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And now for something a little different... Tx Mini GP!!

Tourmeister

Keeper of the Asylum
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First Name
Scott
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Friday
:tab Vaughn "Bagwell" Ivey recently posted up an invite for folks to come check out the last round of the Texas Mini GP series. I have been meaning to do just that for... oh... several years now... :oops: You know how it is though. There are only so many weekends in a year. Scratch some for bad weather, having to work, family obligations, actually being able to get out and ride, holidays, etc... and well, there are only so many weekends in a year!! :doh:

:tab Well the planets aligned finally this weekend. I DID have to work, but my Dad graciously agreed to cover for me during the day so that I could take Daniel and head down to Katy for the afternoon to watch the sprint races. They do endurance races on Sunday. Sarah had a birthday party to attend during the afternoon and Rachel spent the afternoon with Beth. Daniel and I got a bit of a late start because a job came in five minutes before my alarm was set to go off... :argh: Nothing like having Dad cover for me and having to get him to take a job off my hands before I've even gotten out of the house. Anyway, we did not get down to the track until around 12:30pm. The racing started at 11:00am, but Vaughn said they usually run until late in the afternoon. With Daniel's gnat like attention span, I figured if we got to see an hour of racing, he'd be more than saturated and much more than that would render me insane from trying to deal with him once he hit that point and his attention wandered to other things... :wary:

:tab The racing was well under way when we arrived. Gate fee for adults was $10 and kids were free. We parked right in the pits with all the racers. I grabbed the camera and we headed straight to the fence to check out the action. I would figure out later that there were 26 sprint races scheduled for the day. I don't know all the various classes, but apparently there is a lot of overlap in terms of age of riders and bikes allowed because many riders rode the same bike in multiple races. There was not a huge crowd on hand. I am guessing less than 75 people total for all the racers, their families, and the handful of spectators. It was kind of cool though because everyone knows everyone and there was a real family feel to the whole thing. Fun is the priority.

:tab I ended up taking over 200 photos. :photo: But relax... I won't post all of them ;-) It is kind of cool though when I look through all of them in chronological order because I would focus on a few corners each lap which would allow me to see where riders were fast or slow, when passes were finally made, and the different riding styles and lines. I don't use SmugMug or any of the other image hosting services where I can upload everything to a gallery for you to see and just post the teasers here. So I will post a LOT of my favorites instead ;-)

:tab Vaughn, if you or any of the other racers would like copies of the pics, please let me know and I can stick them on a USB stick and mail all of them to you, or you could come up to a bike night to get them :-P

:tab So without further delay, here are the pics from the last round of the 2013 Mini GP season in Katy on Nov. 2.

Vaughn is #26
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This is Shane. I think he's 11 or 12?
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Hayden, 9 years old and racing about a year, Shane's younger brother. He's QUICK, especially out of the corners and down the straights, but the others often catch him in the corners.
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Not sure how they decide who goes where on the grid. It seems kind of random... :shrug:
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Things would sit like this for most of the race...
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Until with maybe two laps to go, Hayden passed both riders down the main straight going into turn one
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:tab I can't recall if Hayden actually won or just beat the group he was battling :shrug:

Older "kids" with "bigger" bikes, 84 is a girl, maybe 17-18 years old and has been racing a couple years
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She nails the start but gets swallowed up in the first couple of turns
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This guy got out front and pretty much ran away with it.
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The battle raged behind him.
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And I believe this was the finishing order...
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Next race, Vaughn sizes up the competition :wary:
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It's a little bigger grid this time
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WOOT!! :flip:
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I think this guy might have won it... I was so focused on taking pics I sometimes lost track of who was where :doh:
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Vaughn chasing 3rd and 4th
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Running away!
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Love the focus in the eyes...
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Vaughn being stalked with a few laps left...
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:tab I got distracted by Daniel and didn't catch the last lap of the race. I think Vaughn got passed near the end and took 6th? I gotta say, watching these guys sure causes and strange and inexplicable itching sensation... :ponder:

Next race! First time to see 13, but 96 and 84 are familiar now...
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Quite a mix of bikes in the same race!
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Stays like this for a while
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but a few laps later 96 dives for the inside when 13 runs slightly wide!!
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And a few corners later makes it stick...
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Once around 13, he clears off pretty quick
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With laps remaining dwindling, the action behind him gets a little frantic!
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Totally focused!!
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:tab I don't know if 96 won or not :shrug: Once again I lost track of who was leading because I just got focused on this battle after the race had run a few laps and the riders were more spread out.

I don't know her name or phone number... so don't ask :-P
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Does this bring back any memories...?
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This is a family racing effort, Dad and three kids (Hayden is the youngest)
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:tab These are just some random shots from another race. I've no clue who was leading or how far along it was. We had been wandering around the pits visiting with folks and asking lots of questions... Daniel will be 8 next year... the minimum age :trust: Sarah could do it now, but I don't think she has the interest or passion. Daniel is ALL ABOUT the ride!

