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What's your outlook on racing? Why do you race?

Started by J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp, December 16, 2006, 06:08:21 PM

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J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp

I think a new thread to start should be why do you race. What is your outlook on racing?
Are you looking to be the next World Champion? or just trying to get away from the old lady?

Basically put. What is racing to you? Why do you do it. Goals? What are you trying to achieve if anything?
I'd like to understand what goes through the mind of other racers out there.  :err:

Speed Tech Motorsports / Pirelli / Arai / Silkolene / Kawasaki USA / Farrell Sign & Graphics / Hindle / US Chrome Cylinder Plating / Vortex / Dynojet / Tucker Rocky / Penske / VP Fuels / Woodcraft / Attack Racing Bodies / Stompgrip / EBC / NESBA / Plus my kick ass guys back at the shop

Ridgeway

I race because I have these big piles of cash laying around that I needed to do something with!

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why I started doing this.  I know I saw it as a natural progression from doing on-track riding schools and track days.

I have no delusions about my own skills, or expectations that I will advance beyond the club level.

I'd never been big into competetive sports in high school, but once I started racing, I discovered that I did have that fire within me.  I enjoy the complete 100% focus that racing involves when I'm on the track, the thrill of competition, and people's reaction when they ask me what I did over the weekend!
CCS Midwest EX #18
07 GSX-R600
03 SV650s

catman

I tell them its how i relax,the give me that look again :err: :wtf:...Actually i started riding in the late 60's and watched the ama guys make it look so easy at Pocono,I got out of it for about 15 yrs and then found club racing had started w/out me-I love the thrill of the starting line :boink:,the chase down and passing,the comradery,just glad to see there is club racing--- a way to click upward on the gear shifter(standard) and still keep my drivers license! Thanks for askin,john in Victory Gardens :blahblah: :blahblah: :blahblah:

251am

 A friend of mine and I were out for a day ride. We were starting to ride pretty fast and were getting faster. Those dayrides got progressively faster. We were in control and keeping it sane. Then I realized the speeds we were going were too fast to safely avoid a vehicle exiting a blind driveway, or any number of those kinds of things. I know it's a boring reason but that was the main reason. I remember that point of realization on a beautiful side road just outside of Mazomanie-I would die really fast if a tractor had pulled out of that drveway I had just passed. That, and Keith Code is a good friend of my uncle's.  :biggrin:

Mongoose

I race Because I can, I remember being a little kid And seeing Motorcycles Race On TV and saying I want to do that. I went college in Northern ireland and My House was on the route of the North West 200, Again I said I want to do that.

But instead I got High.

Then I stopped getting High, Got a job a wife Bought a Place.

What now

Now I race and I love It. I dont have to worry about cars, Cops or Cows.

Sure it gets expensive, But its cheaper then going to the Bar,

One day I will do the The Isle of Man, and the Pikes peak Race.

and take the summer off work and race across america at Some of your favorite tracks


HAWK

I started riding bikes in 81. For  a weekend outing I went up to Road America for the AMA Superbike races, I thought "man I want to do that". I thought about it and I thought about it and to be totally honest it scared the hell out of me to go from my street riding to what they did. Fast forward 25 years and a now great friend of mine bought the shop that I took my Beemers to and being a racer he setup a track day with STT for his customers only. There were about 40 of us and I had the time of my life.  The next year I did it again and 4 of the coachs told me to get an SV and go racing. That was last year and I can't describe how my life has changed by realizing a 25 year old dream. I'll go white plates in a  year or 2 and I won't win anymore but when I go out on the track it's the greatest high in the world, every pain in my body goes away, every worry in my life goes away. I do it because it is the most fun I have ever had and I can't imagine not be able to do it.
Paul Onley
CCS Midwest EX #413

snair

i used to be a canyon rat. a friend of mine who is an ama pro used to tell me i should come to colorado and try mra racing. i never could find the time. i could smoke almost everyone i ever rode with until i went to pahrump. i was handed my ass and humbled very quickly haha. i started racing and it was like heroi or something now i cant stop. thankfully i am getting faster and dont get humbled quite so easily anymore. it really sucks though because now i no longer have a street bike and have no desire to ride like i used to just for fun.

Jeff

Why do I race?

I race because it improves ME as a person.  I battle myself while becoming one with that bike, track and competition.  Breaking through the mental barriers which make people call us nuts is the ultimate prize. 

I too, have told people I do this to relax.  They laugh and ask how.  Then I explain.. "when you're doing 140 mph, half a degree from destruction, sliding the front tire, sliding the rear tire, still feeding it gas, the entire world disappears.  Nothing else matters at that moment.  There is no wife, no kids, no job, no debt, no pain and no fear. Only you, that bike and that track."

I suppose I could continue to elaborate, but the above paragraph is indeed, why I race...
Bucket List:
[X] Get banned from Wera forum
[  ] Walk the Great Wall of China
[X] Visit Mt. Everest


Scotty Ryan

Some people may say that this is bullshit - But if you know me - I mean really know me - then you know when I say this that it's true....

Racing is my life and I would be totally lost without it......
"MMMM - Fork Oil For Breakfast"

61 or 61 X - Which will it be??

Jeff

Scotty, just be careful, and understand that removing the ability to race from your life is a realistic thing...  Consider that you may at some point need a backup plan/exit strategy...
Bucket List:
[X] Get banned from Wera forum
[  ] Walk the Great Wall of China
[X] Visit Mt. Everest

Court Jester

I've been riding for about 4 or 5 years total. Got to running harder and harder on the streets then realized that it's not all that hard to ditch a cop. So I went with that mindset for a while. Outran the cops several times, but sure enough, one day got busted.
I still had to get out and ride cause it drove me nuts to just look at the bike in the garage but I didn't have the will power to go the speed limit. Which just ended up in more tickets, now including driving without a license.
A buddy of mine wanted to ride up to Putnam one day to watch a track day. A few weeks later we did the two free sessions with NESBA and 2 weeks after that did a full track day and I've been hooked since then.
Nothing else offers that kind of feeling and some of your best friends are at the same place every couple of weeks. The people are great, the competition is awesome, and the best guys are willing to help you get better even if that means you'll end up out doing them. What more could you ask for. Besides maybe cheaper tires.
It's just an over-all world like nothing else. 
CCS# 469
WWW.SUPERBIKESUNLIMITED.COM


Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "WOOOHOOO! What a freaken ride"