Nate Kern is Dangerous.

[eeky]

To date I have had the unpleasant experience of sharing a racetrack with Mr. Kern 4 times.

Every single time Mr. Kern has crossed the line of acceptable rider etiquette.

I first became aware of Mr. Kern at last years ROC. In one of my first practice sessions a fast BMW pulled off a very close pass in the infield coming out of the international horseshoe. The rider while going in a perfectly straight line turned around completely and starred at me. I assumed I had done something wrong, but for the life of me I didn't know what.  I chose to ignore the BMW rider and went about my own business.

In the next session the same BMW pulled another unnecessarily close pass on the banking and while maintaining his line again turned completely around in the saddle and starred at me. That's when I realized that this particular BMW rider seemed to have some unusual interest in me.

Later at the riders meeting Rick Shaw approached me and started talking about Nate Kern. Turns out he was pitted next to Mr. Kern and Nate was doing a lot of talking. Things like Key's going down, I'm gonna get Key, I'm gonna kick his ass and similar things of this nature. I personally did not hear any of this first hand, but Mr. Shaw was not the only one to report these statements to me.

During the six ROC CCS races Mr. Kern and I were in together I started to notice a blocking tactic. If Mr. Kern was ahead of me exiting a turn he would continue his turning arc past the normal point were you should straighten up the line, thereby coming across my front wheel. As the races continued and Mr. Kern continued to lose, those blocking maneuvers became more abrupt and further across the track. At the end of the weekend Mr. Kern was using up about 1/3 of the track width using these maneuvers. On two separate occasions I was forced into abrupt changes of line to avoid collisions. Finally in one of the Saturday races Mr. Kern crashed into a lapper taking them both out.

My next encounters with Mr. Kern as at the April 21-23 2006 Road America races. This time in addition to his blocking tactics he added on track gestures. Again twice exiting turn 3 with Mr. Kern in the lead I was forced into abrupt evasive maneuvers to avoid collisions. At this point Mr. Kern was using up about 1/2 of the track width with his chop block maneuver. Mr. Kern's on track behavior even earned obscene gestures from at least one corner worker. Bill Richter the safety director was heard on the worker net Saturday reminding the workers to wave at the riders using all of their fingers. (Please get well soon Bill).  I guess Mr. Kern had complained.

Next up Heartland Park Topeka, June 16-18 2006. Again, on track gestures to me in practice but the real excitement happened the LWSB on Saturday.

Mr. Kern led until the last lap. I passed him with approx 1/2 lap to go and he responded by repassing with two turns to go. I set him up to out drive him onto the front straight. The plan was working to perfection as I did get a better drive and was overtaking. With Mr. Kern on the right hand edge of the track, going in a straight line parallel to the outside wall he turned his head to the left looking back, made eye contact with me, saw I was gaining on him, waited until I was about halfway past and then turned hard left into my front tire. I was barely able to avoid another collision. Mr. Kern then continued his turn taking me at least 3/4 of the way across the front straight heading towards the left inside pit wall.

At least this time Mr. Kern was stupid enough to pull this crap in front of a tower full of CCS officials. Cindy Singer the starter witnessed it. Bill Ferman the race director witnessed it. Grant the announcer witnessed it. All of the scorers on the bridge witnessed it. The corner workers on the last turn witnessed it. Unfortunately Phil Seberna or Kevin Elliot did not witness it.

Finally, I thought to my self, finally, Kern's crap will be coming to and end. By the time I got the tower after the event to file a complaint Bill Ferman wanted to know what took me so long to get there. After I finished ranting about Mr. Kern's dangerous riding Bill and Phil said they would take care of the situation. Phil did have a conversation with Mr. Kern and at that point I assumed he would be behaving himself.

This years ROC would seem to indicate otherwise. Please see the thread "Daytona update".

If anyone else has had these types of encounters with Mr. Kern I would much appreciate postings to those events. Mr. Kern has certainly established a pattern of behavior with me.

Has he also done so with you?

Ed Key

[spyderchick]

Ed I know you to be the one of the most stand up guys in this sport, and a mentor and role model for many. I've seen you race wheel to wheel, trading positions and rubbing elbows, only to finish second to that competitor, and afterwards go and shake the riders hand and offer your sincere congratulations.

By filing  a complaint with CCS/ASRA, we know you are dead serious and do not take anything you've said here lightly. I respect that fact that you are not calling names, but relating what you feel to be the truth. Other riders out there who know and race with Mr. Kern will hopefully relate the facts as they know them with CCS/ASRA, and I'm confident that Kevin Elliott and Co will fully investigate this matter and come to the proper conclusion.

