Roadracing / roadracers BS thread

There seems to be a few of us kicking around TW based on avatars and comments in different threads. Post up a few details and feel free to post pics as we all love seeing pics.

Just got back into racing lately as I have been doing other things for almost 15 years. I have a street and a race RC51 SP1 currently and show up when I have time which doesn’t ever amount to much beyond beyond a few dates a year.

Here are a few pictures current and a few from back in the day.

 

This might actually be a thread to follow, I plan on starting amateur racing in the not too distant future.

 

What series and tracks are you planning to race with?

 

Same! Here's a picture of me, my Tacoma, my girlfriend and our cute little dog racing around VIR! i wouldn't say road racing is my 'thing' but VIR is a legendary track and provided me a better environment than any other I could think of to test out my newish suspension mods which I was still getting used to up until that day on the track. Eventually I want to get into Baja racing but I gotta build a hell of a truck for that. Worth every penny of the 40 bucks I spent for two 20 minute runs! Got some good data logging and more importantly got to push the suspension to the ABSOLUTE limit and figure out where that was in the grand scheme of things. Let's just say I played a game I like to call 'musical tires' that day hahaha

 

Thats awesome! I have raced that track a bunch. Wish people had more access to racetracks that are so accommodating like VIR. Maybe it would spike popularity in the sport again.

Grew up racing go karts, open wheeled cars, made it up to Pro Mazda and did some of the American LeMans stuff before Rolex and ALMS merged into IMSA. I enjoy nature now a days more than competition but have done a couple things here and there.. Ill post some pics when I get back to my computer.

 

Two wheels look like a lot of fun. Have been riding Harleys for about 2 years now but have been itching to get on a sport bike on a track. What tracks are those photos from?

 

A squealing tire is a happy tire. At least when they're not purposely built to hand g force.

 

I race & Instruct. 2017 ASMA #2 plate holder. Built/tuned my 06 gsxr 1k into a SB myself, beat 2015+ fancy bikes with it. In the off season i'd slap street bodywork & tires onto my SB and go try and kill myself in the canyons.

(#310 was 2016 #)

 

Whatever series runs within 5 hours of Chicago, lol. I know WERA does stuff at Gratan in Michigan, but the motorcycle racing out here is pretty sparse otherwise. My GF and I have considered moving to California and I know WERA does stuff out there too.

 

Grand Bend, Shannonville and possibly Mosport (now called Canadian Tire motorsport park). I hope in the next year or two to try Grattan and Gingerman. 20 years or so back I held the LWT SS lap record at Shannonville (Pro circuit) and regularly ran top 5. Switched to 125GP after that. Just out for fun now.

 

Thats awesome. Mosport is one of my favorite tracks, love the area its in even more. Would love to take a road trip up there to do some camping and poking around the woods. Turn 2 (The fast left hander going downhill) is probably crazy on two wheels.

 

CCS and ASRA race at Blackhawk Farms, Road America and Autobahn and I believe the Midwest series has a race at Heartland Topeka Park also.

 

Well I think you can tell from my response I'm pretty into motorcycles, but I'm starting to have the same enthusiasm for wheeling my Taco now that I've been good number of times.
My Racing history (if you're interested, otherwise photos below ):

My dad bought me a 2002 Ducati Monster 750 Senna as a graduation present from high school. He used to race motocross back in the day and had recently bought himself a Ducati 900SS Final Edition so I think he also wanted someone to ride with. I believe sophomore year of college at Arizona State I did my first trackday and ever since I've been hooked. I rode a dirt bike when I was a kid but only a handful of times so the trackday was really my first time to ride without any limits and it felt amazing. I thought riding on the street was amazing but after that trackday I haven't risen on the street much at all. After a few trackdays I attended the Doug Polen school and got some 1-on-1 instruction from him, which was amazing. We had radio communications so I would following him around the track and he'd tell me when he would start breaking, why he was taking a certain line and giving me tips as well after following me for a bit. He really encouraged me despite me mentioning that I thought I was too old to start racing. After that my dad and I contacted a few people we knew that raced up at Loudon in NH. I took the Penguin Racing School class and got my race license. After that was a few years of racing in the Loudon Road Racing Series on an Aprilia RS250 and then a used 2003 Honda 600 CBR. I had my dad as my pit crew and financier as I was still in college so just racing in the summer. After a lot of success in the Novice and Amateur classes I moved up to expert and then wins were tough to come by. I got some sponsors, including new 2008 Yamaha R6 from Brockton Cycles, and was able to get a tire deal, which for most people, myself included, is a discount and not free tires.

