AMA Pro Vintage Flat Track at Monster Mountain

Monster Mountain finally got the chance to host its first AMA Pro National - but not on their famous Monster motocross track, rather, on their new for 2012 flat track oval.  The AMA Pro National Vintage Flat Track series visited Monster for rounds 5 and 6 of their championship.  You may recognize the famous black skeleton leathers of AMA Hall of Famer Dave Aldana who added some major credit to the event.  A few photos are below, but as usual, the full album is on Facebook here.

War Eagle Motocross

It's Spring, the clocks have changed, and the days are getting longer.  That means War Eagle Motocross in Auburn, AL has started back to hosting their Wednesday evening practices.  Here are a few photos of this past Wednesday.  As always, the rest of the album is available at this link.

2012 Mustang GT

I finally got a chance to get out and take some photos of my 2012 Mustang GT.  The car is Kona Blue with Stone interior.  It has a 6 speed manual transmission, the Brembo package (14" rotors w/ 4 piston calipers, strut brace, stiffer suspension), 3.73 gears, and GT500 mufflers.  Click the photos to enlarge them.

Monster Mountain CAMS 2011 Fall Race

Race videos!  I raced this past Sunday at Monster Mountain MX. I rode very well, but this was the last race in the Gulf Coast Championship Series, and so several riders had dropped down a class to try to win the championship. So even though I was riding quite a bit faster than I was in the spring race, I actually finished one position worse because the guys in front of me were faster. But, if you've done any local racing, you know how that goes. Anyway, this is the GoPro HD video from Moto1. As you can see, I got shoved into a squared up rut in turn 2 and almost high-sided. I saved it, but was in last place. I eventually worked my way up to 5th. One of my friends was behind me and caught my T2 save here.  I am #19, of course. 

Now for the chest cam!  Moto2's start was screwed up as well, because the gate operator knocked his water bottle into the rut underneath my bike! I signaled to some random guy behind the gate who came and got it out, but right as he did the gate dropped. So I didn't get a great jump, but at least this time I made it through T2 with the rest of the pack. Most of them were a bit faster and simply doing bigger jumps than me (which they're not supposed to do in this class, but again, local racing...), so they pulled away mid-race. But I stayed on my pace and on the penultimate lap I was reeling in 4th place - whom I would come to find out was actually the championship leader. On the last lap I closed him down big time, and right as I was setting him up for a pass, he hit the same T2 rut that I did in Moto1 and nearly highsided. That put me through to 4th place, where I finished, 5-4 for 5th overall on the day.

I'm disappointed with the position of my finish, because I really wanted to at least be on the podium, but on the other hand, there's nothing I can do about guys dropping down from the class above me; they were simply faster and that's that. All in all, I didn't crash, got home safely, rode at my maximum, and had a great day. That's really all you can ask for. 

Down on College Street

Jalopnik used to run a feature called "Down on the Street," profiling interesting cars simply found on the street.  Well, it doesn't get much better than this E-Type Jaguar 4.2, found right off College Street.  It was perfect.  And I mean perfect.  Everything on it was clean and in excellent condition.  The paint, the bright work, the interior; all above reproach.  Unfortunately it was parked in a terrible place for photographic backgrounds, and I could hardly get a clear shot at it.  On the upside, it was right at the end of the Golden Hour, and the light, though falling, was beautiful.

Barber Motorsports Festival 2011 - Motorcycles

Earlier this week I posted my car photos from Barber Motorsports Park's Annual Vintage Festival.  Here's the motorcycle set.  You'll see some of the rarest bikes in the world pictured here, both from the museum and, just as much, out riding around.  It's pretty amazing.

There's a little more than 100 photos total, and the rest of which you can see in the full album here: Barber Vintage Festival 2011 - Motorcycles.

Again, you can see the rest of the photos here: Barber Vintage Festival 2011 - Motorcycles.

Barber Motorsports Festival 2011 - Cars

Barber's Annual Vintage Festival is one of the coolest events in the world.  I've been to a LOT of different races, of all sorts and as many different venues, and nothing is remotely comparable to Barber's Vintage Festival.  There is simply SO much to see.  Vintage road racing, motocross, trials, air show, the wall of death, the swap meet, the auction, the bike clubs, the vintage fire trucks, the vendors, the museum... not to mention all the incredible bikes that people ride to the track.

I shot over 300 photos from the weekend, and narrowed that down to my top 200, split almost evenly between cars and motorcycles.  Here are a few highlights from the cars, and the full album is here: Barber Vintage Festival 2011 - Cars.

The other 62 photos are here: Barber Vintage Festival 2011 - Cars.