I will state here that I am not unbiased, as I'm honored to call you my friend. I've had a few business dealings with Mr. Kern, and to this date he does have a past due balance with me. I've never raced with Mr. Kern, so I have no further comment as to his character. I try my best to be doplomatic in all my dealings, so I will make no further comment and will leave the moderation of this issue to the other CCS Forum admin & moderators.

[N8Kern]

  Ed,

 Im not going to sit back and watch any of this unfold as I have given you nothing but "thumbs up gestures" as I do many of the front running riders I race with and they will ll say that I have never given them anything but respect, I love what we do and have fun and I am letting all of you know it.  YOU have never ridden a BMW and everyone knows it turns wide, why dont you ride one hard driving off the corner and realize due to it being a Boxer it does not turn left under throttle as well as it does right.  THAT IS THE WAY THE CRANK SPINS!

As for me ever being out to hurt anyone, I never would, and GOD knows as well as I do. All this pent up anger that has never been brought to my attention, especially if it has happened 6 times, if I am that dangerous why wouldnt you say something to me the first time.  I sure would and have never hesitated  to say so to anyone.  The second to last time I saw you I drafted past you and led into turn one the whole field beginning lap # 2.  I will not quetsion your judgement even after this slanderous post.  You were behind me and just as many people as you have manipulated once returning to the track, as weasel as it was instead of talking to me, have said that you were trying to get them to back you. and not a rider behind me, both the Ducati and Bimota riders said I was in the lead and saw everything.  All of the Turn 6 bleachers which is in a straight line of the exit of 2 said that I came onto the track first and you were right behind on the riders right trying to squeeze past me  where you know it cannot be done on teh exit of 2.  Another perfect example as you see Im hanging WAY off the bike trying to get it to turn left to set up for 3, which is difficult due to the nature of the beast (BMW) as the throttle is full on the bike wants to go right, if any of you do not beleive me go to any BMW dealer and test ride the bike they are available.  You know this you have been around long enough.

When I look back at you or any other rider, which many will tell you that is my way od gauging, especially practice where I have made up time or losing it.  you need to realize that I have more of a heart than you are making me out to be and I would never hurt anyone, especially at our sport.  If you have never had anyone pass you closely it prolly due to you always running up front and never given anyone a chance.  I have seen many of top ASRA Tbike guys you battled with pass you just as close and again they dont "arc" it wide because they are not on a bike that literally torque steers you to the left under load than right..  Ride one if you think its bull shit.

If I ever or even had a single malicious bone in my body and or made comments that I want Mr. Shaw to personally address me about this, I would not have even felt a single emotion as I saw you in the grass and watched what had happened.  With the amount of hatred you have of course I could see this as closure for you on a very bad decision you have made and to me would have been the only bad decision I have ever seen you make, ever.

I will say it again as I did when you blew me off as I am a man and can come right up to you instead of scurrying around trying to get a lynch mob formed, I am glad to see your alright from what I could tell, you were you usual self cracking jokes as I waited for you to stop talking.  Even your own mechanic that I had stopped said he did not see it and it was a racing incident and that I "should" come over and say something to you, I did.

Nate Kern

[nkern12]

As someone close to Nate, I find these threads very disturbing and inappropriate.  I have been attending races with Nate at CCS events for many years now, and have never come across any incidents that are being described here.  I guess my main issue is that someone can go on and stage an attack on another CCS member, it doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the club.  These comments become permanent record in the Internet world, and for Nate this is very disheartening, especially when there are no facts to back it up.  Nate has many followers in his race endeavors, and I have to say I hear nothing but great things about him on a daily basis.  Obviously Nate takes racing very seriously, but he would never intentionally inflict harm to someone on the track as suggested.  I feel very strongly that this thread needs to be removed, and if Ed chooses to move forward with whatever investigation, petition, etc, of Nate, he is free to do so according to the appropriate channels, but in a discreet and respectful manner.  This is not something to be put out there on a seemingly-friendly message board, as if airing dirty laundry.    Just my $.02.

Oh, and maybe it would be nice to follow the rules of this message board:

"You agree, through your use of CCSForum.com, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of ANY law. This is not only humorous, but legal actions can be taken against you. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or you have consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also inappropriate to CCSForum.com. "

[PJ721]

so basically it's ok to believe Ed Key since he's Ed...but not Nate.... 

Nate may talk about taking it to someone...but to me that is his way of getting the win or beating someone on the track....

for anyone to think that Nate would be going out on the track to hurt someone is so wrong.
I've seen Nate race, been passed by him many times...a danger on the track? NO WAY....Rides like an Ass? NOT even close...

for Ed to take a personal matter to the board like this isn't right. He has filed a complaint with CCS - it should be between Ed/Nate & CCS to deal with it..not to start up a public bashing.

