R.I.P. Walt Shaefer

One weekend at Little Tally, I had my Honda Ascot 500 single. Kevin Rentzel, RIP, was in my pit hanging out and noticed my tires were pretty worn out and gave me a Michelin front that only had a couple of Daytona tire test laps on it. I took it over to Walt to get it put on and in his best gruff way, not very gruff, asked where I had gotten it, as it was a test tire. I told him where I got it and he wanted to know how much I had paid. When I told him Kevin just gave it to me, he was then fine with it and told me since he didn't have anybody on small bikes on the Hi sport DOTs, I might as well have a matching rear. That kept me in free tires the rest of the season on that bike. H

 

Great story, Ken. Those two were both were examples of why racing back then was truly the 'best' era to have been racing. Plenty of other folks willing to lend a hand, and other similar, but different stories to be shared.

RIP my friend Walt. You were one of the finest 1%

 

Kevin and Walt both! I loved those guy's. Kevin was my hero and Walt took my phone calls during the week asking questions about tires. He always took the time to talk to me back then.

 

High Sports, what a great name for a tire and I can visualize the tread pattern now, thanks Ken.

 

Rest in peace Walt.

 

Walt helped me out big time, many times, more than I’ll go into because he wouldn’t want me to.

I decided about 10 years ago that I don’t want to tell the stories, spill beans or name names. I will say Walt was always very kind to me, helped me when he didn’t need to, was the kind father, the strick father and the hand of gawd when it was needed. He was my friend and I’ll miss him.

 

early in my racing I was buying take off Bibs from a pro racer for $100/set...

I was Club winning on them and Walt sees me at the Grattan, he had Ron Wood with him, the NA Michelin boss. They asked me for a front wheel and put on my first special... I was doing near record pace in practice and then with this tire, that felt like a gooey Hot marshmallow that stuck to everything, I broke the record again, in practice!

as soon as I got off the track I rode right to Walts rig and leaned my bike against his awning post and acted all mad yelling “I don’t know wth you guys put on that wheel but if you think I’m ever riding on those other regular tires again you got another thing coming!!!” They both smiled big and laughed at me...

That’s how I met Walt Schafer, a great first day of a long many year friendship.

 

Godspeed Walt.

 

I can visualize it too. I remember having them on my FZ750 and then when I bought my first Cannondale roadbike it had Michelins with a tiny version of the exact same tread pattern.

 

I found the CC poster that Walt autographed after the race he even put his number on the Supermoto bike above his sig...

 

This was a typical GNF evening. Hey Jeff, yes Walt and Dave Hirsch. Where are you going? Back to the hotel to clean up, etc., etc. But wait Jeff we know you like dark rum so get over here we have xxx rum from Barbados, xxx rum from the Caribbean, and xxx rum from somewhere. Hey you guys if I start drinking with you now I'll end up sleeping in my rental car in the pits...

 

When I was racing Michelin had the best front tire and Dunlop had the best rear tire.

RIP Walt. You didn't care about corporate nonsense. You helped us all win races.

 

More Walt

Around 1996 while at the Road Atlanta AMA Pro round Walt asked if I was coming to see the band. The band I asked? Yeah, we have put together the Bad Pit Stop Blues Band and were playing Sunday night after the races at the Holiday Inn in Gainesville. What a great name for a band, right?

If I remember correctly Walt was playing guitar and a few others with musical skills from the pits also played. It seemed like the entire paddock was there to have a beer and hang out, and they sounded pretty good too. Anyone remember who else was in the band?