Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, Joey's Bar and my mind is boggled!

So August 5th rolled around and I jumped on another airplane headed over to Belfast, Northern Ireland to start my "little" trip. My good friend Paul Black who I bought the CBR600RR from that I rode at Kells arrived at the airport to pick me up and we went on a little tour of Northern Ireland. That first day I was just amazed at what I was able to see and experience. 

Finally made it to Joey's Bar for a couple pints of Guinness!

 As most of you know Joey Dunlop has been my all time racing hero forever, this trip I was able to have a few pints at his bar in Ballymoney and even got to meet Joey's daughter Donna along with meeting up with Gary again. We also walked through the memorial gardens there celebrating Joey and Robert's wins and lives. Another place we visited that was truly unexpected was a small auto dealership in Ballymoney, Hugh O'Kane Motors. What I was able to see in person there was a real treat, this little dealership was one of the original sponsors of the Armoy Armada, which consisted of Joey Dunlop, Mervyn Robinson, Frank Kennedy, and Jim Dunlop! The memorabilia from days gone by they have is amazing and meeting with them was a humbling experience. Even got to meet up with our bud Tommy Henry for a bit while at O'Kane's shop.

This is one of Mervyn Robinson's bikes, a Seeley framed TZ... Amazing stuff!

After having some pints and chatting with a bunch of people we headed back towards Belfast with some stops and laps around the Armoy Race Course and a few others and maybe another stop for 1 or maybe 2 more pints before grabbing some grub and out to the paddock to figure out how this Ulster GP was gonna work!

The starting grid area looking down towards the flying kilo of the Ulster GP.

I'll leave ya with some pics from that epic first day, HUGE Thanks to Paul for touring me around!

I was very fortunate to see all this history on my trip, real roads history.

Very Tasty RD500 YPVS, wish I could add one of these to the collection with pops RZ350!

This is one of only 26 produced Joey Dunlop Replica SP1's celebrating his 3 TT wins in 2000!

The Armoy Armada, where it all began!

Met up with Gary Dunlop again, love watching him out on the wee 125's, may have to find one to ride... ;)

The Armoy Road Races are on my list to do at some point, road racing is huge over there!

From the podium at the Ulster GP looking across at the VIP tent and Joey Dunlop Grandstand.

Pano view from the podium at the Ulster GP

Last Race Weekend in Colorado for Awhile!

Back from Ireland with a few weeks before heading back over I went racing out at High Plains Raceway with the MRA. With my house being sold it was to be one of my last races in Colorado for some time as well most likely. A good group of people to go racing with and very competitive!

Big thanks to Brandon Fosbinder as always helping me out!

I also brought the wee 125 out for some 2-smokin fun so that was exciting to get back out to HPR where I crashed it last year and broke my wrist, elbow, and got a level 3 AC seperation at the top of the corkscrew... Worked the demons out pretty quickly, so much fun!!! 

Front straight into turn one on the only 2-Smoker around! GIGGLES!!!

We switched over to Pirelli tires this weekend and had some feeling issues to work through on the Supertwin but all in all had a decent weekend on it. 

Getting used to the new Pirellis and pushing, look at the squish in that rear tire!

The Supertwin ran good, the heat was tough, but we made it work!

The last race of the weekend was on the wee 125 and it was a fun one! I stalled it on the line and was dead last so I had a sprint race of passing people like crazy! Good fun! I missed a 3rd place finish by inches! Damn!

Absolutely LOVE this wee bike, if you ever get the chance to ride one just do it!

So close, if the race wouldn't have been shortened by a lap it would have been mine!

With that I will leave ya with some of my favorite pics from the weekend, was a great weekend and I will miss my racing family from Colorado! Have had a blast with you folks!

Great fun and Great times with some Great people, Dylan Hale behind me here on the cool down lap.

Running up the inside of Brandon Fosbinder into turn one, monkey-football...

2-Smokin Good Time!

Travis Newbold and myself have epic battles and epic good times on and off the track! Legend!

Newbold says lets rip this little beeatch!!!

They actually let these two yahoos race motorbikes?

Must be the hats making us smile eh? With Jennifer Hale always fun times!

Newbold's new "flesh" colored racing suit...

Last one from Colorado!

