CCS Regional, Summit Point, West Virginia, Oct 4, 5 1997
WERA Grand National Final, Road Atlanta, Georgia, Oct 14, 15 1998
WERA Vintage National, Roebling Road, Georgia, Feb 25, 26, 1999
AHRMA Historic National, Daytona, Florida, March 1, 2, 1999

As you can see from the events dates above, I have a lot of catching up
to do.  After the last event I reported on, the CCS Regional of June
1997, I got a call from Blaine Paulus.  He was interested in my #2 Bike.
To make a long story short, I made him an offer he could not refuse, and
he bought both bikes.  So once again I found myself without a race bike.
However this time, I did not announce retirement, just that I was
between bikes.

The next event I ran (Oct 97) was on my street Honda GB 500, and while I
was able to finish 3rd in Light Weight Super Sport, I knew there was no
future in racing my street bike (now since sold).  I didn't want to
trash it, and it needed too many mods to make it competitive.

I spent the better part of the next year looking for a race bike.  I
wanted something with the great qualities of my old 1000cc Guzzi race
bike that I loved so much, but in a lighter package.  I did consider
buying back my old race bike from Scott Stillwell of Pennsylvania, and
might have if my current bike hadn't come along.  At the same time I was
negotiating with Frank Giannini of Scuderia Giannini.  Frank has a
bunch of vintage Italian bikes in his stable.  250 and 450 Ducati, 350
Aermacchi, etc.  Frank wanted me to ride for him and I couldn't think of
a good reason not to.  So at the end of the 1998 season, I was able to
make the WERA GNF with a ride on Frank's Ducati 250 and my own
Honda/Yamaha hybrid.

What is this you say?  Mike Tiberio owning and racing a Honda/Yamaha
hybrid.  Yup, The bike I bought consists of a 1987 Honda Racing
Corporation (HRC) RS600 Dirt Track Single (an XR600 with big cooling
fins) slotted into a 1984 Yamaha TZ250L Frame.  Its light, has great
torque, and should have good reliability.  During my only race of 1998,
I was able to take a 3rd with the Ducati 250 in Light Weight Classic,
and 5th in Vintage 4, and 12th in Vintage 5 on my Hybrid.

This year the team decided to get going with a bang, and ran both the
Vintage races at Daytona, and the Daytona Warm-Up at Roebling Road.  At
the Roebling Warm-Up, I was able to take an 11th in Vintage 5 on my
bike, a 7th in Vintage 4 on another Team Bike, a Yamaha SR500, and
unfortunately a DNF on the little Ducati 250 with a broken header pipe.

With 2 days between the races, we were able to weld the head pipe on the
little Ducati, and thus were ready for the AHRMA races at Daytona.
Unfortunately, the throttle cable broke on the Ducati on the last lap of
the race.  The Yamaha SR500 had its problems, it broke its clutch lever
perch going into turn one after the start of the race which was ok as I
could race with no clutch.  Unfortunately the race was red-flagged,
making a restart necessary, and when the race officials saw I had no
clutch, they would not let me make the restart.  The high point of my
visit to Daytona was the 5th (and Trophy) I took on my Hybrid in the
Super Mono Singles Class.  Almost all of the bikes ahead of me were the
ultra exotic Ducati Supermono (about 6x the cost of my bike) so I don't
feel too bad about that finish.

The Team this year has sponsorship from Cosmopoliton Motors, importer of
modern replicas of the Legendary Motobi 250, winner of the 1962 Daytona
200.  We also have sponsorship from Elf Oil, Sunoco Fuel and Casio
Watches.  The Team has a few weeks to regroup before the WERA Vintage
Races at Summit Point on April 10th.  See you at the races.