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13 has a minor off but does not go down...
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But it causes him to lose a place to his former nemesis!
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Who is hot on the trail of the leaders...
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:tab Daniel can't stand around too long while I take pics, so we head back into the pit area to look around some more. It is clear that we will be leaving soon. Besides, we're both getting pretty hungry and I have to get back before too late. I promised Dad we'd shoot for no later than 5:00pm so he and Mom could go out for the evening and it is about a two hour haul between here and Huntsville.

A racer wannabe, but dirt or pavement... :ponder:
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Despite claiming to be having an "off" day, I'd say he's still having fun!
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Hayden is thinking of the future...
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Note the little pill bottle strapped to the side of the case, an oil catch? I saw similar bottles on numerous bikes.
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:tab The only other TWT person we saw was Camillo "CDC". He got there about 30 minutes after we did and left maybe 30 minutes before us. We finally left around 2:30pm and headed back to Tomball to grab lunch. Despite acting like he really wasn't paying all that much attention to what was going on with the racing, Daniel was jabbering about it in the van on the way back. He has this peculiar ability to look like he's oblivious to what is going on around him while actually paying close attention, when he wants to... He's more about the doing than the watching.

:tab I have to say, if you are a looking for some serious fun without breaking the bank or the break neck speeds of trackdays with full on sport bikes, this kind of racing could be your thing. The bikes are cheap and plentiful. Speeds are not that high because the tracks are actually go cart tracks that rarely have long straights. To be fast, you have to be smooth and have good corner speed, skills that readily translate to full blown track riding on "big" bikes or on the street. I won't say that winning isn't everything. I did see some folks frustrated by their performance, but even so, they still looked like they were having fun.
 
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Great pictures Scott. It was great seeing you and Daniel out there saturday. The track was a little cool on the surface but the weather was otherwise excellent. I always have fun out there weather I get on the podium or I finish further back in the order. Thanks for coming out and also for the beautiful pictures. :)
 
Good to see you at the races, Scott. The youngster featured in many of your pictures, on bike #96, is Ryan Cooley. He's about 12 years old and has been racing since he was 8. We have racers from 8 to 65 this year and we'll have them from 9 to 66 next year. Our motto: Half the size, twice the fun. Thanks for all the pics. Oh, the girl on the #84 XR100 is Jasmine Selman. She's getting fast.
 
It all starts with the kids, and we have some pretty fast ones. Humanrace is on bike #22 stalking the #26 bike.
 
I have been meaning to get out there and watch a few races. Looks like a ton of fun.
 
Great pics! I was hoping to take Colt out there, but it didn't work out.
I may have found my new hobby/obsession :trust:
 
I just wish we had a decent track closer to us. The track in Katy is right at a two hour drive for us assuming the traffic is not bad. I would LOVE to get Sarah and Daniel into this and be able to ride with them. I'd even like to get Rachel into it if she showed an interest. But I am NOT relocating to Katy :-P It's just a big flat field that floods every time it rains!
 
Loved the pics, Scott. They are really great! I'd love to give that racing a try sometime...
 
As far as venues go, other go-kart tracks might be agreeable. For that matter, any large expanse of asphalt or concrete could be made into a track using cones. Autocross (sports car slalom) uses empty parking lots.
 
Was planning on going. I forgot about it! :giveup:

When I saw the first picture of Bagwell, I thought he needs a real full size motorcycle, then a realized he probably has a dozen sitting at home!! :rider::lol2:

You can tell the good riders from the also rans by the condition of their leathers! :rofl:
 
always have a blast racing and hanging out with the TMGP family, hope to see more people join in on the fun next year!
 
I plan on having a Honda Grom at the track. They are hard to find right now, but should be plentiful when the 2014s come out. Anyway, I plan on getting it track ready and loaning it to NEW racers so they can see if it's something that they want to do. The rules: No charge UNLESS you crash. A handle bar on the ground is a crash. Bike flipping end over end is a crash. A bar end gets scratched and it is $50, everything is destroyed and it's still only $50. Only 2 crashes allowed per race day. If you find me a reasonably priced Grom, then you get the use of the bike on the race weekend of your choice. TWT members only. The program will not start until I have raced the bike 1 race weekend so that I can get the suspension adjusted.

Typical cost per race day for sprints (8 lap races). I don't set prices so they may be different this year and my memory is not great, but gate-about $10, 4 races are about $60, license is about $35 (a 1 day license is available for about $15) and rider's school is $35. If you are going to ride my bike, I will make sure that the rider's school fee is waived. After the first 4 races, the cost is $5 per race. My bike will be available for a maximum of 4 races.

Practice is usually an hour and a half with about 15 minutes of that allotted to kids and new riders.
 
^^ I think that it really depends on what classes you want to run and how competitive you want to be. In the club I used to run in the midwest it was the XR100 class that was the cheapest surefire way to get involved so that is what I built *and selling* but OMRL's class structure was a bit different and they even had XR specific mini series.
 
TMGP has an XR 100 class as well as others. Probably the cheapest class to get into would be the Supersport class on a stock engine XR with 17" wheels laced to stock rims. Google TMGPS for more rules and classes.
 
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