Next update will be about the big trip across the pond! Probably going to be multiple blog posts on that one, that's gonna be fun to re live again for the most part! Hope you enjoy it too!

Teaser pic:

I am really Horrible at this it seems... Catch up and the Kells Road Races...

Yep, I have come to the conclusion I am horrible at blogging... But hey why not keep it going some more here! Okay, where to start... This has been a crazy year to say the least. Racing, I suppose you all want to hear about racing right? I am gonna keep everything pretty short, maybe I can actually keep up with this stuff and keep it interesting for ya!

The Kells Circuit is short and sweet, with a bunch of elevation and jumps!

So lets start out with the Kells Road Races over in Ireland, my first real roads racing experience on a borrowed CBR600RR that I have never ridden before. What can go wrong right? We got to Dublin and our friends Gail and John picked us up to head out to Kells. When we got there Gav Brown already had the pits setup and we were off to the pub for some beers... When in Ireland... :)

Adam ready to rock and roll!

So the next day is practice with racing the following day, I took a walk around the course, this was gonna be interesting. Nervous is a word I have used a lot on my adventures, respect is another word that gets used a lot. These are not short circuits with run off everywhere, as I walked around the course I watched the crews putting hay bales around trees, telegraph poles, and stone walls that are right on the edge of the road. Here we go, rolled through scrutineering, got my practice cards, and we were ready for the newcomers laps. 

Ryan Robinson with some words of advice and helping me keep my head on straight!

The newcomers laps were very slow and more of a sighting lap session, but showed me that I was in for a ride! Roller Coaster... That's what this is like I think! But your on 2 wheels so it's much better! ;) I practiced and made qualifying for my races, unfortunately the rain came in overnight and flooded the course so the races had to be cancelled... But we got the experience and some seat time with some big boys. So much fun was had and I ended up purchasing the Paul Black Racing CBR600RR off of Paul and Gav for my future rides over there. I can't thank Gail, Gav, Paul, Ryan, Lindsey, Rachel and everyone who helped get Sue and myself to Kells and supported my adventure in real roads racing! So then back home we went, but some fun photos came!

WHOA!!! That's 6th gear flat out with Brendan Merrigan "flying"by! 

Adam met up with Sue in Dublin, our first trip out of the states together!

The Flying Finn was amazing, paying respects to Martin Finnegan.

Gav Brown is Crazy, he let me ride his bike at Kells!!! Hahaha!!!

Bell Helmets supported riders Adam Bauer and William Dunlop.

Getting ready to go out is an experience in itself!

On the gas hauling! So much fun, so fast, so narrow, so fun!

 Next up we will be posting some more fun experiences that have been had and I promise that I will post sooner than later!

Chuckwalla and the Isle of Man Newcomers Weekend...

Overwhelmed is something I am getting used to these days, in a 6 week span I traveled to Minnesota, Arizona, California, Dublin, and the Isle of Man... Fooking Hell! 12 flights in 6 weeks might be a bit much! But hell it's all worth it in the end and we only live once right?!?!?

Adam running through "Crash Corner" out at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway

So the February round of the CVMA out at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway went a bit smoother than the January round. We walked away with a few race finishes and had an absolute blast out there with these guys and gals. If you get a chance to go race out there I highly recommend it, really reminds me of racing up in Minnesota at BIR in the old days where everyone is friendly and helpful!

Part of the MRA Crew from Colorado that made the trek to go racing!

Saturday I only had the one race, Formula Twins, lined up on the grid and had a good start but decided to run wide and off the track a bit before crash corner and lost 4 spots right off the bat... Kept it upright and sorted myself a bit and kept going. Wound up with an 8th place finish and was happy with that. Not too shabby for a stock engine with about 20hp less than most of the grid. ;)

Adam cruising around on the Supertwin.

