Today is Christmas 2015 and I want to thank everyone who had helped me to get this far with my motorcycling dreams, most especially my wife, Jo-Ann.  She is the beautiful, wonderful person who had supported my efforts financially, emotionally, and lovingly.

Next I have to thank Laura (Hotfoot) Californial Superbike for encouraging me by showing interest in my dreams even though I had serious problems in the School.  I had a serious crash that left a lot of doubt about my ability to perform in motorcycle racing.  She, Rainman, Trevor Pennington, Robert Chase, Cobie, and Keith have all stuck to their guns about helping me to become a better racer, each in their own way, and sometimes in ways that were very difficult for me to understand.

Next, I have to thank my friends at the Long Island Sport Bike Meetup Group International.  Scooter, Adam, Alex, Mark, and the people at New York Sport Bikes including Davebusa and John have been unwavering in their support for me as Organizer.  I owe them all a great debt of gratitude.

Then there is Eric Wood, Steve Noguira, John Owens, Cathy, John Olivia, Scott and Jeffrey Crago (Scott is the Drummer of the Eagles rock band!) who have all been supportive of my dreams.
There are also my sponsors like Andrew Cox of Cox Radiator Guards who was my first sponsor, and so many other manufacturers who have been generous in helping me realize that they will help if I follow through.  I have met so many great people through motorcycling.

So now it is up to me to decide where I will take my motorcycle road racing dreams!

This is about the exciting moments, fulfilled dreams, trials, and tribulations of learning the art of motorcycle racing.  After three years of serious effort, I am somewhere between a beginner and and intermediate.

Why Race a Motorcycle?

2015 Midpoint and year end Summary

So far in the summer of  this year, 2015, I'm on track for everything I planned.  I expected to get two days in with Penguin Racing School and I've done one and have the second coming up early in August.  The first went really well and that put Jo-Ann at ease since I crashed last year and she had a valid point.  It cost several thousand dollars and I could have been hurt badly.  As it was I only got a little banged up but my middle finger on my right hand will never be the same.  I am close to buying a racing suit and gloves.  I bought boots but the size is wrong so I'm going to have to buy new ones and that's a big expense I wasn't expecting.  I keep having the usual up and down feelings about everything but motorcycling has made a huge difference in my life, the most obvious difference being that I'm about ninety pounds lighter than I was four years ago.

The Long Island Sport Bikes Meetup Group is going well and today we had thirteen bikes out for our Sunday Ride.  Three years ago there were no rides almost all summer long.  Its great to have a group going so well and I'm really proud.  A lot of credit goes to my Coorganizer Scooter.  He's amazing and people really love him.  I gave him a helmet communicator as a token for his work and he gracefully and thankfully accepted.  A lot of the credit goes to Jo-Ann for helping me to understand how to get along with people and to stay cool and not jump in and make a problem where none needs to be.

Back to racing.  I'm finding out that I'm not the biggest, baddest, and especially the fastest on the block.  I'm just your average run of the mill rider and no one is much faster or slower than me.  That's after practicing my tail of the past three years.  I am riding smart.  I've crashed or gone off the road a half a dozen times and I just don't want to do that anymore.

Now that 2015 is coming to a close, in December, it appears that it was a very mixed bag for me with my motorcycle and racing.  I spent a crazy amount of money on my bike and I had a pretty bad incident on my second track day with Penguin, I cut someone off and he crashed without injuring himself badly, but, causing about $1,500.00 worth of damage to his bike.  Fortunately Eric Wood was tough but understanding about this and helped me to move forward.  He gave me the opportunity to recover and handle myself appropriately in the next session.  I also lost my head and started racing a demo bike which I almost crashed during the incident so I am very grateful to Eric for talking me through it and giving me another chance.  Some of the riders wanted me kicked out of the School but Eric intervened on my behalf.

On the other hand I did finish two Schools and was a Track Marshall for the MotoAmerica Championships where I learned a "ton" and met a bunch of great people.  I am looking forward to a good 2016 year where I will get my racing license and do my first race!

First Post

Its been over a year since an accomplished racer and coach at the California Superbike School (CSS) suggested that I start a blog about my trials, tribulations, and accomplishments while becoming a motorcycle road racer.  My career began on the public roads and that has been mostly trials and tribulations.  I've had some crashes and unplanned off road riding, i.e. I ran off the road.  Three times!  Going off course would usually have few consequences at the track since there is adequate room for run off.  However, on the public roads you can have all manner of problems like trees, debris, or worse, on coming traffic!  I also had a crash during a CSS session where I ran into a bike in front of me because I was going too fast and she was going slow.  A very good pro racer did the exact same thing sometime thereafter and I'm sure its not the first time nor will it be the last.  My error resulted in about three thousand dollars worth of damage to my bike and the bike I hit. Much worse was the lifetime ban from riding in any future CSS Schools.  Tough lesson.

However, I love the methods of CSS and I am sure they are one of the best schools in the world so I found a way back.  I have to successfully participate in two training events at another school.  I have chosen Penquin Racing School which is the oldest track school in the United States.  Eric Wood, president of Penquin, recently participated in the prestigious Daytona 200.

It looks like I closed the door to California Superbike School for quite some time with my second incident, this one at Penguin Roadracing School.  I was racing with someone and doing race style passing during a track day on a demo bike!  Not good at all.  I lost my head and got over excited.  It was certainly wrong of me to do so but it was also clearly unintentional.  The rider who was involved is also partially at fault because he could have let me pass, but I think his ego may have gotten the better of him as he chose, instead, to race with me.

Regardless of that, it is now (in 2016) incumbent upon me to ride with discretion and use good judgment when I'm out on the track.  No more foolishness.  Just good judgment, and I can hardly wait to get out there and try all the skills that I learned in 2015.  Yeah!