Since I have voiced my displeasure with the CCS re: the S.E.Banquet in the past years for having it at VIR in april(Their reasoning was they had to due to poor turnouts).I must say CHEERS to whoevere decided to have it at DAYTONA.Most S.E. riders will be at D.I,S. anyway and it will give them something more to look foward to.Once again good job ;)
I'm glad you like it, I think the turnout will be great! The more people to applaud you guys' accomplishments, the better!
Huh, I didn't know they were having it at Daytona. That stinks...I have no intentions of EVER racing that track. :( Oh well.
So I assume our trophies will be mailed to us?
Any Mid Atlantic trophies that are not picked up will be shipped to Daytona. Any trophies not picked up in Daytona will be Fed Exed to everyone.
Happy Holidays!
News to me also and I won't be at daytona. Could mine be mailed before daytona?
curious why you wouldn't want to race the most famous track in the U.S....it should be even better than before with the new roadcoarse.For those who didn't know the banquet is at daytona check the main page for ccsracing.com
Number one, it's horribly dangerous.
Number two, distance and cost.
Horribly dangerous? Would you care to explain your reasoning? ???
QuoteHorribly dangerous? Would you care to explain your reasoning? ???
Yea just look at things that have happened there in the last 20 years. That place IS the most dangerous track in the usa according to the numbers killed and disfigured there. Not to mention the motel prices and Harleys all over the place. I know racing is risky but there is no reason to make it more so by racing at that track. The only reason the AMA and CCS still goes there is politics I guess, it sure isnt because its safe. Brian Cassell, Jimmy Adamo RIP and to those that have many scars, Ben Bostrum, Alex Gobert, Scott Russell. :'( These are just a few off the top of my head, there are many, many more if someone else could maybe help remembering who they are. Just send my trophies to my house I wont be there racing or for the SE banquet .
Dude, listen. Ya gotta do Daytona once. I won't try to deny any of your points. But Daytona is the most historic, purpose-built facility in motorcycle racing. It's friggin Mecca! If you're a motorcycle racer, they don't give you the gold card until you've raced there. Just driving through that tunnel will humble you.
Then you get out on the track.... :o
Horizontal, 6 stories in the air. Widemuddafudgenopen! Looking up and left as hard as you can bend your neck to see where you're going. Helmet bouncing off the tank over every bump, because the G-force has already used up all your suspension. Eventually, you look down and left. AAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!! Don't look down! Screaming into your helmet out of fear, adrenaline, and the glorious stupidity of what you're doing.
That's just the first lap. :D Might as well go ahead and shoot it into your arm after that.
I'm so glad that I went before the layout change. My one and only visit to Daytona was the most memorable racing trip of my life. Maybe I'll never race there again, because I live near Chicago. You think it's costly for you? But man, I'd go back. The place makes no sense at all, but since when did this hobby ever make sense?
Like you, and for the same reasons, I swore I'd never go. Then I earned 3 front row starting positions to the ROC. That wasn't ever going to happen again, so what else could I do? I went, despite my better judgement. Now I'll never forget, and I'll always want to go back
Don't deny yourself.
Obviously all racing is dangerous(thats what gives us the rush).But to say it is the most dangerous track is unfounded and is untrue.I was there when Jimmy Adamo passed away.It was because his front rotors exploded not the tracks fault,Brians crash...I don't feel comfortable talking about this so I will stop.If you don't feel comfortable at D.I.S don't race.All I can tell you is having been lucky enough to win at Daytona,is a part of my life I will never forget.I have been racing for many years and there are far moroe dangerous tracks.If you have never been there you owe it to yourself to check it out.I hope to see you there if not good luck this season and I will see you at V.I.R.
QuoteHorribly dangerous? Would you care to explain your reasoning? ???
Even I the Newb can Understand what he means!
QuoteObviously all racing is dangerous(thats what gives us the rush).But to say it is the most dangerous track is unfounded and is untrue.I was there when Jimmy Adamo passed away.It was because his front rotors exploded not the tracks fault,Brians crash...I don't feel comfortable talking about this so I will stop.If you don't feel comfortable at D.I.S don't race.All I can tell you is having been lucky enough to win at Daytona,is a part of my life I will never forget.I have been racing for many years and there are far moroe dangerous tracks.If you have never been there you owe it to yourself to check it out.I hope to see you there if not good luck this season and I will see you at V.I.R.
