Kudos to Monte and Bonnie for all of the nice mentions and pictures in this months Motorcyclist Magazine. That Barber day was a blast. It was great to see Kevin Schwantz ride in person (I got passed by him a few times..We got it on video a couple of times also). No doubt that this issue will inspire many riders to start signing up for track days.
I feel like the last person in the world to see this article. Is the mag on stands now? I might have to run out and get it. And yes, watching Schwantz go by was sooooo nice. Hey Monte, how about getting Rossi out at next year's season ender? 8)
We had Colin Edwrards at 2003's season finale at Jennings. Keep an eye out thi sseason. Next months Sport Rider has a feature from Autobahn CC in September. Also keep an eye on speed channel....
Oh man I remember that event. GOOD times! Edwards was out there riding in a special session with folks who bought the limited edition Edwards Replica Mille. Real nice guy. My friend, Alex, with Edwards. Edwards also went out in the ladies session after lunch.
I saw a grown man cry at Jennings... right after he wadded his mille trying to out- brake Edwards into one....
Let's get the facts of that story straight. That man was my roommate at that time and I was there too. He was not trying to outbrake CE into turn one. He'd simply been having a few really fun laps with CE, playing in close quarters with him, and he went into T1 too hot while CE didn't. From the outside, it looked like he was outbraking him. But according to him (and not bystander hearsay) he just screwed up like any other rider at any other trackday. But because he was next to CE suddenly everyone started saying that he was trying to outbrake him. If he hadn't have been playing with CE (or more like CE playing with him, LOL) then everyone would have just been saying, "eh, some guy went down in T1, no big deal." Oh and this is not a "wadded" bike. It was just rashed on the right side.
Colin isn't holding the bike,,,,,,, He's saying,,,,,, "Ya man the f'in FLAMES were shooting out of this section right here. I said screw this and jumped off!!!"
Is it true some of the Motorcyclist staff are not as fast as they would want us to believe? I heard most were mid pack "I" riders at best.
I often wondered about that . How fast was that Bohemn guy anyway ?I have been reading his articles for years .
I have been reading articles by Mitch Boehm for years aslo....I like his writings. At the recent STT Barber event, he was testing a bunch of tires. I heard he was mid pack "I" at best. Maybe he wasn't pushing very hard, but I thought he would have been faster than that. A couple of years ago at Willow Springs, he was on Jason Desalvo's race bike and was turning laps 3 seconds slower than Jason...not real sure what to think of 3 seconds, but sounds impressive. I heard that Brian Catterson was pretty quick, and Schwantz was amazing.
Mitch rides kind of the same way I do. If he feels "in the groove" he rails, if not he just goes out and has fun. A couple of tracks seem to always get me in the groove..... Mid-Ohio and Grattan backwards are two that just make me crazy! Talladega GP is great also but last time there it didn't work out so well! Brain is usually fast all the time and Kevin is... well shit he's a WORLD F'ING CAMPION!!! Kent and Andrew at Sport Rider are really fast guys too.
You know those guys have to be under a little pressure...the whole world is watching, waiting for them to screw up. He was constantly evaluating tires and bikes. Barber is a technical track, it's 45 feet wide with many lines to choose from. It's just easy to assume that those guys are constantly on bikes, so they have to be fast. I know what you mean about "feeling it" at certain tracks. I do good at Putnam, Barber I was ok, but Rd Atlanta is a tough track for me to completely grasp....but I like it a lot. Kevin Schwantz is so fast, he was still the lap record holder from 2 different tracks on the 500cc 2 stroke days that were not broken until the 4 stroke rockets came out 4-5 years ago. I would love to see him ride.
Well I know that Boehm, Catterson, and Schwantz were running faster than me at Barber. Schwantz and I touched elbows going into 13. He gave me a little "sorry that was a little close wave" and went about his business, about that time Boehm buzzed me on the other side :lol: I guess I can say I've rubbed elbows with a world-champ now huh. The best part of that weekend was when Kevin outbraked me into the hairpin, I tried my hardest to stay on his a$$, and as we got on the gas going out he just lit the rear end up on the GSXR1000 all the way up the hill....I mean ALLLLLLL the way up the hill. Pretty frickin awesome!!! Here is a little video I made from my buddy's footage while we played around on the second day...don't be too harsh on me, I was having front end troubles :wink: http://media.putfile.com/barber3