Cannonball 2004

J.D. Merryweather selected a stock Bajaj Legend as his ride to compete in the 11day, 3,480 mile race across
the U.S. that started in Virginia Beach, VA and ended in Burbank, CA  

Merryweather, a professional photographer, lives a busy life.  Not only
president of Vespa Club of America, but also president of Sputnik!
Scooter Club of Oklahoma City, member of Lambretta Club USA, member of
BMW Motorcycle Owners of America, and Ride to Work ambassador for
Oklahoma.  He has 8 years of Motocross racing under his belt and 6 years
of road racing.
To see the cross-country race course and detail of each days route, go
to:  http://cannonball2004.com/Route/RouteMain.htm 

Sept. 23rd, J.D waiting for the rest of the pack to arrive. Note wrist support on his right hand.

J.D. ran the last 8 days of the race with a fractured wrist due to an accident.

Message from J.D. :

I was first into NoHo scooters yesterday. I beat 2nd place by 1.25 hours. The rest of the
pack rolled in about 3.5 hours later.

I was 2nd into Needles, CA the previous day and thought I had a chance to secure 3rd
place overall.

Well - winning yesterday secured third, by the time Robert Benning rolled in (2nd for the
day) I knew I was bumped to 2nd overall!!!

Then it was up to Mike Heytens to DNF for the day and we would tie for 1st place with 81
points each.

Well, Mike came in last for the day with a broken throttle tube on his P200. He received 3
points for finishing the day in last place due to two other DNFs.

Mike won the overall. I took second.

I was totally jazzed to have beaten several times - tuned and modified P200s as well as GT
200 Vespas.

I named my Legend " La Tortuga" (the turtle) she performed quite well on the 3,750 mile
trip. I wish she offered a bit more power. Had I been able to blast through the high desert
and the head winds, I surely would have won the overall for the event.

If anybody gives you crap about riding a Bajaj - tell them to call me!!

All the best,

J.D. Merryweather - aka Grayhound
Cannonball Run 2004