Years ago during a pro event at Loudon, I was working Turn 4. Wish I could remember what it was but my memory is getting hazy these days, but it may have been a Monday race after the Sunday race was canceled since I was all alone in the corner (and covering T9 as well as T4). In any case, during one of the initial laps, Mike came into T3 near or at the front of the pack and his motor just died. He pulled one of the ballsiest and slickest moves ever when, coming out of T3 he pulled onto the grass on the left side at speed and rode off track right up into T4 and parked it behind the big boulder that used to reside there. He quickly determined that he was all done, after which he came over and stood beside me watching the rest of the race. He spent the time filling me in on all kinds of information on the other riders and generally just enjoying the racing. Probably the most interesting time I ever spent watching a race, very smart and personable guy and as down to earth as they come. He wasn't even upset that he was out of the race, he was just like "hey, that's racing" and he was able to enjoy watching the other guys race. Just a very nice man.
Seems like I remember stories of him wrestling alligators. Was that true, BS or am I thinking of someone else?
In 2003 I was an amateur with Melka and I remember being at Jennings and watching the expert races and Mike brought 3 GSXRs, all black 600,750 and 1000. He was gridded near us and when we saw his tassels on his leathers we were commenting how this dude better bring it. Well he post registered and was on the back few rows of all of his races. Dude would go into turn 1 somehow in the top 10 and we’d watch him weaving in and out of bikes and come out of one in 6th and then grab another on the way to two and another 2 on that short straight. He would come around each race in the top 3 after the first lap. We commented how thank god we didn’t have to have him in our races. 2004, I grid up at Jennings and guess who’s 2-3 rows behind me? I remember thinking “shiiiiiit”. But then I got to witness him going in and out of people in 1 (oh ya, blew by me going into 1) with a front row view and just thought to myself how awesome this was.
My favorite Mike Smith story: So we're at Road America back when he was riding for Kinko's Kawasaki, Mike comes around the front of the semi trucks too fast & falls out of the drivers seat of his golf cart. The golf cart proceeds to go head on into the front bumper of the Yamaha Factory Semi, Mike gets up, looks around, rubs the front of the bumper, kinda gives us a Southern Grin, jumps back in the cart & is off... I never got a chance to tell him I witnessed the hit & run once he started club racing with us.
I got one thing out of that story. That you two fools didn't know who Mike Smith was already! Very Broome esque.
Yeah i remember seeing him multiple times racing at jennings. Things that stood out was he always waited till last second to yank those warmers off and charge to pitout. I remember other that didnt know his mo would stand infront of his pit lol and some of us would be "hey you better move before he mow's you over". The other was he would push hard at the start but once he got a gap and usually on lap 3-4, he would just cruise rest of the way. Such a baller
No this is different. Get to the brake marker, pull the clutch in, bike goes to idle, click down one then the next then the next etc. Once into the correct gear for the corner let the clutch out. It's crazy to watch in person, almost complete silence. As noted above, Kipp rode that way, I thought Smith might have been another.
Mike Rouleau has been back racing- He's on an R6, I saw him as recently as December, I think. Was Robbie Jensen the other contingency hunter from Minnesota or something? He used to come to Jennings and do powerslides through the fast kinks on the cool down lap.
Hey. I was standing next to my teammates Vento and Jimmy Stanley who knew as much about Mike as me lol.