After college I raced full-time (and worked part-time) for two years and attempted to get a ride in AMA. Unfortunately, I graduated in 2008 so sponsor and purse money basically dried up. It was a tough two years. Racing can be heartbreaking but like any sport it is also extremely rewarding. A lot of crashes over the years and without any real help other than my mechanic and suspension guy and no real coaching once you make it to expert it gets a lot harder to make significant improvements. I did however have a few great moments that made it all worth it. The two that stand out were winning the Pirelli Diablo 600 Challenge during the Loudon Classic weekend, and a truly great battle for 4th (or 5th I honestly don't remember) place during an ASRA race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. The 600 challenge win was great because I got to take the chequred flag around the track after the win, which they don't do during normal race weekends for LRRS, and my girlfriend was at the racetrack for the first time and was super impressed . The race at Barber was great because for the last several laps the guy I was battling with were swapping places a couple times a lap but I knew I was better in the last sector so I stayed right on his rear tire for the last two turns and squeezed up the inside going into the last corner. We came out of the corner side-by-side but I got better drive and beat him to the line! On the other hand, a few weeks before my planned debut race in AMA Supersport I got brake checked by some jerk in a fast sweeping turn at NJMP and when I touched the front break (my mistake - should have just took the bike up as fast as possible and ran off track) I locked the front and lopsided. When the bike hit the dirt it started flipping end over end and completely destroyed my front forks and tweaked the rear subframe. After a lot of time and money later I was able to grid up at NJMP for my first AMA race but something was wrong with the bike and I just couldn't get it to perform how it did at that track before the crash. Ended up mid-pack both races after being super conservative in the first race, and then having my left clip-on come loose during the second race! I was banging on it on the straight to push it back out but it didn't want to budge. Pretty disappointing and a very expensive introduction to the AMA Series. Anyway, I eventually had to get a job and now I just race dirt bikes for fun and I have a 2001 Ducati 748 for a streetbike.

My favorite win:

How it looked the the first time I raced it:

My first AMA Race (can't find all the pics right now):

JDay races:
Holeshot:

 

I am a turd at Mosport. Experience always wins there as well as serious balls. Corner 2 you have to be turned before you even crest the hill and can’t even see the corner yet. If you don’t you are going off track and into the wall that’s waaay outside. I watched Chris Peris in his first road race almost end it and rode in the grass alongside the wall and somehow didn’t hit it. Now corner 3 is my favorite as well as the corner off the back straight. Lots of blind corners and sketchy traction. It has been paved in sections since I last raced there and is supposed to be a lot better.

Back in the day it was a blast to spectate there until Panoz bought it. Then it was practically a militarized zone with the security pulling heavy ego trips and ejecting fans for anything under the sun. I haven’t been back since it was sold last so I can’t comment on the current vibe.

I got to race vintage there once and ran with Yvon DuHamel. Well I ran I the same race.

 

Since we are telling stories.......


Around the late ‘90’s early 2000 I was in the bathrooms at Shannonville in the morning trying to clean up a bit and shave. Tom Kipp did some fill in for an injured rider for Canadian Kawi. He was in the bathroom and looks over and starts up a conversation like we had known each other since we were kids. He says “you just have to peel the stink back and become human again don’t you”? Yeah. What else do you say to one of the guys you have read about for years and watched race on tv?

In ‘95 we went to Daytona and suffered through the rained out event. We decided to stay until Monday in case the weather broke and they could run the 200. Went out to the Point Break bar on the beach Sunday night. After we get in one of my buddies says “that was Colin Edwards and Anthony Gobert ahead of us in line”. Later on we see Gobert so we go over the chat. He is buying his Muzzy’s WSB crew beers and asks us if we want a beer. Sure we say and he gets us a couple beers and invites us over to chat with the crew. We hung out for a bit and then left them before we got annoying.

 

Former trackday junkie/part time instructor. Never got the bug to go actually race though. Sold my RSV4 last year, been meaning to pick up a Hypermotard 1100 to tool around the streets with, just haven't gotten around to it. Tracked a CBR, R6, and the Aprilia. Always built em to the best they could be.

 

Bro.

BRO.
Autobahn is like 30 minutes from me. I might start racing sooner than I planned.

 

Start burying credit cards in your backyard...

 

I have never raced on credit. I had a friend who won a very tough 600cc championship and he was out $30,000 by years end and that didn’t include the purchase of the bike. I did however tell my electricity provider I would pay my bill when it hit $100 (I was 3 months behind at $60 but I was always working out of town and never home at the time) so they threatened to shut me off. Since it was April I told them see you in October (when I would be home regular again). I went without hydro and went racing instead.

We used to count out our money before we left town so we had enough gas money to get home. We then counted the ten dollars for Chinese buffet Saturday night. Then we knew how many classes we could run and if I could afford to bump up to the 600 class with my FZR400. I sometimes had to take back pop bottles for gas to get to work the next week but who cares we were having fun and chasing championships.

 

Damn, you guys are the fast guys... I'm just a track advocate here in Southern California.