I hear you man and know where you are coming from. :D Jimmys brakes did explode, then he ran straight into a armco barrier. :'(
QuoteI hear you man and know where you are coming from. :D Jimmys brakes did explode, then he ran straight into a armco barrier. :'(
and the same could happen at VIR
look at the injuries from VIR, Summit, R. Atlanta, etc. Shit happens in racing, people just like to focus on DIS because of the highspeeds.
You can also take lots of things out of context--sure, Scott Russell had a career ending injury there, but it NOTHING to do with the track.
Quoteand the same could happen at VIR
look at the injuries from VIR, Summit, R. Atlanta, etc. Shit happens in racing, people just like to focus on DIS because of the highspeeds.
You can also take lots of things out of context--sure, Scott Russell had a career ending injury there, but it NOTHING to do with the track.
Atleast at VIR if your brakes fail going into turn 1 there is plenty of run off. The fastest parts of the track have safe run off. Daytona does not. I also know there is a very unsafe area in the turn 5-6 area at VIR where a WERA racer died. It needs to be fixed there and I hope they someday will. At the very least some foam or airfence. I know Scott Russell's crash had nothing to do with the track itself. I feel like that place just has bad carma, thats just my personal feeling, Im not trying to convince anyone else. I still cant belive Dale Earnhart died there at the place he tried so hard to win, :'( and finally he did before he died. He did win plenty of races there but only one time did he win the 500.
QuoteYea just look at things that have happened there in the last 20 years. That place IS the most dangerous track in the usa according to the numbers killed and disfigured there. Not to mention the motel prices and Harleys all over the place. I know racing is risky but there is no reason to make it more so by racing at that track. The only reason the AMA and CCS still goes there is politics I guess, it sure isnt because its safe. Brian Cassell, Jimmy Adamo RIP and to those that have many scars, Ben Bostrum, Alex Gobert, Scott Russell. :'( These are just a few off the top of my head, there are many, many more if someone else could maybe help remembering who they are. Just send my trophies to my house I wont be there racing or for the SE banquet .
I sincerely think summit point kills/severely injures more people than daytona.
I would guess in everyone's mind the most dangerous place at daytona is the banking, but that is because of the sheer speed of the place. I have more concerns about falling on my head at 170mph than running into anything. even the place is without walls it would still be as dangerous just because of the speed. So all the other tracks are safer because you go slower? we are racing and trying to go fast. You can ride a 12/250 at daytona and be considerably safer. I agree it is more dangerous to fall at daytona, but its not the layout or anything, it is just because you can go so much faster there. But to fall at 170 at daytona or at Road America (if you can go that fast) would hurt just as much.
Bottom line if you feel like its too dangerous, go slower. I could only go 145-150 at VIR, I guess thats a lot safer?
if you can get to 170 at a local track with a 1000, maybe it is just as dangerous. Bryan was killed because someone was drafting him when his bike failed, so it could happen elsewhere too if speed gets so high.
James, I appreciate what you're saying, and I don't think you should race anywhere you're not comfortable.
Daytona is Daytona. The place has one hell of a mistique. Personally, I'm glad I've raced there, and hope to get the chance again some day. I'll admit, I thought of Earnhardt and the others. Maybe (yeah, I know how this sounds) we honor those racers when we continue to compete.
I've thought about it. I was truly convinced that I'd watched one of my good friends die in a freak straightaway accident at Barber. He turned out to be pretty darn close to OK in the end, but after seeing what happened, and seeing him lying on the track in a crumpled, bloody pile, I was a mess for months.
Yet, I continued to race. I raced later that day, in fact. We all do. Can you imagine how pissed off an intense guy like Mighty Duck would be if he thought that any racers had quit the sport because of what happened to him? Do you think that if someone had asked him over breakfast that day why he would participate in a sport that involved such a risk, that the question would have caused him to sit that race out? Absolutely not.
In the end, you race secure in the knowledge that it can't happen to you. Oh, somewhere in your mind or heart you know that it might, but your concience mind must never believe it. People who head off knowing they're going to die are called suicidal, and we certainly aren't that.
