Latest blog from Todd Marella. It’s Friday after work and a few of us are gathering at the Heap (@cycleheap) to ready bikes, drink beer, and swap a week’s worth of absurdities learned about our current state of affairs. Two of us are planning on racing the next day, 5 ½ hours away in Spokane, Washington…which is almost Idaho…and nearly Canada. Four days earlier, I had it in my mind that I’d be returning to the track, that I’d fallen in love with two weekends prior, by myself.

I was trying to track down Dan Stanley, a Washington state rider and national #60, then #10, between 1992 and 2009, and came across this photo. It's the late 1980s and Dan is looking sharp. Custom D's leathers, sponsored by Budweiser, white SuperVictory boots, white Simpson Bandit lid. He's sat on a TT spec Panther Rotax framer. I posted the photo on instagram, Dan saw it and replied. 'That Panther was one of the best handling bikes I've ever rode [sic]. The bike next to it [

If the update I received this morning is accurate, a big box of top ends, reed valves, and new custom expansion chambers will be on my porch today. It’s Thursday, Nov 7, and the season opener for Salem indoor Flat Track is Saturday, the 9th. 48 hours. At the very minimum, 18 of those will be spent at my regular job, factoring in the commute… 48 Hours ago, the message from Fedex was that the box was in Montana, and delivery was scheduled for Friday at the end of the day. Mind

Held under the vast, cloudless Lincolnshire sky at George Pickering's Greenfield oval, the final round of the DTRA National Championship was also the ultimate round of the inaugural DTRA European Championship, which meant that we had a bumper 30 bike entry in the Sideburn sponsored Vintage Class. With riders coming from Germany, Switzerland and France to join most of the British regulars (and some welcome irregulars). There were going to be 18 disappointed riders not making