Here’s a real contrast in racing machines. From a mid-1980s WERA race at Indianapolis Raceway Park, it’s Paul Mills (No. 419) on what would have been at the time a state-of-the-art 250 Grand Prix racer, a Honda RS250, trying an outside pass on the vintage (maybe an early ‘70s S1?) Kawasaki of Roger Swartout (529). This is coming out of IRP’s carousel. While both 250cc two-strokes, the bikes couldn’t have been more different. Mills’ machine was a purpose-built GP bike with a water-cooled motor, powerful disc brakes and fully faired. Swartout’s old Kawasaki was an air-cooled reed valve inline triple street bike with drum brakes. I’m not sure, but I’m going to take a wild guess and say Mills probably came out on top in this battle.
Paul Mills (No. 419) on what would have been at the time a state-of-the-art 250 Grand Prix racer, a Honda RS250, trying an outside pass on the vintage (maybe an early ‘70s S1?) Kawasaki of Roger Swartout (529) in a WERA race at Indianapolis Raceway Park. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
The Kawasaki is a 1971 A1 250cc, 2 cylinder, air cooled, rotary valve with drum brakes. I still race the same bike in AHRMA but it does not look anything like that now.
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Roger Swartout writes on Facebook.
The Kawasaki is a 1971 A1 250cc, 2 cylinder, air cooled, rotary valve with drum brakes. I still race the same bike in AHRMA but it does not look anything like that now.
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And the cool thing is, they’re BOTH eligible for vintage now!
Actually, it looks like Roger is passing Paul on the inside. Can’t you see the defensive line Paul is taking?
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