My son racing at Tally this past weekend
 

I figured that maybe there might be a few of you around here that'd enjoy a decent race vid. :) This is Caleb racing the 125GP race at Tally this past weekend. For those that don't know, he's a 10yo young 'un in his 3rd year of road racing. He's still rather horrible at launching the bike, but it's very obvious he's trying. He still doesn't get slipping the clutch for such a long period of time like you've gotta do on these bikes. The other racer is on a Moriwaki 250 and with the 4-stroke advantage he absolutely leaves Caleb off the start. Caleb let's him have his cake for 1 lap...then leaves him behind. :D The 125 and clubman race are ran at the same time, so you'll notice toward the end 2 riders pass him (both expert). Caleb had been struggling all weekend with the exit of turn 2 and all of 3. This was the only section these guys could catch him. You'll notice him let one of the riders thru, then he proceeds to catch right back up on the brakes. Caleb ran a fastest time of 1:08.8 and no doubt would have been in the 6's could we have gotten these 2 turns figured out. Still, he put in a massive amount of hard work and got a TON of confidence back this weekend. VIR was a horrible weekend which brought him down, so he needed this weekend. Caleb made me one proud daddy! He won the 125 race and took 3rd overall out of 12 with the clubman combined.

It's in HD too, though it seems to run a little sluggish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-HnSu4j4ig

Congrats! I wanted to go to Tally that weekend but it just did not work out. Hopefully I will catch him in action one day

10 years old ? You should be proud...cool deal. I have family in the Raleigh area and used to live there too.

Awesome! I love watching determined kids race. He'll get the start, one day... He'll just get it.

That is awesome, Clay.
once he gets that start down, he will be able to replace Nicky on the Duc.:rockwoot:

One can hope. :D

Look at him go! So awesome! You must be so proud :D

wow, very nice.
he's not even my son & i'm proud. ; )

Wow...that is awesome! You should be proud! :dthumb:

I can honestly say I"m quite impressed by your boy. as you said his starts need improvement, but he's got it pretty solid aside from that.

Thanks guys. :)

Its great to see him still out there doing it Clay! Go Caleb.

That guy blew an awesome start.

Take your son out on some quiet backroad or abandoned airstrip, and let him practice launching over and over. He'll learn quickly.

His bike sounds sooooo nice. It makes my ears smile :) (Im a 2-stroke lover)

Is that all you can give the ladies?:?:

ROFL...

Apoc, we used to do that on his 85 and he can launch that thing like mad. However, not so easy on the 125. First gear is so huge on this bike. It's much the same as a modern 600, but imagine having only a 4000rpm window to work with. You've gotta keep the revs up perfectly, then not really even slip the clutch. You get to the friction zone and then just let it rev and spin and rev and spin... LOTS of clutch usage. Plus, once you're finally at the top of first you're going 60mph. Not something we can easily practice. Then, there's also the issue of going thru clutches! At dealer cost (you can use CR125 plates) it still cost me 70 bux for a full stack of friction and metal plates since we use the aluminum ones. 10 good starts and you've gone thru a set of metal plates. So, needless to say...starts aren't easy to practice. Like I said, he knows how to start like a mad man on his 85. But, he keeps launching like he's on his 85. :(

That was so cool! I know you must be so proud of him! Congrats to him!