TOOLBOX BY: GREGG BONELLI
TIPS
Like many AHRMA racers, I came from a mechanical background meaning that I used tools to make my living. That has an influence on how we think about tools and what we do with them. I was a mechanic in a Yamaha/CZ dealership, eventually promoted from outdoor help to inside after mowing the lawn and emptying the trash enough to prove my worth. Meanwhile, I had a Kawasaki 100cc Green Streak I was using to learn dirt track and MX racing that was fast but fragile. All of this combined resulted in the need for tools on such regular a basis that I opened an account with the Snap-on man who came to the shop once a month and was soon getting all the money I made at the dealership. Fast-forward 40 years and I'm still racing, only now it’s just for fun. I'm in a good place. Once you finally take the pressure off yourself and just enjoy the sensations a ride at high speed can produce, you discover that speed still thrills. I could do it on a street bike I suppose, but I don't road ride because too many friends have been killed and maimed that way and most of my worst injuries were produced by delivery trucks, dogs, grass clippings covering the road just around a bend, or other such unavoidable hazards. At least on the racetrack none of those should be there. I took tools to the races of course, and for a while tried to take them all. Bench grinder, welder, tall boxes on wheels and a box van to carry it in at six mpg made it all too much work for what it gained me, so I started cutting back to the essentials. Finally, modernity caught up and towns all had tool stores open on the
OSB of three quarter-inch or so and leaving a generous allowance of an inch or more trace the top of it onto the wood and cut it out. Then I use pieces of scrap 1 x 2 or whatever other flat stock you have around and fit it to the inside so that it keeps the lid on the box and prevents it from sliding off. I find a gas can that will fit inside and drill holes in the lid just a bit smaller than the spark plugs the motor uses and thread the plugs into them. Then I make holes for screwdrivers, safety wire pliers, and wrench holders and such that keep things in place and out in the open where you can see them. Safety wire, duct tape the color of the fairing, aerosol chain lube, a spare master link, brake parts cleaner, drinking water, a length of fuel line, a pocket knife, hose clamps and handy wipes also go in my box together with any special tools that the particular bike requires. When I ran a total loss ignition system, I had an extra battery charged to the max to change to if need be. The particulars will vary, and some allowance needs to be made for space, but trial and error will show you the way. Paint the inside of the lid and put the outline of things where they go so you can find them quickly when the time comes. Organization is the key to success and if you haven't learned that yet, you will when you miss the start of your race looking for a tool you couldn't find in a timely manner.
HOT HOT PIT PIT TOOL BOX weekends. So, beyond my basic box to do the routine things, I just needed money and a phone with an app to show me where to buy what I had left at home. That is how I came to have so many torque wrenches I suppose, but can a guy ever have too many? Buying things worked after the races were run and I had the evening to sort things out leaving just the back to back to back problems to solve. I don't know if Murphy has some influence over how the races are scheduled to run or what, but it seemed like if I entered three classes (I often did), no matter what they might be, they would run back-to-back-to-back. Since I usually went alone and since the promise that they 'would wait for me' was as false as the ones about the ‘check being in the mail’ and ‘loving me in the morning,’ I had issues with my tools being back in my pit rather than on the hot pit lane where I needed them. My solution was the “Hot Pit Toolbox.” I will tell you how to make one and what I put in mine. Yours may be somewhat different, but the idea is the same. We are allowed to make adjustments on hot pit lane, even during a race. Between races then, once you're brought into the pit lane again, you can do it too. They may want you to have the box out of the way but that's not a problem, it’s not large and you're racing. Asking them where they would like you to put it is a great idea and since I often work the places where they go, I'll show you. If not, someone else will accommodate you as best they can. I use a plastic milk crate and turn it upside down on a sheet of plywood or
32
WWW.AHRMA.ORG
I paint the box to match the bike's color, whatever that is, and I put two number plates on adjacent sides so that when it’s on hot pit lane you can read the numbers from either direction. I can find it that way, and people who have the urge to move things will know whose it is so they can start working on their excuses to see if they will make that really angry racer calm down when he came in between races and his Hot Pit Toolbox was gone. Now I have made one of these and used it and it worked out pretty well except for the aforementioned self-appointed helper who took it back to my pits for me after the first of three races started. I'll not go any further there, but there is an expression about it that includes a hand basket that fits. It is also useful to have a spare set of number plates screwed to a square block of wood in the same orientation so that people coming to your pit from either direction can read it. Think crash truck here or the guy who borrowed something trying to find your pop-up in a sea of pop-ups with you gone to the porta-potty.
AMERICAN HISTORIC RACING MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION
Safe Racing.
AUGUST 2020
