First Berrien Tricycle Rally - June 21, 2014

Daryl Hanger on his Catrike Trail leads Warren Beauchamp in one of the races. Daryl was the overall winner. Warren had the only leaning-trike at the rally – a front-wheel-drive low racer he built, fitted with a Dennis Grelk-built two-wheel attachment that bolts to the rear dropouts.

Words and photos (except one) by Mike Eliasohn; results by Bruce Gordon

The first Berrien Tricycle Rally took place Saturday, June 21, 2014, at Rolling Green Raceway, a quarter-mile kart racing track near Buchanan in Berrien County in the southwest corner of Michigan.

The rally was organized by, and was the idea of long-time HPV racer Bruce Gordon of Buchanan, with help with help from his wife, Linda. (Thank you, Linda, for the homemade muffins and sandwiches.)

Bruce Gordon, shown here on his Greenspeed SLR during the time trial – three laps of a short triangular section of the track – organized the first Berrien County Tricycle Rally.

The rally attracted 11 competitors, from Michigan (Bruce, Brian Stevens, Douglas Dodd and Clifford Lofgren), Illinois (Warren Beauchamp, Chris and Dora Cortez), Indiana (Daryl Hanger and Jeff Hunn), Ohio (Garrie Hill) and Ontario (Jim Iwaskow).
Here's the results:

                  Best Tm Best Spd In Lap   Diff   2nd Best 2nd Spd 2nd Lap
1   Daryl Hanger     38.891    23.142     8         - -        39.608   22.723   2
2   Brian Stevens    43.302    20.784     6     +4.411    44.725   20.123   3
3   Jeff Hunn          43.351    20.761     9     +4.460    44.719   20.126    3
4   W. Beauchamp  44.112    20.403     4     +5.221    44.883   20.052    3
5   Chris Cortez       44.983    20.008     6     +6.092    48.215   18.666    2
6   Bruce Gordon     47.066    19.122     5     +8.175    48.335   18.62      6
7   Jim Iwaskow      50.719    17.745     1     +11.828  50.883   17.688    3
8   Douglas Dodd     51.308    17.541     3     +12.417  52.627   17.101    1
9   Garrie Hill           54.726    16.446     1     +15.835     -.---      -            0
10 Dora Cortez        56.806    15.843     1     +17.915  58.001   15.517    4
11 Jim Iwaskow       58.639    15.348     2     +19.748  1:05.2    13.793    1
12 Clifford Lofgren   1:37.782   9.204     4     +58.891  1:47.7    8.351      2

Separate races by fours, based on hot lap times, were won by Daryl Hanger, Chris Cortez and Dora Cortez. A race for non-prize winners was won by Jim Iwaskow. Daryl Hanger's team won the relay race, and Daryl was the quickest in the short track time trial. 

 Jim Iwaskow on the Mike Sova-built trike, which Mike gave to him. It may look crude – notice the "stadium seating" – but it has rear suspension. (The pivot is the small circle behind the handlebars.) Jim also rode the trike the following day in the Berrien County Cancer Service Bike Ride.

Jim, from Richmond Hill, is listed twice because he competed on two vehicles, an ICE Vortex (7th place) loaned to him by Garrie Hill, and an aluminum (welded and bolted) trike (11th place) built by Mike Sova of Toronto "some time ago," Jim said, possibly a couple of decades or more. Sova, who gave the trike to Jim, has gone on to building streamliners raced at Battle Mountain. Garrie, from Granville, Ohio, raced his Greenspeed SLR.

Daryl Hanger, from Greenwood, Ind., finished first on a Catrike Trail, which isn't built for racing. (In other words, if he had a racing trike, he would be even faster.)

Clifford Lofgren finished last, but he has a good excuse – he's only 5-1/2 years old. He's Bruce and Linda's grandson and the son of Eric and Charlotte Lofgren, who also live in Buchanan. He raced a kid-sized KMX trike and likely is the youngest-ever competitor in Human Powered Race America sanctioned competition. (Bruce Gordon photo)

Special thanks to Grand Rapids-based manufacturer TerraTrike (www.terratrike.com). Director of marketing Jeff Yonker, his son, Gabe, and marketing assistant Michelle Oswald brought several TerraTrikes for test rides, plus a display of accessories. Likely the most popular for test rides was the Rover Tandem.

Also present for a couple of hours to spectate was Jerome Hediger, Greenspeed USA distributor, who rode his BMW motorcycle (only two wheels) from Highland in southern Illinois. For the unknowing, Greenspeed is an Australia-based recumbent trike manufacturer (www.greenspeed.com.au)

Chris Cortez lifts a wheel during the time trial on a short triangular section of the Rolling Green Raceway. The kart racing track is twisty and isn't level.

In addition to the pure racing events, there were some "fun" events, including a relay race, with competitors passing a tire, instead of a baton. Here, Bruce Gordon passes the tire to Jim Iwaskow, who was riding Garrie Hill's ICE Vortex.

Mark Bannan of Owosso came to the rally to spectate, with this trike that he built in the 1980s. Back then, he also built several other two- and three-wheel HPVs, all from aluminum tubing.In addition, from 1990-98, he organized the Delta College Challenge HPV races on the Sunday following the Michigan HPV Rally, which back then was on Saturday only.rail

 leads Warren Beauchamp in one of 
Words and photos (except one) by Mike Eliasohn; results by Bruce Gordon