Here’s an excellent documentary on the legendary Nelson Ledges 24-Hour Endurance race. I covered this race a few years and I can tell you that there was nothing like it anywhere in American road racing. Thanks to JT Hoagland for the link.
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-133137427027553603&hl=en&fs=true
Rider Files 
Fantastic. Great stuff! I wish more of these old videos would surface. C’mon people, dig that stuff out!
DH
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Great footage Larry! Really takes me back to the good old days. Lots of wonderful memories. Thank you.
Nick
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That was right on! Love seeing some of the Old Gaurd.
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Made my day!
This was our first attempt at the 24hr that year. The video sure captured the atmosphere and brought back some memories a long time gone.Great people, great bikes and a good time had by all!
Team RC Yamaha/Speedboys
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What a trip. That was us in third (Good Times Racing) on a Yamaha Vision. Good to see some old friends like Ray Dysle.
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Excellent documentary! We were riding the #87 Suzuki GS450 as Team Edgewood. The officials were going to black flag us at 9:30 Sunday morning because the bike wobbled furiously all through the Carousel. Our reply, “It’s been doing it all day Saturday and Saturday night.” I remember doing a few stints at night in the rain. I couldn’t see and questioned myself, “Am I having fun?” We really weren’t known for preparation or planning. That’s why we were working on the bike before the race. Our pit tarp was tied at on end on Heschimura’s conopy and the other end on Team Cowboys. Thanks guys! I also have the dubious honor of hitting the course marshall Dave Lewis on the back of the knee with the handle bar while he was on course on a hot track sweeping just before the entrance to turn 12. Years later when he was an official at Daytona we dropped in during the late hour tech inspection to say hello to Dave. We asked him, “Hey Dave, do you remember a team at Nelson Ledges that had shorts in the hot pit, glass in the hot pit, wheelied out of the pits in the 23rd hour and hit a corner worker with their handle bar?” He said “oh yeah!” We responded, did you know that was Duck Jacoby, Roger Lyle, Sam Backus, Larry Dinmore and me?” In his most stern voice and sharp northern New York accent he blurted, “Ahhh, so you were the bastards!” It would be great to hear more stories and photos! Does anyone remember the first Rockingham 30 hour when a team refueled at night using a Coleman lantern?
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Larry, thanks for posting, glad folks like it.
I’ve played it a couple times
All : I ran (with lots of help) GTRacing back in 77-78-79.
After a visit to Ducati North American HQ a couple of years ago, I started pulling together my old notes (found my ’77 lap charts!!!) and have been compiling some of the stories from back then.
1977 was the year GTRacing/Group 4 “shocked” the rest by beating Lester Wheels (chased them till they blew up).
Personally, I started to dial back by 1980, later helped my friends at College Bike Shop with various efforts.
Partners in GTRacing were Ed Shelby and Fred Kling (Fritz’s dad), riders ’77 were Fred, Jon White, Reg Heal (substituting for injured John Samways) and Craig Morris.
We decided, after Nelson’s to go for the WERRA (not mis-spelling that was it back then) Endurance Championship – won it at West Palm.
We did do some AMA Superbike back then, later dragged a “built” 750ss out for Bobby Lill to run Battle of the Twins.
Feedback can go to jthoagland@earthlink.net, it would be best to mention Nelson’s or GTRacing in the subject line and I can pull it out of the spam box.
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I remember that team at Rockingham that used the Coleman lantern in the pits. It was us! Black Label Racing headed by Ray Hill, who got the RD400 from Yamaha for a write up in Popular Science where he worked, and a bunch of us Pickering Valley Roadracers. Splashed a little gas on the lantern during a night time pit stop. Whoops! Bike was immediately engulfed in flames. Thanks to the quick response of the teams around us, the fire was out almost as fast as it started. We wiped off the black soot and checked the cables, etc. and found the bike still ridable so we gassed it up again (without the lantern) and hit the track! It was a 30 hour race and it rained the first 24 hours, then the sun came out and we had a 6 hour sprint in the dry. We finished 6th overall on that little RD and won our class by 80 laps ! What a weekend. Never Give Up !
Larry, I have a lot of old racing pics from the 70’s and 80’s if you like I can send you some.
Nick
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For sure. I’d love to see those old photos.
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A great video from a time gone by. These were great times for many of us. Bikes were affordable and fuel was not a great deal. Most of the team riders knew each other and the event was really as important as winning. Riding and finishing was the goal for most of the teams. We all wanted to win but you had to finish the 24 hours first. Teamwork was needed for any team to win and it was more than just one rider who made the difference. Mechanics and others team members could make or break a team. Few teams did not suffer some crashes or mechanical problems and the back up team had to keep the bikes going. Thanks for the memories.
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Back in the late ’70s and early 80’s I worked for Joe Lachniet at Haslett Motor Sports as a mechanic. I had the privilege of working on the CB900F HMS fielded for their first 24 hour (1980 maybe?). All of the donated, after hours work on bike prep are certainly some of the best memories of working there. The stories told after their return (a few of us had to stay back and keep the shop open) have been retold over the years with great relish. Team effort cannot be over emphasized in the survival of a bike to finish. When the bike returned to the shop, it looked like it had been through a war but still ran well. Last fall at a bike gathering in Michigan, I ran into the current owner of that particular 900, and he said that it still runs. As a side note, the headlight shells for the night portion of the ride were “borrowed” from my snow plow truck and returned undamaged after the race. Thanks for bringing back some great memories with a very well done video.
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“link not found” ?
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