As I rolled down 89 South headed for the Canaan Motor Club for the first time in 2026, I knew we were headed for a good weekend. Earlier in the week Ken and I had taken the bike down to Vin’s (vintageperformance.com) and done some final sorting of our new hydraulic clutch set up. That had gone well, the weather forecast as sweet AF and the world was on track to be our collective oyster.
As faithful readers will know, the ’25-’26 winter had seen a complete rebuild of our bike from the ground up and the new version of our bike has had a few hiccups in the first two USCRA events of the year. However, I was confident that Canaan would be our “Seijin-no-hi.” According to the internet — when asked “Is there a japanese version of a quinceanera?” — the Seijin-no-hi ceremony is Japan’s Coming of Age day and is celebrated for all youth who have reached the age of 18. To quote the internet, “The day usually involved a gathering of adults-to-be and local government officials who congratulate them on reach legal maturity.”
Well, at Canaan, adults-to-be did, in fact, gather, and the local officials did, in fact, congratulate our bike in the form two 1st place trophies, a 2nd place trophy and a 3rd place trophy. So with our Seijin-no-hi complete, the TSR500 is officially a Big Boy.
I rolled into Canaan early on Friday in order to get the timing hardware set up for Saturday morning. At the last minute Ken decided that he wanted to run 100 Octane fuel so I spent about an hour mixing different combinations of 87, 93 and 110 octane fuels to arrive at 10 gallons of race-ready 100 octane juice. As I poured different amounts of different fuels from container to container, I felt like John McClain in Die Hard with a Vengeance. (If that’s not a reference you get, click on that link.)
Gas mixed up, timing hardware set up, I hung out with Caleb and Holly and Vin and Cola, eventually deploying the magic elixir known as Whiskey, Whiskey, Benadryl and 30 minutes later drifted off to sleep. If this elixir were required to follow truth in advertising, it would be called Benadryl, Whiskey, Whiskey because technically the Benadryl is deployed first followed by 30 minutes of sipping two shots of whiskey while hanging out with friends. After 30 minutes the elixir takes effect and it’s lights out time. So, WWB, or BWW, either way I got a great night’s sleep. Legal Disclaimer: Nicola Borbone, a Licensed Nursing Assistant told me, “You can’t mix alcohol and Benadryl. That’s dumb. You’re an idiot.” That said, it works, but don’t try this at home, kids.
Saturday morning Ken showed up and after the Riders’ Meeting we saddled up for first practice. I went out and the bike ran great! The new clutch was butter-smooth and the bike ran like a clock ticking off the laps. I was able to focus on my riding because the bike just did what I asked it to do. I ran the full practice at about 3/4ths speed and was happy when I came in.
When I went out for my second practice session of the morning, I pulled onto the track just behind Sayre Anthony. Sayre is my good friend off-track and on-track my arch-fucking-nemesis. Knowing that I’d be battling with Sayre during the Heavyweight Supervintage (HWSV) race later in the day, I followed him for a couple laps. He was riding slowly however and rather than passing him and letting him follow me, I pulled off the track and paused on the hot grid to give him time to get halfway around the track. Then I pulled back out to continue my own practice. When I pulled back out, I ended up right behind Andrew Townsend on his Aprilia 70cc machine. Andy is ungodly fast through the corners on, well, any bike, but especially on that 70. So I settled in behind him and followed him for 4-5 laps moving through corners and trying to match his pace. It was going well, until I lost the rear tire coming out of (what I call) Turn 8, the off-camber left hander that brings you onto the front straight. Losing the rear on the corner where I crashed last year chasing Sayre and where many people have broken collarbones, was enough to get me to roll off and say, “OK, let’s call that good. We’re not crashing today. And certainly not during practice.” Regardless, following Andrew was instructive
At the end of the practice session, Club Director Doug Donelan, got on the intercom system and yelled, “Ok, people, I’m not sure what’s going on but this place has got more red flags than Tiananmen Square. Everyone just calm down and stop crashing. It’s practice for godsake!” Fortunately we did, mostly, calm down and I’m pleased to report that the ambulance didn’t move once all weekend.
