Peoria Grand National Championship TT Races sponsored by The Peoria Motorcycle Club August 19

Peoria Grand National Championship
TT Races
sponsored by The Peoria Motorcycle Club
August 19, 2001

Click here for Article In Peoria Newspaper

We headed out to Peoria, Illinois from Conneaut, Ohio on the morning of August 17th, 2001.
I didn't take any pictures along the way... duh.... Was just interested in getting old 'Daisy' there in one piece.

As you can see below, the picture of the bike being worked on this time was not Daisy. It was Brad's bike. As soon as he got to my parents house he started tearing it down to see what the 'whurring' and screeching noise was.

Here is Cheryl watching over Brad

Brad decided that it wasn't in his primary area so he decided to ride it to the Harley Shop and see if they could fix it.

I am awaiting the digital picture from Walters' Brothers Harley Davidson to show the guys that worked on Brad's bike.
They were awesome. There were five guys working on the bike at once. They had his bike torn down and diagnosed in 15 minutes. They had a new cam and cam bearing in it in 2 hours. What a team. Those guys definitely have their act together.

Click here to go to Walters Brothers Website

After that, we went to my parents house to eat and rest until later when we all went to the Bike party that is put on every year in downtown Peoria, Illinois. We waited just a little too long to go as it was getting too dark to see any of the vendors who were there to swap parts.

This year the party was down at the River Front Park. It was beautiful there and the facilities were wonderful.
There were lots and lots of bikes there. Next year I will make sure we go earlier.
Marshall Tucker Band was playing there, too.
I was a bit disappointed as my group didn't want to stay for the band. They wanted to go eat.

We went to Schooners Restaurant in Peoria where they have a Pork Tenderloin Sandwich which they claim will feed a family of four. I ordered it just to see if they were telling the truth. I ate one quarter of it. That thing was really BIG!
We took it home and dad ate a quarter of it and while I was in the hospital (tell ya about that later), Jim and Brad ate the rest.

Next are pictures on Sunday, August 19th, 2001 at Motorcycle Park, Peoria, Illinois

We arrived at Motorcycle Park to watch the Grand National TT Races.

Below is Brad and Cheryl putting away their gear and locking up their bike. They both rode on Brad's bike.

Next is a picture of me. I had to make sure I was in the pictures to show that I really was there.
Thank goodness it was before the 'Garage Door Incident' (Tell you about that later)

Below are some pictures of the mass amount of bikes that were parked here.

Below we are looking for a place to sit on the hill

We found it! You can see the announcer's booth from here. The entire race track is surrounded by hills which are used to sit on to get a great view of the races. They call it THUNDER VALLEY.

Brad and Cheryl and Jim are seated on the hill watching the 'Heats'

They used equestrian policemen to patrol the area.

This is a picture of the sky that day but it cleared up beautifully.

Below is a picture of a group if kids that were having a really good time. I just had to get a picture of them.

The young and the old enjoyed the TT Races alike.

The TT Races are finished with Chris Carr finishing 1st Place .....AGAIN!!!!

Pictured below are Brad and Cheryl headed back out towards our motorcycles.

I took lots more pictures of this event but they are on the regular camera. They will be inserted later.

Next you will see the aftermath of the "Garage Door Incident" I had mentioned earlier.

A word of warning: NEVER RIDE YOUR MOTORCYCLE INTO A GARAGE UNTIL YOU MAKE SURE THE DOOR IS SECURELY IN THE UP POSITION.

The door came down on my shoulders after my windshield had cleared it. It grabbed me by the chin and drug me off the back of the bike and I ended up in the emergency room getting neck and hip x-rays.

NOT GOOD!!!!
I didn't break anything but I am really sore. It just broke the clutch handle on the bike but there was no way I could ride it 542 miles back to Conneaut.

You will see my Daisy on the back of Dad's pickup truck getting ready to head back towards Conneaut on Monday morning, August 20th, 2001.

Dad is checking the tire pressure on the truck.