Vintage Motorcycle Racer Will Brint

Rider: Will Brint, Atlanta, Georgia
Age/years racing: 26/1
Occupation: U.S. Army Medic
Race bike: 1979 Honda CBX
Daily rider: 2007 Ducati Monster S4RS

Barring previous track experience, the “average” vintage motorcycle racer tends to come into the sport slowly, starting small with something like a Honda CB160 or Honda CB350, then working up. Somebody forgot to impart that little bit of insight to Will Brint when he decided to race one of the ultimate heavyweights of the late ’70s, a 6-cylinder Honda CBX. But then again, Will’s hardly “average.”

Will only decided last year that he wanted to go racing. And before his debut race at Roebling Road in March (he came in fourth in Vintage Superbike Heavyweight) he had all of one track day under his belt. Oh, and he’d never ridden the CBX.

While a CBX isn’t most people’s idea of a race bike, Will’s choice starts to make sense when you discover his dad is Bill Brint, owner of Honda CBX specialty shop TIMS International Motorcycle Supply Inc. It’s taken Bill three years to get Will’s bike to where it is now.

Prep work has included laser measuring on a granite slab and using rake and trail data from a Suzuki GSX-R750 to improve the CBX’s track manners, plus swapping in a Honda CBR600 F3 front end and a CB1100F swingarm. A set of 29mm Keihin CR carbs and judicious porting and polishing on the Honda’s inline six have returned 147 horsepower on the dyno, a 42 percent increase from stock.

Will made the podium at NOLA, getting third, and then rode to first place at Road America. “Road America was an awesome track,” Will says, noting that the 4-mile track was perfect for the long-legged CBX. “It gave the CBX a little advantage with the straightaways.”