The first race of the day was Master (over 50) / SuperMasters (over 65) / JuniorMasters (over 40). I run Masters and Caleb runs Junior Masters and because these classes are based completely on rider age and people can run whatever they want, I’ve got no chance to ever win Masters. Knowing this, Caleb and I created a made-up class called The Booth-French Showdown 2026. Honestly, this class, which again is not real, is absolutely the most important class of the year for me. Heading into this weekend, Caleb has won 3 times and I’ve won once. So we were standing at 38pts and 34 pts respectively. Down 4 points and with my bike running well, I was hoping to take both races (Saturday and Sunday) and pull even with him. An added factor was that Josh Gurley who normally does not run in Masters, had borrowed his uncle’s MZ Skorpion and was planning to run Masters just for fun. So my two tasks for this race were to beat both Josh and Caleb.
Caleb gridded ahead of me and Josh was behind me. Green flag waved and we were off! I got a good jump and passed Caleb off the line. I was the 5th bike into T1 and Josh was also behind me. The four bikes in front of me were all modern bikes and they cleared off quickly. Heading into T2 (righthander back in the woods) Josh dove up my inside on his MZ but immediately ran wide and I was able to cut back under him. It was on! I put my head down and did my best to clear off. Josh had followed me in practice so I knew that if he were right on me, I’d hear his loud four-stroke single. Happily I did not hear him. Until I did. On Lap 4 I heard him behind me and knew he was coming for me.
As we came onto the front straight I took a wider exit line and Josh squared off the corner and came up underneath me. Then it was motors. We both pinned it. He was on my left and as he came up on me, I had a split second decision to make: Let him go by me or chop his nose off by pulling in tight as we passed the tight kink at the end of the pit wall. I elected the former and he passed me right at the last corner. I put my head down and chased him hard. I stayed with him for the rest of the race but couldn’t get close enough to pass him. Regardless, the most important part of the race had been achieved: Gain points on Caleb for The BoothFrench Showdown 2026. I never saw Caleb in that race and by the end the points stood at French: 46, Booth: 44 Mission Accomplished.
My second race of the day was Heavyweight Supervintage. There were five of us in the class: Vin Borbone, Steve Harry, newly-licensed CBE rider Christopher Mann riding the Norton that Griffin Smith rode the wheels off of at Loudon, myself, and Sayre. I got a reasonably good launch and was the first HWSV bike into T1. I was surprised by this as Vin is a great starter and I expected him to beat me off the line. Sure enough, as we came out of T1, Vin went by me on my left. Josh Gurley on his borrowed MZ was running in another class and got a better launch this time and was ahead of me into T1. Coming out of T2, it was Josh, Vin, me. Heading for T3 (fast left hander before you head for the back straight), Vin put the hammer down on his Kawasaki H2 and sent his wheel to. the. sky. He rode the wheelie past Josh. His front wheel was up by Josh’s ear as he passed him. My immediate thought was, “Oh dear god, please let my GoPro be working! That was insane.” Alas, no dice. GoPro let me down. I chased Josh for two laps, determined to catch him this time. On Lap 3 or 4 he ran wide into T1 and I was able to easily go under him. As soon as I got past him, I gave it all I had and after the race he told me, “After you passed me, you were gone. I never saw you again!” Seijin-no-hi indeed. TSR was back!
However, the race was not over. With two laps to go, it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t seen Sayre yet. Sure enough within a minute or two of that thought, the little fucker showed up. (Side note: I have nothing but love, respect and appreciation for everything that Sayre is as a human being. However on the track, at this point in our relationship, he is absolutely “the little fucker.”) Honestly I forget where he passed me, but I was furious with myself for losing focus. I chased him for about a lap and a half and coming to the end of the back straight I was right on his tail. Just in front of him was a slower rider and I thought to myself, “I’ve got to make this rider work for me.” I closed up on Sayre but he slipped past the other rider as we headed up to the the off-camber lefthand T8, Sayre then had open space and took off. I had to follow the other rider through that corner, and by the time I could get on the gas, Sayre was gone. A few seconds later, I crossed the finish line in 3rd for HSWV.
