I would like to think that us racing announcers have our own little fraternity. This is not to say that we are going to be challenging the Alpha Delta Phi crew to a keg stand contest, but if push came to shove, we could surely hold our own. I am merely talking about how we tend to look out for each other and try to help each other got work when it comes down the pipeline. A few months ago, my buddy Frank Wood realized that he was double booked for the final weekend in May as he was scheduled to announce both in Calabogie and Shannonville. Always willing to help out and catch some racing action at the same time, I agreed to take on the Vintage Road Racing Association (VRRA) event at Shannonville despite being fairly naïve to their association.
Plans were made to meet Frank at the track on Friday so a few introductions could be made and so the two of us could catch up after a long winter. I was scheduled to drop my daughter off at Pearson Airport at 3:00 A.M. and after doing so and then taking a short nap in a parking lot in Port Hope, I arrived at Shannonville before lunch with Frank arriving shortly after. We started making our rounds through the pits and while I felt a little out of place, it was very obvious that everybody knew and loved Frank. Although I knew a few people from dealings in the past, Frank introduced me to many others, and they all seemed like they were willing to give the rookie a shot. Among those was Dean Ruston who had a fantastic story about acquiring Eddie Lawson’s police badge online before making a trip to California to return it to the legend in person. I would repeat it here, but you really need to hear it from Dean to get the full effect. We wandered a bit more after talking to Dean but before I knew it Frank was off and left me alone to try to make some new connections before race day.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and eager to get the show going I left for the track quite early. Despite my eagerness, it became very apparent when I arrived at the track that I was essentially the new kid in school. Normally quite at home in the booth and behind the mic, I was a bit nervous as I spent Saturday trying to become familiar with not only racing classes that were new to me but a whole pile of riders that were unfamiliar as well. Despite my early struggles, I started to feel more comfortable as the races ticked by and as time passed some of the names and numbers became more recognizable. Halfway through Sunday, I was back into my comfort zone and although it wasn’t my best performance, I think I did a decent job up in the booth. With the weekend now over, I would like to share some of my memories from my first ever VRRA event.
Although not a great memory for him, it was nice to catch up with Graeme Jones, former editor at Inside Motorcycles. We shared a few laughs of course but poor Graeme and his dad struggled all weekend without much success to get his 1968 Honda on the track. While Graeme did manage to get a few laps in on Saturday, for the most part his Honda was stationary in the pits for most of the weekend. Listen Graeme I get it. Much like your bike I was also born in 1968 and there have been many times that I haven’t wanted to get moving very much on the weekends as well. It will get better. I promise.
It was great to catch up with Scott Mcvicker and share a few pops as we talked about his beautiful bike, the Isle of Man, and of course racing in general. Mcvicker was pitted with Steven Smart and former factory Superbike rider Norm Murphy, and they did their best to keep me entertained throughout the weekend. Murphy threw it back to the late 80’s with some daring moves on Sunday and did me a solid when he hopped on my phone to have a conversation with my buddy Gary who was a big fan of Norm’s back in the day. David Murphy spent over half an hour showing me some great racing photos from over the decades and believe it or not Steven Smart may be the glue that holds this foursome together despite his freaky, raccoon like fingers.
I haven’t seen sidecars in awhile but along with the regulars on hand there was also a special rig in attendance on this particular weekend. Zach Courts had not raced a sidecar in over twenty years and as if that was not daunting enough, his passenger (monkey) Ari Henning had never been on one at all. To top it off they had actually drove this rig over three hundred miles from the state of Vermont, just to then strip it down to race. When racing got underway not only did they not look out of place, but they seemed to thrive on dicing with the other competitors on the track. Henning took to the monkey role like a fish to water, and it was amazing to watch him exit the corners while dragging his right shoulder lap after lap. Speaking of sidecars and their monkey, where else but at a VRRA race could you hear the expression, “We’ve lost a monkey!”, except perhaps at the Toronto Zoo. Glad to see Jennifer Carriere was ok after getting ejected from her ride.
Now seems like a good time to mention Mathew Winter. When I was wandering the pits on Friday, I noticed a sign proudly hanging in Winter’s pits proclaiming that he was on his honeymoon. I texted my wife instantly after seeing this and despite my praise for the sign, I could feel my wife’s eye roll from a couple hundred miles away. I would like to point out to Mr. Winter that just over 29 years ago my wife and I also happened to be at Shannonville for our honeymoon and if you can find a lady willing to do that then she is a keeper. Just remember to make it up with some more exotic trips a little later on in the marriage. You know places like Mosport, Daytona, the Springfield Mile and so on.
There is so much more I could say but my space is limited. The boxed lunches that were provided to me were quite good and surprisingly my body didn’t reject the fruit and vegetables. I would like to thank Laura, Ian, Jacqui and Chris for your help throughout the weekend as well as everybody else I talked to. I raced in Shannonville for the first time over thirty years ago and have been a spectator there at least a dozen times. Now I can cross announcing from the tower there off my list as well. How cool is that? Thanks VRRA.
- From Todd Vallee
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