Sunday I had the Formula 2 and Lightweight Shootout races to do, started off with the Formula 2 and man what a fun race! Had some great battles out there and had an exciting last lap last turn jumping the curb after pushing the front and having one of the guys sneak up the inside me but I got the drive and finished 5th! Nothing like a little curb jumping to make things more exciting right? Next race up was the Lightweight Shootout, was looking forward to this as it was a couple of laps longer and I like the longer races. Got a decent start and was up in second for the first set of turns, Andy Palmer motored by me on the next straight and I just tried to keep in their draft on all the straights and brake as hard as I could to keep up. At the end of the first lap I had a huge slide in turns 2 and 3 and had to clean my suit out a bit. Went into the next left handers and had no issues, so I was like ok lets go pretty hard into the next right handers. Whoa as I go full lock again and feel like I am on my flat tracker... Took it easy the rest of the race on the right handers, finished with a 7th and was really happy with that with how bad the bike was sliding around! Got back to the pits and the right side of the tire was almost to the cords on the right side... Guess that explains that!

Adam with a good start here. Just need my race engine back to keep up on the straights!

Got home and unpacked everything that week after and started packing for the Newcomers Weekend over on the Isle of Man. The following Wednesday I jumped on a few planes and arrived the following morning on the Isle of Man. Was greeted by John Batty who picked me up with Raul Torres from Spain and we started doing laps around the Mountain Course. The next 5 days were a blur! Evenings were spent in the pub, mornings we went up to the TT Grandstand and went for laps with different people almost everytime!

Brendan O'Donnells Pub for a pint, from left to right: Diane Batty, John Batty, Adam Bauer, Damian Horan, Raul Torras, JD Mosley, and Davy Morgan what a bunch of nutters on the piss!

 If you have never been to the Isle of Man it truly is a special place, whether you are racing, spectating, or just vacationing the place is amazing. The willingness for people to bring me around for laps and gain course knowledge through them is absolutely amazing. I have had the honor to ride with past multiple TT winners, current TT winners, Marshals, and even people that have just lived there long enough they just enjoy driving around the course! In the 5 days there I ended up getting 22 laps in of the course, this doesn't sound like much but we are talking 37.73 miles per lap here... Massive Thanks to Jim Hunter, Ann Kinvig, and Caroline Etherington for hosting the event and getting all of the world class instructors together to help us newcomers have a safe and enjoyable Manx Grand Prix this August.

International Newcomers Hosted by Jim Hunter top right with Savas Kosmidis (USA), Carsten Svendsen (Denmark), Raul Torras (Spain), Julian Trummer (Austria), Richard Vuillermet (France), and Adam Bauer (USA)

Next post will hopefully be in a few weeks about the MRA's 1st race weekend since our first weekend got cancelled because of snow... Grrrrrr... Lots of stuff going on lately with having to sell my house, moving to New Mexico and Minnesota, and figuring out all this racing!

Cheers till next time!

Irish Road Racing Say What? Yes, Just Yes...

Well, we have one race weekend under our belt out at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway in CA and we are heading back out there next weekend hopefully not blowing an engine up this time and hoping for a smooth weekend! Chuckwalla was quite fun racing with the CVMA crew out there, although I was riding a borrowed Yamaha R3 in a field of SV and FZ07 Superbikes...

Adam Bauer on the Syndicate Racing R3 @ Chuckwalla

Big Thanks to my buddy Hammer for letting me ride his R3 out there, he qualified on the pole with it so I was being very cautious as I would be the worlds biggest asshole if I wadded it just getting finishes for my Mountain Course License!

 

Then we were working on an entry into the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb but at the last minute lost our ride to a magazine editor from CA so that left an open spot in June with scheduled time off work and nothing planned... My genius mind decided hey lets see if there are any Irish Road Races during that time and guess what I found? Kells Road Races is June 18/19 this year so I decided to put some feelers out about possibly hiring a bike to ride and give her a go!

Gav Brown catching some air on the Paul Black Racing 600RR

Next thing I know I'm offered a ride on a Honda 600RR with Paul Black Racing that my mate Gav is piloting this season on the roads! Who am I to turn this opportunity down??? Mega, just Mega opportunity for me to get my feet wet with racing on the roads over there and help to get me up to speed for my debut at the Manx Grand Prix on the famous Mountain Course on the Isle of Man!

 

Kells is the 4th round of the Irish National Championship and may not have a ton of turns but has it's fair share of bumps and some of the largest jumps on the schedule. Should be a blast!

With that I will end this post and be back when we get back from Chuckwalla on the Supertwin! Although we will be on a stock engine this time around it will be nice to be on my bike again!

 

Cheers!