My last race of the day was Period 4 Open. TBH, I kind of hate this class. Only one other person runs the class consistently and he’s a better rider on a faster bike. When we decided to upgrade our bike with a front disc brake we knew that we’d be forced to move to a Period 2 class and that there was no reasonable “bump” class. That’s why we’re in Period 4 for our bump class. Period 4 is for bike built before 1990 and the Open class has the following displacement rules: “All multi-cylinder (water and/or oil cooled) four-stroke production sport motorcycles of unlimited displacement and two-stroke production motorcycles to 750cc.” We’ve got an air-cooled 500cc two-stroke. A really fast air-cooled two stroke, but an air-cooled two-stroke nonetheless. So it’s kind of ridiculous for us to run in this class. That said, it’s our class for this year. The added kick in the nuts for us on Saturday was that the other rider, Neil Jester on his FZR600, and I were the only two racers in that race. The other classes all had no entries. So it would be two of us all alone on the track. Hearing this, Neil and I agreed to shorten the race to only 4 laps. At the last minute two other racers did show up which made four of us on the track. (Woot woot! 🙄). When the green flag dropped my goal was to keep Neil in my sights as long as I could. And I was actually able to keep him close for three laps, but then on the last lap he cleared off. Not the greatest race ever, but a 2nd place is a 2nd place. I took it.
After the awards ceremony a group of us went out to the new BBQ joint just down the street. The food was good, but… let’s say…. “heavy.” I ate too much and then added to the problem by saying “Yes, please” to carrot cake when the waitress offered it. That was a mistake. The two funniest moments of the weekend occurred during dinner, but both of them are incriminating. At first I thought, “Oh, I can’t share that on my blog,” but they were so funny that I don’t want to lose them to history, so in an effort to capture the moment without embarrassing anyone I will tell you that a story was being told and Matt Camillieri who was listening said, “That’s not ok.” The storyteller did not hear him and continued the story. A few minutes later when the storyteller re-emphasized a portion of the story, Matt said, “Yeah, that’s still illegal.” You had to be there. The other quote that I cannot explain, but also cannot risk losing to the annals of history was: “No, he wasn’t congratulating her; he was congratulating her brother on not being arrested.”
After dinner we went back to the track, I deployed the WWB and after 30 minutes of pleasant conversation with Cola, Vin, Griffin Smith (who showed up Saturday night in order to volunteer for the club on Sunday because the aforementioned Christopher Mann was riding the CBE Norton. That kid is all in on the USCRA!) Johnny B and Scott Hussey, I packed it in for the night.
Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday’s first practice. I pulled out and promptly found myself, again, behind Sayre. I followed him for two laps and then, same as last time, pulled in to give him space. I was determined to beat him today in HWSV and did not want to show him anything during practice.
Ken and I had been talking about our gearing and I wanted to get some clear track during the second practice — which can be hard with so many bikes on the track — so that I could see how deep I was getting into 6th gear when I was flat out on the back straight. With this in mind, when Third Call went out for my practice, I lined up early and was the first bike on the track. A few modern bikes passed me immediately which screwed up my plan. I ran for two laps and at the end of the second lap I had a feeling Sayre may be following me so as I came through T7 I put up my hand to indicate I was pulling into the pits. Sure enough, as soon as my hand went up, Sayre ripped right past me. I pulled into the pits, got some separation and then went back out once he was gone. I ended up behind Mark Hull on something pretty big from the 1990s and followed him for the rest of the session. I tried to pass him a couple times but his four stroke motor was just a tractor coming out of corners and passing him by braking late into corners just felt too aggressive for practice. So I followed him for the rest of the session.