Where might it happen? Anywhere. Turn two at Blackhawk is so bloody fast, and there's that guardrail and all those trees.... Road America? Pick a spot. Gateway? Don't get me started. Gingerman or MAM? Nothing to hit there but the ground, your bike, or another rider. I've seen some people get hurt pretty badly at those tracks, too.
I cornerworked for years before I started racing. if anyone should have known better, it would have been me. But I race. Hell, racing defines my whole life! That thing about a man having a sexual thought every 90 seconds? I'm pretty sure that I think about racing at least as much as sex. Racing can kill me just as surely as my job, my commute to work, some disease, or the crackhead who wants my wallet. With any of those other things though, I won't be having the time of my life right up to the moment it happens.
There's more I could say, but I really don't enjoy talking about this.
I'm trying to think of anyone who has hit a wall at Daytona on a bike? I would assume it has happened, but I sure can't think of anyone. I have seen a bunch of people crash in the 1st horseshoe, but that's the slowest corner on that track.
Gateway, that place is a track that I believe everytime I have been there at least 1 person has hit a wall during the event. Loudon, well I don't need to say more about that track than it's reputable name.
Racing on the high banks at Daytona is unlike anything else, it's wild to see the infield almost verticle in your peripheral vision. It's fast like Road America, unique, nostalgic, and a place that only a handful of people in all of history have had the opportunity to race at. You say Daytona International Speedway and everyone knows what it is, try that with Blackhawk Farms (I live in the same county as Blackhawk Farms and most people who live here don't even know what it is, even though it's been here for 40 years).
I always look forward to going there again, it's just one of those tracks you need to try at least once. I have a friend that went once and it scared the Hell out of him and he was on a slow bike. Yet now after being out of racing for a few years he admits that he's glad he went and did it, and if he starts racing again he wants to go again. :)
Ed Key hit the wall at Daytona, going down the back straight. He was passing to the outside, and the other guy moved up. Ed said that rubbing the wall countersteered the bike, moving it back down off the wall! :o
(There's a reason Ed paints his bikes yellow. Hides embarrassing stains!)
QuoteEd Key hit the wall at Daytona, going down the back straight. He was passing to the outside, and the other guy moved up. Ed said that rubbing the wall countersteered the bike, moving it back down off the wall! :o
(There's a reason Ed paints his bikes yellow. Hides embarrassing stains!)
I have "dragged" my knee on the wall as well when the guy on the inside moved up the wall more than I think he would (guess he didn't know I was there). funny feeling when you are leaned way to the left but your left knee is touching something lol it was mad cool but wouldn't do it again
I love racing at Daytona. I can't wait to go back. I think the whole experience and atmosphere is great. I think it is one track that should be experienced. You will never forget it.
Here' the scary part of racing at Daytona. You are driving home after the weekend, it's 3:30 AM, you are doing 80 mph up Rt. 95 towing a trailer, and you realize you must have been asleep for that past 2 miles!! Now THAT is scary...
Daytona is worth going to once. I do not find it to be all that dangerous, but I find it quite boring. Once you get used to the banking, the track layout is not that much fun.
I understand all of your points. However, page 1 in the rulebook states "Racing is inherently dangerous". The way I see it, you guys are hecka brave to even do it, so if you're going to race, go big. There is no greater thill than Daytona's banking, and there is NOTHING like the experience of Daytona itself. I should know, Daytona gave me a daughter. ;)
FYI--80% of all crashes occur at speeds under 60 miles per hour on the track.
Strange stats but Daytona keeps track and when someone dies there they mention in a PR that this was the x rider to die in this category; bikes, cas, karts, etc; no other track I have ever seen a report on how many riders have died at their facility. I have heard from several sources that Road Atlanta has had more deaths than Daytona for the number of years motorcyclce racing has occured at facilities. I have tried to confirm this but Road Atlanta seems very close mouthed on reporting of deaths at the track.
So this could be just honest reporting by Daytona or does it add to the allure that is Daytona, by being dangerous and only the brave race there?
There you go getting all philosophical.
QuoteHere' the scary part of racing at Daytona. You are driving home after the weekend, it's 3:30 AM, you are doing 80 mph up Rt. 95 towing a trailer, and you realize you must have been asleep for that past 2 miles!! Now THAT is scary...
I know what that is like. ;D
QuoteFYI--80% of all crashes occur at speeds under 60 miles per hour on the track.
Nice to know that I am pushing the envelpoe somewhere.