

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