Matt's Motorcycle Race:
The Sacramento Mile

My brother Matt is in second place in the season standings of the Vintage 500cc, no brakes class of the California flat track motorcycle racing association. (He finished last year in second place, too.) I went with him to the races at the one-mile track in Sacramento.

First things first after a hundred-mile drive to the track.

BIke successfully unloaded.

Matt walked the track before practice started to become familiar with ruts and humps on the dirt track.

Matt is a long-term veteran on the racing circuit and while the seedings and practice assignments were being made, he visited with old friends. This Norton was expected to win, but the engine broke during the heat races.

Some veteran racers use advanced Diet Coke technology.

By the time the races started, the stands had filled with four score and seven fans.

Waiting in line for the heat race. Matt finished third, which qualified him for the front row of the Main Event.

After two laps he was in a battle for fifth place (out of eleven), but he left #75 in the dust and finished the six-mile race alone in 5th.