My best stories: I had an older Husky, On the starting line, it kicked back and started up backwards. I let the clutch out and flew over the bars and can remember seeing the front fender as the bike went into the starting line behind me. It was hilarious! One time in Florida, I pulled the holeshot and was leading, missed a turn and some barbwire fence got wrapped up in my back wheel. It brought me to a 100% complete stop! My new chest protector went into pieces. I almost hit a Bull and it started chasing me. It got out of the farmers fence and got on the track! One time I slid down this blind hill and ended up in a pile of riders. Every time you got your bike pulled out of the pile, another rider would slide down, hit you and you ended back up in the pile again. It brought the race to a complete stop! I had a friend miss an arrow while racing a harescramble in the fall. All the leaves were on the ground. He went through this opening in the trail and sunk his bike in the bottom of a strip mine lake. The leaves covered the water so it looked like a trail. At first it wasn't funny, cause he said he couldn't swim with motocross boots on, and almost drowned, But later we were cracking up! They had to come back the next day and actually dive for his bike and winch it out! My bike came off the trailer and flipped down the road! I did a back flip over a jump and remember looking the blue sky upside down. Then I figured I better get the bike away from me. I hit so hard that it pulled the cylinder studs out of the cases. I dead centered a jump and it threw me just about off the bike. My right foot was on the right peg and my right hand was on the throttle. Kept thinking to myself (This one is going to be an ambulance ride). When I hit again, the bike twisted the other way and I landed perfectly back on the bike and never missed a beat!
Well, I'm an ex-roadracer so all my stories involve pavement. Probably my best racing story occured right near the end of a tough season long battle for the SV Cup championship. I was the out of towner come to challenge the local boys on their turf and I had spent most of the season rubbing their noses in it. First race of the double header, my closest competition had to beat me to have a chance at the title. There was a very fast sweeping corner that I like to take a wide entry to so I could rail through it. This was one of my favourite corners on that track. Two laps from the finish, the local guy decided to push his way up the inside at this very fast corner. The only problem was I had already committed to my line and had nowhere to go. The first I realized what was going on was when I slammed into him in a high speed side-swipe at the apex of the corner. The impact sent my bike into a nasty wobble and I was actually trying to decide which haybale I was going to hit when the bike settled down and I was able to throw it back into the corner. My competition was now ahead and had gained several bike lengths on me. The track was quite short so I didnt have much time make up the distance he had on me. But now I was PISSED! I put my head down and went for it .... HARD! In only a single lap I had clawed back the distance he had on me and was nipping at his rear wheel. We screamed down the front straight nose to tail and ran into a lapper entering turn 1. He went outside to go around her and I knew that if I followed, it was all over. So I committed to going inside. The lapper was a bit wide entering the corner and I trail braked like mad all the way to the apex hoping to god she would see me and not close off the space I was aiming for because if she did we were going to go down .... together. Luckily she did see me and the three of us went through the corner side by side. There was a photographer trackside and he got a fantastic picture of that moment. I went back into the lead and proceeded to go hammer and tongs the entire last lap knowing that guy was breathing down my neck the entire way. I beat him to the finish and took the checker flag. One of my best moments racing. About a half hour later I got docked five positions for jumping the start (which I didn't do but couldn't prove that) with the result being both the race and the championship that I had worked so hard to get were handed over to the guy who finished second to me 9 out of ten races. That was my worst moment in racing. In the end both of us know who was faster.
Another good roadracing story occured the same year but at a different track and with a different rider. This was both of ours home track and the other guy had more years experience than me, a bunch of previous championships, support from the biggest dealer in town and an entire pit crew. I had me, my wife and my credit card for support. We got embroiled in a season long battle for supremancy on the track. One race I'd finish ahead and the next he would. One race he had mechanical issues and the next race it was me limping to the finish with a mechanical problem. Every race was an all out brawl with multiple passes and close racing action the entire race. I could lead the entire race and then get passed in the last corner and the next time I'd do the same back to him. It went back and forth like that all season and it was some of the best racing I have ever been involved in. To be honest we didn't really like each other that much but I think there was a general level of respect. Neither of us did anything stupid or dangerous on the track so we could race hard but clean and not worry about the other guy going off the rails. I can't say that about every guy I have raced with. One race I pulled off a pass in a place where he didn't think it was possible. It took most of the race to set it up perfectly cause to get it wrong would have taken both of us out. Afterward he came over and shook my hand saying he couldn't believe it when I came past but that it had been a clean and fair pass. It was actually a lot of fun and there was lots of reasonably good natured ribbing and trash talk thrown back and forth. In the end I prevailed and beat him in the championship. At the year end banquet he announced his retirement from the sport and admitted he had been cheating his brains out with his bike. This was SV Cup and the rules were quite restrictive so it wasn't hard to go outside the rules. It felt really good to know I had not only beaten this guy head to head but that I have beaten him when he had been running a cheater bike and mine had been completely legal.
