So I made it to Thompson on June 1 for the vintage motorcycle racing, although the event didn't
exactly bring a ton of significant vintage road-race bikes out of the garages, as I was hoping. Yes,
I saw more than a few of Yamaha's old two-stroke giant-killers from a half-century ago, but otherwise this was a gathering of odd creations.
While most bikes reflected back to seasons past, most would have been out of place even then.
Consider the modern chassis adorned with full, slick bodywork sporting the colors of historic
sponsor Repsol. The bike was powered by an old Honda four-stroke dirtbike motor. They never
were up to the job of cruising through the woods, never mind flying down the front straight on
the Thompson road-course. Still, it was pretty neat.
The ancient Harley equipped with a hand-shift was truer to the word "vintage," its rider sporting
a black-and-yellow bumble-bee T-shirt to match the bike's own livery. As for racing? I'll wait
until the SCCA weekends coming up later in the season for that.