The first ever motorcycle roadracing event was held at the brand new High Plains Raceway Saturday and I was there. The weather cooperated and it was a good day to be out having fun.
Mind you, I’m not a big race fan. I think this was only the third racing event I’ve ever been to. Judy and I went to the Super Bike races at Pikes Peak Raceway some years ago, and then we went to the ice races down by Woodland Park earlier this year. And then High Plains on Saturday.
It was fun, and I’m sure I’ll go again, but what I’m saying is, don’t expect me to talk about this like an expert because I’m not. But I’m going to offer you my novice observations on what it was like.
First off, I went because it was the inaugural motorcycle event and that seemed worthy of coverage, which I posted on Examiner.com.
Secondly, I wanted to meet and speak with a racer who is being sponsored by ABATE of Colorado, Jonathan Kuo. As Jon put it, ABATE is generally perceived among young sportbike riders as being a bunch of grey-hairs who ride Harleys. Sponsoring Jon is an outreach effort to try to change that perception and bring more of the motorcycle community into the organization. I’ll be doing a separate story on Jon later.
So anyway, one of the fun things about High Plains Raceway is that everybody gets a pit pass. That is, the parking and spectator area and the pit area are all one space, so you can walk around and talk with the racers, look at their bikes, and just mix freely. And if, like me, you’re pretty new to this sort of thing, it’s interesting some of the things you notice.
For example, it seems like everyone has a scooter or pocket bike or at least a bicycle. Getting around in the pit area can entail quite a bit of walking, so it’s completely normal to see some really big name racers like Jason DiSalvo and Matt Lynn, both of whom were there Saturday, riding around on little 50cc scoots. Small electric bikes are particularly popular, it seems.
Also, it’s a real family scene, right down to the critters. Hey, if you’re going out for the weekend you’re going to take the dog along, right? In many cases, at least, the answer is “Hell yes!”
From what the racers say, the track itself is a very good one. I was told it has some challenging turns, some fun and exciting elevation changes, and once they finish putting in the amenities it should be worthy of hosting Super Bike racing.
Of course it was fun to watch Jon Kuo race, in the way it’s always more fun when you actually know one of the guys out there on the track. Jon’s only in Novice class as yet but there’s no question he’s one of the good ones. I watched him run two races and he placed second behind the same guy each time. The two of them were smoking the rest of the field. You could see in the curves how they would swoop down and through, while everyone else had nowhere near the lean and often were way off the line.
So I enjoyed myself. And hey, it was historic in at least a small way. First time for the new track. And I looked in the Denver Post and they said nothing about it at all in the sports section. Too busy with the Nuggets, I guess.
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