After practice, I took off my leathers as my first race wasn’t until after lunch. The weather was great, the bike was running perfectly and Ken had hot dogs on the grill. It was our Seijin-no-hi day and all was right with the world. I tipped back in my reclining beach chair and actually fell asleep. An hour later I woke up, refreshed and ready for my three races. As we were getting ready to head out, Vin told me, “Kevin’s got his Kawasaki H1 ready to go and he’s going to run in HWSV.” This meant that, in all likelihood, Kevin was going to win, Vin was going to take second, and Sayre and I would then be battling for 3rd place. Third place is the podium. Fourth place is nothing. Suddenly the HWSV race mattered more.
To add to the drama, my first two races of the day were going to be back-to-back: HWSV followed immediately by Period 4 Open. It was hot and I’d been drinking water all day, but a back-to-back race requires some planning. We took our starter rollers out to the hot pit area so that I could pull in after HWSV, turn the bike off, get a drink and then fire the bike back up again and go out for Period 4 Open. With our set up in place, we sat and waited for the Third Call for HWSV. The call came, I dumped the clutch, the bike fired and I headed out.
I was gridded on the front row for HWSV and when the flag dropped I got a pretty good jump. That said, Vin beat me into T1. Vin and three modern bikes led me through the first lap. As I headed into T1 at the start of the second lap, I saw something rolling across the track. Something had fallen off someone’s bike. Coming out of T2 I came up on Vin with his hand in the air and his foot out indicating that he was out of the race and doing his best to stay out of the way. Woohoo! Vin was out. (I mean, “Sorry about your bike, Vin, but really, your problem not mine” And now Sayre and I were fighting for 2nd place!) Knowing Sayre was going to be right on me, I put my head down and rode as fast as I could. Every time I passed the start/finish line, I saw Ken and Jack Manning urging me on. I couldn’t tell if they were telling me to go faster because Sayre was right on me or if they were celebrating how fast I was going. Either way, I continued on as fast as I could. On Lap 6 as I came on to the back straight, I saw a new rider, identified by his orange pinney, heading through the kink on the back straight, Turn 5. By the time I reached the esses at the end of the straight, I had caught up to him. In an effort to be a diplomatic rider and not freak out a new racer, I rolled off and followed him at a slower pace for three seconds that felt like an eternity. The whole time I was thinking, “Oh my god, Sayre’s going to catch me.” And as the new rider and I tipped into the righthander at the end of the straight, sure enough, there’s was Sayre going around the other rider on the left. I went past the rider on his right and Sayre and I took off together. I followed him through T7 and T8 and across the start finish line. As we started Lap 7, I could tell that I was faster than him but I needed to find a place to pass him. In T2 I closed up on his rear wheel. On T3, I thought about going around him on the outside but was worried I wouldn’t complete the pass before he flicked to the right to go onto the back straight. Followed him down the back straight and again was up on him as we approached the esses and I thought about passing him on the right as we started into the esses, but thought, “Well if he doesn’t see me before he tips right, I’ll rearend him” and rolled off.
It continued. I, again, followed him through T6, T7 and T8 onto the straight. We flashed past start/finish and Cindy gave us the white flag, last lap. I glued myself to his rear wheel. As we came out of T5 and headed for those same esses where I had checked up last lap, I just stuck it up the inside and forced him to sit up. I was past him with four corners to go! I lead him through T6. Through T7 he showed me a wheel and we flew down to T8. Coming out of T8 I knew it was over and was a matter of motors. I pinned it and well before the last kink at the end of the front straight wall, I jockeyed over to block off the inside line. Later Sayre told me, “I saw you do that and I didn’t give a shit. If I could have caught you I was going to cut across the grass on the inside.” He did not, however, catch me and I led him across the finish line. Exhilarated at what I thought was second place in HSWV (more on that later), I still couldn’t celebrate as I had to hustle around the cool down lap in order to get back to the pits to get water and prepare to head out for Period 4 Open.
Period 4 Open on Saturday had been just Neil Jester and me, but Sunday, Tom Bishop joined the fray fresh off a victory in Formula RD. Saturday, Caleb had beat Tom in Formula RD and Tom had spent Saturday night changing both his jetting and gearing. Those changes allowed him to put what could only be called “a beat down” on Caleb. The Period 4 Open class was gridded with different classes today so we had a full grid and would run 8 laps, not the anemic grid and only 4 laps that we had run on Saturday.
