Serendipity is a wonderful thing—you just can’t count on it. When former CW staffer Camron Bussard (now with Cobra USA) mentioned he was thinking of going vintage roadracing, I casually replied that there was a race-prepped Honda CB350 in the Cycle World garage that could be had for a good price.
Like candy to a baby…
The bike was on loan to the magazine from good friend Chuck Davis, who had slyly hoped that we would finish up the last 20 percent of the build and send Cernicky out on it to torment the AHRMA regulars. Never happened and now it was collecting dust, rust and weevils in the garage.
A deal was done, and soon the bike was in the hands of Cobra’s master fabricator Denny Berg for its final prep. Last weekend, Camron took the CB to Miller Motorsports Park in Utah (where Cam lives) for its—and his—shakedown run. His report:
“Guys, here’s a photo from the first official outing of the CB350. The bike would not pull on top until radical jetting and unkinking some vent tubes. A smaller countershaft sprocket brought it all together just in time for the first race. The fast guys were running 2:00 flat on the 2.2-mile East Course at Miller; my first practice session was about 2:35 but by Saturday’s race my times were 2:12. I removed Denny’s awesome fork brace for Sunday and the times dropped to 2:08! Not bad for the bike or me.
“I had to wear the orange T-shirt to let others know I was a Novice in my class. Sunday, I finished 10th out of 18 racers, and without a slipping clutch, most likely would have gotten up to eighth. What a fun start!”
Billowy attire notwithstanding, looking good, Camron! Sounds to me like Daytona next March is in the CB’s future…
