Why do I say that my brother Don was into extreme sports way before they became Popular.  Because, when he was little, the faster Don went, the more he liked it, regardless of how badly it scared his unnoticed audience.

     In the 70s, he and our brother Jim were involved in bicycle motocross in the Pacific Northwest.  A few of the Factory Sponsored Racers they competed against said some really rude things about the homemade bikes my brothers raced on, but regardless of the humble origins of those "garbage bikes", my brothers amassed an impressive collection of trophies . . . and proved by example that it takes more than expensive equipment to be a winner.

Jim went on to other things but Don, like our father, is a Racer.

Don and Dad, in the early 1970s

     What follows, in Don's own words, are his racing experiences, from e-mails he sent out to family and friends.  Information and pictures added as they come in.

2001 | 2003

7 Aug 2001

Well, another weekend of racing come and gone.  Started the weekend still in 5th place [Early Heavy Weight Grand Prix], even after missing two races. Saturday practice started with new tires and new handling problems!

The Dunlops are a different shape and have a slightly smaller outside diameter front tire.  This was entertaining for a couple of laps, but not how I wanted the bike to work for Sunday.  The bike was hopping, skipping and wallowing like a big pig.  A couple of clicks faster on the rebound dampening at the rear and raised the front of the bike about 4mm made life at speed much better.  Lap times dropped 2 more seconds, will drop more as I get better acquainted with the Dunlops and set the bike to work even better still.

New carbs are almost right on. They only need minor tweaking to be right for given race day conditions.  Much better power off the mid-range for corner exits, way smooth control.  Best lap time now is down to 1:38.07.

Sunday was fun.  Was about 8th off the line, I fell asleep on the start.  Spent the rest of the race in a three way fight for 5th place.  Passing or being passed sometimes three or four times a lap!!  This was good stuff.

Oh yea, while all this was happening we also had to deal with the 125 and 450 superbike class riders.  Closing speeds on the front and back straights were as much as 50 MPH.  I still had lots of fun.  I did wind up with 5th place for the day, so I think I am still in 5th overall for the season.

Next race is Sept. 2-3 in Spokane y'all come on out and watch y' hear.

5 Sept 2001

Well Spokane went like this:

9/1/01:  Practice sucked.  No crashes, it just sucked.  I felt eratic, the front end still feels kinda unsettled.  Everything else seems to be working well.  The motor is pulling strong, I'm learning Spokane a little better.  Of course the erratic feeling is coming in part from going about 4 seconds a lap faster than last time.  I also tried a sidecar rig on Saturday as the monkey.  That was an eye opening experience. Not outright scary but a whole new respect for sidecar racing.  I kept loosing track of where the grab handles were, ooops.  This was not good, but I did not fall out.

9/2/01 race day:  Practice on race day didn't suck so bad.  Put fresh tires on, got them scrubbed in.  Then sat around and waited for my race to come up.  The start was much improved from last race.  Was 3rd off the line which quickly turned into FIRST into turn one!  I stayed in front until about lap 4 when I got passed at the second hairpin due to traffic.  Got to the front straight and pulled back into the lead.  The second to last lap another guy comes by me in traffic just off the end of the back straight, this time I can't catch this one.  I wind up finishing second place for the day and fourth overall in the Early Heavy Weight GP class for the season.  I find out later that until the last couple of laps I was being dogged the whole way by three other bikes!

Well the plans for next season are to throw a bunch of hotrod parts at the bike.  Maybe I'll even be able to ride the thing better.

6 Oct 2001

OK, OK, OK, I know it's been a couple of weeks but ya know how things go some times.  The races at Portland went purrty good on Sept 21, 22, 23.

Friday practice.  Spent most of the day learning how to ride PIR again.  Switched between my bike and the bike to be used for the endurance race one too many times.  The last time out on the endurance bike I kinda flopped it over on its side in turn 3, the first left hander on the course.  No major damage done just a simple low side.  I had to replace the handle bars, clutch lever, foot peg and shiftlever.  Damage to me was only scratches on my new leathers and embarrassment for not thinking up a better story for crashing, besides over cooking the turn.

So any way the 4 hour endurance on Saturday was rather uneventful.  We only made two real mistakes.

Mistake #1.  We switched gas caps to use the quick-fill can and did not try it in practice.  The bike we were riding has a vented gas cap.  The gas cap from my bike is not.  The lead off rider found this out on lap #4.  He spent the next 15 minuets cracking open the cap to vent the tank every 2 laps until we could make the original cap work with the dump can.

Mistake #2.  Hour #3 I was not ready to get on the bike when Mike signaled that he was coming in the next lap.  OOOPPPs.  I spend the next 50 minuets riding like a mad man at a sprint pace making up the minute or so I lost in the pits.  In the end we finish third place in the Light weight class, one lap down from second place.  Had we made no mistakes we would have been in second.  In the overall we finished in twelfth place.

Sprint races on Sunday.  The morning qualifier, I relearn that 1100's pull away very quickly down the front and back straights at Portland.  I finish fourth.  The main event was pretty much the same as qualifying, fourth place.  My riding is back to the point where I need to rebuild the suspension, as I am now riding fast enough for that to make a difference.  I was getting mid-corner chattering out of the front tire.  Tried yet another type of tire, should have made that change at the beginning of the year.  Dunlop 208's work almost as well as slicks.  After the suspension rebuild I should be able to find the limits of the tires.

Well if any of you folks are up to a road trip, the last race of the year is on the weekend of Oct.13-14 at Portland.  My bike number in Oregon is 259.

19 Oct 2001

Well the first year back throttle twistin is over.

Portland on the 13/14th rain was looking like a possibility, but stayed dry.

Saturday practice, I found that my home made ram-air box gave me about 1000 RPM more top speed.  I think that works out to around about 10mph!  My bike has never gone that fast at Portland.  With the extra top end the suspension DEFINITELY needs to be rebuilt and tuned for the new tires.  I made some adjustments to the dampening on the fork and got most of the chatter to go away.

Sunday race.  It rained on and off over night.  In the morning, the rain stopped around 8am.  The track was still wet for the warm up session.  I was in group 3, the track was starting to dry out but still wet in places.  After a few laps I thought the tires were warm enough to start pushing the pace, wrong.  Got a BIG look over my right shoulder to see in a straight line, just about on the steering stop slide.  Didn't fall but kinda slowed down for the rest of warm up.  I now know what the Dunlop 208's feel like when they start to slide.  Got a nice round of applause from the turn's 4 & 5 corner crew for the nice save.

The qualifier race I got off the line first buuuttt the 1100's put an end to that move quick enough.  Still finished 2nd.  In the main, I was off the line again 1st.  And again the 1100's motored by to leave me 3rd into turn one.  The ram-air did keep me closer to the big bikes but still not enough.  Two laps from the end, second place crashed out at turn 9 so I wound up scoring a 2nd place trophy for the last race of the year.

After seven races I wound up finishing no worse than 5th place.  And yes, there were more than 5 people in the class when I finished in 5th three times.  One fourth place, one third place and two second places, and I think there was three hole shots in there some place.  Fourth over all in the "Early Heavy Weight GP" class in Washington.  Now if only I had more power.... sponsored by Dave Preston on a Raptor..? (I gotta check with Dave ;>})

The plans over the winter are to add a set cams and mill the head to bump up the compression to around 12:1.  Maybe a crank, rods, and pistons.  Redesign or buy a ram-air box that will allow for easier carb tuning and run slicks instead of 'street' tires.

Well gonna run for now.

Ciao

Don Peppan