Could of swore there was red flag and he fixed/swapped bikes that year to win. Or was that the Zemke win or Hayes Crankshaft year? I was drinking and can't remember it all anymore.
indeed.. looking into justifying one of them things from KWS for a PROPER "daytona motor" that thing is wicked.
Yup. I've highsided em too. It looked exactly like that. That's the point I'm making. By no means am I saying that it was a rookie mistake. Just that it highlights the fallibility of racing a motorcycle. A world class rider and a first year amateur are equally f#cked while staring at their own windscreen.
I have only highsided once in my life. I went to Jennings during the offseason after the 2010 season. The tires from the GNF were still on the bike, they had several heat cycles, were hard, and the track wasn't very hot (it was in December). The conditions weren't the best, so what I was doing was taking the back section in 2nd gear, very high in the RPMs, that way the rev limiter would act like a poor man's Traction Control. If it got squirrely and started spinning, the RPMs would spike and the rev limiter would kick in. It actually worked pretty well...................until it didn't.....................because I missed a downshift. I exited T9 in 3rd gear instead of 2nd, it spun up alot more and stepped out sideways because it had a long way to climb to the rev limiter since I was in a gear too high. I stayed in the gas and there was about 2 seconds or so when I thought "i got this, I can ride this out......." but THEN the rev limiter kicked in while the back end was sideways. Needless to say, the bike straightened up in a hurry and shot me straight up in the air. I was 8-10' in the air, looking straight down at my windscreen...as the bike righted itself and rode out from underneath me. I was so close to coming down and landing on top of it. The bike ghost rode across that field, up the berm, then softly fell over on a big pile of leaves. It fell over so softly, that I could still see daylight underneath it. I had a HUGE highside, and it literally didn't even scratch a single decal. But what was scary is there is actually a big cliff on the other side of that berm. When the bike stopped, the front wheel was hanging in mid-air, over the cliff. It took 5 people to get it because we had to make a train of people, with everyone holding onto each other, to make sure nobody fell over the cliff. It the bike had went another 2-3', it would have been gone. It would have taken a crane to get it back.
I think it was a rookie type mistake. He got greedy. LOL. This isn't a reflection of his overall riding ability. But it was an odd place to throw it away at the location and the manner he did.
Jesus, man... just the names mentioned in that broadcast. Russel, Fogarty, Corser, Duhamel.... I support everyone racing in Moto America right now, but we've got a long way to go to get back to that.
Pretty sure that one year Duhamel walked with a cane, had to be lifted onto his bike after breaking his leg so bad, and he won the 200 that year.
I was "fine" (have you seen the "Racers guide to injuries"?). I flipped over in the air, and landed flat on my back. Nothing was technically injured (which means no surgery was required, and I walked away on my own power). But I hurt like hell for a couple of weeks.
I don't think we will get back to that unless we get some serious efforts from Honda, Kawi, and Ducati. I know Honda is bringing Gagne back to SBK, which will help. But that bike hasn't proven to be up to speed with the others so far, at least in WSBK (it is still way down on power in stock vs stock trim, we will just have to see what Gagne's team can squeeze out of it in SBK form). But that still doesn't do anything for SS. When you figure they have stopped making the CBR600RR, that isn't likely to change. As it is now, there are essentially only 2 well funded factory teams....which is the main reason we only see the same 4 guys running up front in SBK and SS. Every weekend it is the same thing, and in all honesty, it is kinda boring to watch. The SS field gets split up very early in the race, like by the end of the first lap...and Superstock doesn't get any coverage. So all you see is the same 4 guys battling with each other all the time. The same thing goes for the 1000's. We can't expect top talent from overseas to want to come race in the US, only to be on a privateer team. So the way I see it, there are only 2 ways that we will return to the days of 10 bikes battling in a huge group, with different winners all the time. 1. Serious efforts by other OEM's, including rider contracts to entice top level riders from overseas...and put them on Factory level bikes. That is how it is in the BSB. In the BSB, you have former WSBK race winners and WSBK Pole sitters, barely cracking the top 15. The talent is SO deep. But you also have true efforts from Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Honda, BMW, and Ducati. OR 2. They eliminate the SBK class and only have one class of 1000's...all racing under Superstock rules. That way guys like Eslick, Herrin, Fong, Lewis, Knapp, Wyman, etc would have chance against Graves and Yosh. But with that being said, Graves and Yosh also have the best 4 riders in the paddock, so the results might still end up looking the same at the end of the day, but at least there would be more people in the mix for a large part of the race. MA seems keen on staying with the FIM categories, so I don't see that happening. Which means our only hopes are more OEMs coming to play, and bringing some top level riders with them. Now that CEV SBK has been shut down, I would love to see Morales and Scheib come over to the US. Put them both on strong Kawi, Ducati, or BMW efforts and let them battle with Yosh and Graves (I might could see Morales coming over, but we are more likely to see Scheib snatched up by a WSBK team).
Broome, do the 200 next year. Go in October to the ROC and then come do the 200. It's your kinda race. Endurance and who lasts the longest going fast finishes well
I wanna say it was Jamie Hacking on the Kawi that was passed too early then he re-passed for the win at Daytona. Those were great racing days..
It is one of those things I would love to do, but I don't know if I want to devote the money, time, effort, resources, etc into actually doing it. If it was a case where I could just take one of my current bikes, with its current setup, grab Livengood, and knock out a Sprint race, it would be different. But the quick change axles, dry brake gas tank, pit crew, etc is just a lot of hassle. Not to mention Daytona is so damn far away, and I don't know the track. Then of course there is the fact that at my size, all I would do is give others a great drafting opportunity. If I did it, I would want to DO IT. Meaning I would want to have all the stuff, people, etc to give myself every opportunity to be competitive. And for what it would take to do that, I could do like 5-6 WERA weekends.
