Moto GP - Part Two

We went to the flat track race Saturday night at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, it's been a long time since I've been to a flat track race. I forgot how good they are. They put on one helluva show Saturday night.

The first race was for 450 singles - the up and coming stars of tomorrow. Good racing but a travesty when it came down to the payday. These young kids are out there racing their asses off and after the race they bring out the big cardboard check and the third place rider gets a measly $350. Second place got $500 and I'm not sure what first place got but whatever it was it wasn't enough. $350 wouldn't even pay your travel expenses if you lived across the street from the place. They introduced the head of the American Motorcyclist Association and he received a resounding chorus of boo's. Had I known they were going to pay these guys as little as they did, I would have joined in the chorus myself.

Prior to the main, King Kenny Roberts took a couple of laps on his TZ 750 dirt tracker from back in the 70's. He won Indy on this bike and swore he would never race it again. A two stroke motor with light switch power is not exactly the power supply needed for dirt track. He looked like he was having fun on it Saturday night, however. Lots of noise and a big dirt roost off the back wheel when he pitched it sideways into the corners. That alone was worth the price of the ticket.

The main started with a horrific crash - the worst I've ever seen at a flat track. One bike and a rider went over the fence. The word at the track was that the rider suffered a broken hip from getting slammed into a fence post or a pole on the outside of the track. When I saw him go over he was head down with his arms spread wide. The kind of thing where nothing good was going to come out of it regardless of how he landed. I hope he's doing O.K. Indy has some great surgeons to patch these guys back together. The race itself was an ass kicker. The Harley XR 750 is apparently alive and well still. The factory bike with Kenny Coolbeth in the saddle ran away from the field that included bikes by Ducati, Aprilia, Suzuki and Yamaha. It's amazing that a design that old can still compete with newer style bikes. I'm not exactly sure of the rules but stock based bikes can use 1000 cc motors versus the 750 cc of the Harley. Of course, the TZ 750 proved that it's not all about horsepower. I think I'm going to have to resubscribe to Cycle News to stay up on all this stuff now that I'm going to the races again. If you check the link they have a short write up about the event.

The program was a long one and we didn't get to our hotel until after 12:30 - late night for an old man. I'm usually falling asleep in the chair about 10:00 but it was well worth it.