Then definitely keep an eye out for another opportunity. It’s a ton of fun and physical as anything!!! Wish I could do a season as a monkey!!
Yes, crazy is an imprecise word. A whole different paradigm of risk and trust, appreciation, tolerance, and acceptance is better, but TLDR these days. Anyway, I will never forget the monkey taking me and Susan through their pit, and meeting to so many of the other teams, and talking about how they do what they do, the mechanics of it, and so on (not that I could appreciate half of it, come on now). They are incredible, a joy to watch.
I'm not fast, but I'm used to modern machines. I got to monkey on a vintage BMW twin based rig and holy hell did that thing open my eyes. Top speed wasn't much but it PULLED out of the hole, drifted corners, way late braking. I ended up being WAY over my head and fell off before finishing the lap, but damn was that fun.
Dude, posting this thread was a massive troll on your part. Did you actually think this was going to end with a bunch of people agreeing with you?
I didn't realize they were restricted to 600cc. I know a guy in Scotland with a beautiful sidecar rig wrapped around a CBX engine.
I was thinking of IOMTT rigs, when I posted that. In ASBK: F1 are up to 1000cc for I-4 and 1300cc for others. F2 are 600cc I-4, 675cc I-3, and 1000cc V-2. I’m not sure about any others.
It was probably 12 years ago at Road America that I watched these guys race and it was awesome. Their corner speed was amazing. Me and the wife walked around the pits and talked to a bunch of teams and they were all very excited to show off their bikes and talk about them. Lots of different classes from vintage BMWs with super sketchy sidecars to modern full aerodynamic body monocoque design. It looks like so much fun.
I done laps at Summit Point twice. The last time with Peter Essaf in his F1. Lots of fun and having done that and raced the IOM Mt course it really makes you appreciate what it takes to race one of those around the Mt course. If you're familiar with SP you'll have any idea of the speeds we were doing.
Good family fun. Here's a couple of shots of Brian Carroll and his daughter Heather on their vintage rig. (You old timers might remember Heather as the t shirt model at the auction that got Web all riled up.) It takes serious upper body strength. I've seen people try if for the first time, thinking it can't be that bad if a woman can do it. Their arms want to fall off after 2-3 laps. Notice the knee slider stuck to her hip.
A lot of you have probably seen Zack Courts in those Motorcyclist Magazine videos with Ari Henning. Zack and his father Tim were quite the accomplished sidecar team. Either one could drive, and sometimes, when their lead was big enough, they'd swap jobs while flying down the front straight. Sorry, this is the best photo I have of them in the act.
Peter Essaff and daughter Lindsey waving to fans on the cool off lap at the 2013 Vintage Celebration at Loudon.
I've worked quite a few USCRA and VRG combined events over the years. Something I have noticed is that when the sidecars go out on track, the VRG (Car) people tend to stop what they're doing and go to the fence to watch.