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I continue to post to the Technical Topics because for me it has become more of an engineering adventure. It seems to just belong here rather than what my Moto Guzzi did today. So we are just back from Daytona. We raced our Yamaha R-6 in the 200 as a means of getting track time. That did not turn out as we'd had hoped as we were plagued with electrical gremlins throughout the weekend. The cause of the problems remain to be found but that will be on the back burner as we get ready for Willow Springs in a mointh. I'll hit the Forum with the R-6 fault as a FYI when we find the problem. Now as to how the Moto Guzzi (Gina) fared. We had decided to run her at Dayton (vintage classes) because of the high speed that are necessary at this track. The Mountain Course is really about very high speeds and having a motorbike that can both run fast and is stil stable so we felt this was a great place to give Gina her first try. We had planned to do a test day at north California's Thunderhill but getting on the Dyno with a new engine seemed to be the most imperative and we were running out of time. Ed from Guzzi Power and Mark Salisburge from Wheelsmith spent the entire Sunday before we were heading out tunning the Guzzi Power built engine. We left California with a list of tunning ideas and jetting changes about 11:00 PM Sunday night. The trip took about 60 hours and was with out a hitch. We have began calling these cross country drives "Snaking Across America" as we tend to live on Cokes, chips and Moon Pies. With a Red Bull pr 5 hour energy drink thrown in. We got Gina on course on Friday and quickly learned that we had done our homework (most of it anyway) pretty well. Ed's engine pulled like a "tractor" and the bike handled well. Between successions I made a few changes to the chassis and we tried a jetting change. We also contacted some local friends and set up a meeting to pick up more jet options the following day. After our poor finish in the 200 (with the R-6) Gina gave us all a shot of good cheer as the timing tower clocked her at 148 MPH. But, along with the happy speed news we found a slight oil leak (misting mostly) on the frame and rear inner fender. For fun we raced her next in Superbike Lite (allowed because we are a twin p/r carburetor bike) totally out classed by modern bikes and young tigers but fun all the same. We finished a modest 12th. The bike still showed a slight oiling problem. Before the race where the Guzzi was to run with bikes that were more her peers we spent all our time trying to improve the engine venting and recovery to alleviate the oiling troubles. In the final event of the weekend we would be racing against bikes that were more evenly matched with us (these bike were actually 2 classes above us at AHRMA races) such as Duc's and Honda's. Gina did us proud as she ran a strong second and even managed a few shots at first place. On the last circuit Wade began to notice oil on his boot and he slowed. Giving us a fourth place when the dust settled. Not counting the poor showing with the R-6 we were all quite pleased with the Guzzi's performance; being that for this motorbike Daytona was more test than a race. We think that we broke the 150 MPH mark and she was very stable at that speed. Wade told us that he was quite comfortable passing slower bikes on the banking. Doing this passing with the throttle wound open and tucked behind the bubble. I'll send some photos when I get the trailer unloaded and can get to them. This way you can see Gina all dressed and ready for the dance rather than putting on her makeup as was all the last pictures showed. Cheers to all Rich