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In Reply to: I quit. posted by j_thunders on April 2, 2007 at 13:50:03:
That's why we racers have a much better chance out there....we have used the skillset at the limits and can call upon that experience out in the real world. I'll never quit riding, and though I've retired from active racing (too much $$$$), I still do trackdays to get that last bit out. (Keeps my need for that last 1/10th on the street in check.)
Follow Ups:
Towards the end, I didn't want to ride anymore unless the streets were wet and I didn't want to do track days or do one-off rides because the point of that wouldn't have been to demoralize my competition with a crushing defeat on my way to a championship...or something.And the money, good lord....trying to keep up with stereo joneses is a joke by comparison...you've never spent money until you've supported a racing habit.
What was your home track? I was CMRA (Oakhill Raceway, Henderson, Tx.; and Texas World, College Station, Tx.) until I decided to ditch WERA in favor of the AMA. I ended up in AHRMA racing BoT, BEARS and in some of the vintage classes. My claims to fame are taking riding school with Colin Edwards, putting Nicky Hayden into the tire wall at Oakhill with a radical turn one move on the outside that put me in the lead of my division (and half the field in the pits), and winning 3 AMA national number one plates with AHRMA before I quit. My big regret was Daytona...3 times I led my class at Daytona with 65 people or more only to have something go horribly wrong before the end of my race. Once they black flagged me because they thought I was sliding in my own oil going into turn one coming off the banking. I was like, wtf is the matter with you people, don't you know who I am, that's how I roll!!?!?!
They were like, yeah, black flag, take a seat. :-(
Road Atlanta and little TalladegaGPR were my home tracks. That's the best part of living around Atlanta: Road A/TGPR/Roebling Road/Kershaw/Memphis/Barber/VIR/Jennings GP are all within 8 hours of here! Kershaw (Carolina Motorsports Park?) and Jennings are the only ones I've never ridden.
In 91, Colin was on pole for the GNF's in B Superbike on an RC30. I was in the middle of the 3rd wave for the start on a ZX6 Ninja. I finished 23rd, Colin put a lap on me just before I took the white flag, passing me on the inside of the FAST downhill turn 12 at Road Atlanta.
Earlier in '91, I was racing in Memphis. During practice I passed 2 kids on Honda 125's onto the front straight and gapped them hard (600 vs 125's, c'mon).
As I threw it into turn 3, 2 kids on 125's stuffed up under me and took off as though I had stalled. I later found out that they were Nicky (age10) and Tommy (age 13). "Keep an eye out for those two" I was told at the time:)
I haven't raced at many of those...both GPR and Roebling...the one I always wanted to race was Barber. Stephen Matthews was one of my arch nemisis's (wonder what the plural of nemisis is?) when I was racing and the whole Barber team became good friends. I used to like whipping his ass. They would show up in uniforms with kaki pants and white cotton polo shirts and like 8 guys to help Matthew and Chuck get ready to go...I wonder what ever happened to those guys...You definitely live in the spot. There are some great tracks in florida, too.
Oh, in '91, I was 36, and Colin was 19.
And he couldn't have been more than about 13.I remember once Nicky or Tommy fell at Oakhill and their dad jumped the fence near the crash, not to see if the crasher was ok, but instead to pump his fist at the other one to make sure his lap times didn't fall off after seeing his brother down when he came by the next time around.
Road Atlanta...what a great racetrack. I never raced it after they put a chicane in the back straightaway, but I left some parts at that place before they did.
I had a throttle stick open at the end of the straight and I figured it out when my front tire locked up as I was applying break on the ascending slope of the gravity cavity right before the bridge. I was going what, 135 mph and headed to the left base of the bridge with no hope of stopping? I jumped as far to the right as I could to lengthen the distance I would go before hitting and as I was sliding I was thinking this is it, you are all done. I hit the tires, was knocked unconscious, merely, woke up with a corner worker trying to cut my helmet off with scissors, and I was like get the hell away from me, I'm in the next race! The bike, however, was not so lucky. It careened off the inside of the bridge and then went end over end down the other side of the hill for about 150 yards until it finally broke into two large chunks (the crash ripped the steering head off the bike). Sadly, I was in the lead when all that happened and it was the last lap. All I had to do was make it over the hill and make a little right to cross the line.
Yeah, Road Atlanta is great. I miss gravity cavity, though I can tell you 10a/10b is an eye-opener for sure!
I dropped a chain once on the ascent to the bridge once in the gravity cavity days. Thankfully, it fell clear of the bike instead of locking up the rear wheel at 150+mph!!!! I was going so fast that I didn't realize what happened until the end of the front straight!!! I so miss the intensity and concentration of racing....
Good times indeed. I still miss racing, but I'm too old, and too poor to still be at it. Alas....
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