Due to the wonder of modern technology, I'm writing this column during the first week of January of 2006. After the torrential rain we endured during the tourist season, the weather has returned to what people move to SoCal for; bright sunny warm days. The subject of this column is a blatant plug for Vintage Racing at this year's Bike Week in Daytona Beach. It is sponsored by the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA) and held at Daytona International Speedway on Route 92 in the town that hosts the worlds most famous beach the first two days of Bike Week. How does this connect with sunny days in California? Well, Florida can be sunny also. After all, Bike Week is the "start" of the new riding year for people on the East Coast and Midwest. Bike Week is usually the first warm sun some riders have seen since the previous October, and in turn, soak up as much warmth to help them through the final vestiges of winter. Back to the Vintage Racing, motorcycle racing is all good, whether it's the smell of nitro in the air after a pass down the quarter mile, or the errant dirt clog that just thumped you upside your head from sitting so close to turn one at a local dirt track event. You won't have to worry about any of that at the Vintage Racing. Although you will have a hard time discerning between the different levels of growling engines from the assembled racing machines representing nearly every continent on the face of the earth. Nowhere else in the country will you be able to view at your leisure the cream of the past motorcycle racing world than at Daytona. I'll be there walking the pits and taking in the aroma of high octane racing gas, Castrol oil, clutch material and rubber. It makes me hungry just thinking about it now.
Vintage Racing is also a good break from all of the chrome and paint everywhere else in town. While the race bikes do look good, they also look business-like and when they roll, there is no mistaking their true intent. So, make Monday and or Tuesday of Bike Week 2006 a track day or part track day. I hope to see you out there.