Jamie...good post 

[clutch]

I saw the video of the crash at Daytona BRIEFLY.  From what I saw, it did not appear that Nate did anything wrong. 

[Gixxerblade]

Nate is a stand up guy. I got hit by Nate with a risky maneuver before at Summit Point last year. He basically came across my front wheel coming off of turn 4 but I was able to recover. I was spooked more than damaged. In fact I dented one of Nates Marchesini's with my front wheel. :D First thing that Nate  after the race was rush to me and apologize like any man would do. Him or I didn't slander anyone publically about the close racing that goes on especially with a Beemer. If you have never ridden a Beemer, Ed, you should really try. It scares the crap out of me to be close to Nate racing, not because of Nate's supposed reckless behavior but because of the Beemers unpredictability. He passed me at VIR this year giong into turn 1 going sideways then he proceeded to blow an engine going into turn 3 this year and I was right on his ass. See how the Beemers can be? Ed I think you are the one that needs to apologize for this. You should have called Nate before you called him out in public like this. I have never met you but you seem a reasonable guy that is fast as hell. Why don't you do us a favor and just drop it.

[cbrf4_269]

I to have been racing with Nate for many years, although he was rarely in my class.  Nate has pulled a few "close" passes, but that is racing.  I left the door open and he took it. 

As for the truning around thing... just do what I do and give him the bird!  LOL.  He knows my bike and knows if he passes me and turns around he is getting one, but it is all in good fun.  I am guilty of turning around and i can understand how it can be taken as though he was "eye balling" or of the sort.  I have had a few racers upset that I was doing that and I explained the exact reason as to why I was turning around.  I just think it is a bad habbit that I cannot break. 

We are ALL part of this small family and I can tell you Nate is more than willing to talk to some one about a pass and be civil about it.  Or he has with me when I was a little upset.  I confronted Nate and we spoke about it and then that was that.  I  am defenatly NOT telling you what to do, but I would of liked to see you either talk to Nate about this, or done something else.  Posting it here seems a little high schoolish.  We are all (well most of us) are grown ups and can at least act like it.  I am guilty of hating a racer or two, but I keep that between us, not in the front of the public.

Leave the gossip to the women (this comment is a complete joke and not intended to offend anyone..... too much) :)

I respect and know both of you and conside you BOTH family and friends, I just hope it works out.  Glad to hear you are ok Ed. 

[eh427]

Just thought I would throw in my two cents. I have been racing with/against Nate in the midatlantic region lightweight classes for the last few years and I have yet to see him make any unsafe manuevers against me or any of the other competitors. If he did he would have gotten an earfull from me. I have had the holeshot on him a few times and he has always passed me cleanly as I have not been fast enough to stay in front of him for too long. Like some others have said, this should not be an attack on someone and it should be dealt with by the two individuals involved and the powers that be. What I like to see and for the most part do see in this sport that if someone makes a mistake and it affects another rider is that they own up to it and take responsibility and apologize. I know that Nate would. I don't know Ed so I can't express any opinions about his character but from what I hear is that he is a stand up guy also.

MA EX#427

[kvanengen]

He said, she said. I was hoping that we could make it to this point. This is how I see it. Is nate a good guy, yes. Is Ed a good guy, yes. I don't know Nate so for me to post how much of an a## he is would be wrong. I do know and have raced with Ed for 5 years and anyone else who has raced with him will say the same. That he is an honest and a genuine guy who would never go at someone unless he had a good reason for it. Ed is not just posting like other guys do because they have nothing better to do. (Don't worry super dave, in no way would I be talking about you)He has reasons and I respect that. Do I think that nate would intentionally crash someone, no. All I am saying is lets not continue this he said she said crap and lets give them a chance to work this out so we can all get geared up for 07.  

[Flag Man]

Nate Kern is not dangerous, as a matter of fact he is one of the better riders that I have ever seen! It is amazing to watch him going into turns with the rear end of his bike getting lose and Nate not loosing control.

As the starter for CCS, Southeast region. I have seen Nate race since he started, If you have ever seen me wave the checkerd at Daytona when Nate wins, he comes down the track towards me at over 150 mph. When I throw the flag we are within inches of each other. I trust him!!! I will not do that with everyone.

I also know that Nate is a stand up guy and also heard him discussing the wreck in the interview after the race over the PA system. He said that he hoped that the other guy was alright.

Anyway I just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth.

[TrophyGal]

As a CCS/ASRA race official all I can say is BMW is darn lucky to have Nate as their rider and spokesperson!

TrofyMan