Needless to say, at that point I was hooked on road racing. 
- Bob Devol 

RACING WAS A FAMILY AFFAIR > >

If you were to ask my children (now 22 and 24) they would tell you the were born at 'the bridge'. We (my wife and kids and I) raced at 'the bridge' in it's last days in the early 90s. Having grown up in Europe and started racing there, I always dreamt of racing the famous American tracks like Daytona, Sebring and, of course, 'The Bridge'.

After emigrating to the US and a 15 year hiatus in my racing, I started again in the late 80s with EMRA and, of course 'Bridge' was part of the schedule. The kids were too young to grasp the finer points of racing but they sure enjoyed the huge sand dune in the infield near the paddock, even now they both have great memories of climbing up that dune and rolling down (Dad didn't care as long as they stayed out of the way and Mom was busy keeping Dad semi sane when the !#@%@#$^FIAT again blew something up that was supposed to be indestructible).

The track was all it was cracked up to be and, after having raced at most of the fabled European tracks, I always felt that being able to put together good lap at the Bridge was the true hallmark of a 'driver' (save maybe Zandvoort, my old home track and also a rather tricky piece of real estate). Let's keep the memory of this place alive and, who knows, maybe we'll be able at one time to hear the engines again in echo canyon.
- Andras Berkemeijer

MOTORCYCLE RACING AT THE BRIDGE > >

I road raced at the Bridge in the early 1980s with AAMRR. Most of my road racing was done at Loudon NH, with a side trip to Summit Point WV. I was in college at the time, and generally broke ... and occasionally broken.

I started out as AAMMR novice #407 on my street bike, a Suzuki GS400 with drum brakes front and rear. I raced it in Production A, and made junior my 1st year. I know I ran the GS400 at the Bridge, because I distinctly remember getting off the track in one of the turns after going under the bridge after the front straight, and crashing, resulting in a dislocated left shoulder. I had a very upset corner worker hold my bike while I relocated my shoulder. Eventually it had to get surgically rebuilt in the late 19080s. Anyhow, once I made junior, I started running a "modified production" RD350 that was, in most respects, a TZ250B with 1 barrel from a TZ700, making it a 350. I think I started as junior 407, then became junior 95 later. I blew that bike up at Summit Point while getting used to the backwards shift pattern, and rebuilt it as a 250. I believe I also ran this bike in some configuration at the Bridge.

Shortly after, I bought a TZ250E from Norm Smyzer (spelling?), and started running that instead. I ran that for a while while I ran myself out of money, and had quite a bit of fun in the process. As my road racing career ran down, I finished out racing a TZ250J (which was quite new) with some success while its' real rider (Tad Uzzle) was sick. I'd
been keeping it running for him (I hesitate to call myself a tuner!), so I got to borrow it. My finale was a pretty solid crash in turn 3 (? - high speed left hander at Loudon aiming toward the pond) resulting in rather expensive repairs and the end of my road racing career. I didn't quite make it into the pond, but I was close. Apparently some one had video of the crash - I always wanted it, but never tracked it down.

In the meantime, I'd been living in Kingston, NY and started flat tracking - it was cheaper. I wasn't very good, but I had fun.

By about 1988, I was out of racing, although I am not sure I realized it at the time. I didn't ride a motorcycle for years, until I purchased a 2005 Buell Lightning XB12 that I ride around in the summer out here (in Wyoming). It has a few modifications - pipe, seat, some careful bobbing of the bodyword, and backwards shifting (once I got used to it, I preferred it).
-mike Phelps, AAMRR novice 407, junior 407/95 mjp@transedge.com

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