As we gridded up, I saw that Kevin Dinsmoor was running his R3 in a modern class and confident that he would lap the field, I told myself, “OK, this is going to be 7 laps. Go hard.” When the race started, Neil and the other more modern bikes cleared off pretty quickly and by the end of the 2nd lap I was all alone. Racing alone can be hard. It’s hard to maintain the drive and focus that you naturally get when your dicing with someone. That problem got solved for me when, at the end of Lap 4 as I tipped to the left to come onto the front straight, Tom Bishop came up on my outside. I outmotored him down the straight, but now I knew he was there and this gave me the focus I needed. For the next three laps I went hard but sure enough, on the last lap, Tom again showed me a wheel on the inside as we were coming out of T7. We ripped down to T8 and Tom set up to go around me on the outside. I knew if I could just exit T8 even with him, Ken’s motor would do the rest. And it did. Because Tom was going around my outside, I had the inside line to the last kink, I hit that kink at full tilt and led Tom across the finish line. “Another second place!” I thought. Tom and I bumped fists during the cool down lap. There’s nothing like battling wheel to wheel with someone on the race track.
The last race of the day was Masters / Supermasters / Junior Masters and Caleb was again gridded one row ahead of me. Josh was not racing on Sunday so I had one job in the race: Beat Caleb. Beating Caleb would bring us even at 56 points each with 4 races left in the season. Having thoroughly spanked him on Saturday I was confident as we gridded up. When the flag dropped I got a good jump leaving Caleb behind and was the 5th bike into T1. Several bikes passed me in the first two laps and then it was a pretty lonely ride to the finish line. My last lap was a pathetic 1:16.589. Caleb’s last lap was a much better 01:12.396, literally his best lap of the entire weekend. And yes, Caleb caught me at the line. To say I was disgruntled would be an understatement. I was as far from gruntled as a man can be. When we crossed the line, neither of us actually knew who had won. It was that close. He beat me by less than a wheel. But a win is a win and after three rounds and six head-to-head match ups Caleb is leading The Booth-French Showdown 2026 by a score of 56 to 52. We’ll dice again twice in Canaan in August and two more times at Loudon on Labor Day weekend. By my quick math, I have to win three of those races to tie for the season, and to win the Showdown outright, I have to beat him at in all four match ups. Time will tell.
And just like that the weekend was over. But wait! There was more drama still to unfold. When we came in from the HWSV race earlier in the day, Sayre sidled over to my pit and said, “Hey there, congratulations on the win! Vin and Kevin both crapped out.” So while I had been thrilled to have beaten Sayre in HWSV, I had in fact, for the first time ever won the entire class. Now, obviously this win has a pretty big asterisk called “Kevin and Vin both broke down,” but that doesn’t matter to me. You gotta be in it, if you wanna win it! And thanks to Ken putting the finishing touches on my untouchable, unimpeachable machine, we had taken our first HWSV win ever.Seijin-no-hi!
And just when you couldn’t imagine things becoming even more dramatic and celebratory, when the final results for P4Open were calculated, Neil had been ruled to have jumped the start resulting in a one lap penalty. This meant that in addition to beating Tom Bishop in what we thought was the fight for second, in fact, we had been fighting for first and I came out on top. Note: While Neil wasn’t happy with the ruling on having jumped the line, he was incredibly gracious after the fact. Class A guy, that Neil Jester! So despite losing Round 6 of The Booth-French Showdown 2026, I had still ended Sunday with two wins! Helluva weekend.
Last but not least. Hendrix, Caleb and Holly’s dog was an absolute angel all weekend. Holly and Caleb took a broken damn dog and literally fixed him. Don’t believe me? Check out this photo of Hendrix not jumping up and not grabbing that drink out of Joyce Mehaffey’s hand. Hendrix circa 2024 would have knocked Joyce over and been eating the cup that she’s holding. He is indeed a good boi!
