World SuperBike Races

(Warning – this post does not have anything on farming)

My wife and I attended the World SuperBike races in Tooele, Utah this weekend.  I currently ride a BMW K 1200 S similar to the photo posted here.  I grew up riding small dirt bikes and had not been on a sports bike for about 25 years.  About three years ago some of my friends rented Harleys for a four day trip to the Canadian Rockies and I was hooked.

I was able to attend the bike races as a guest of the local BMW motorcycle dealership and what a great time we had.  My bike has about 1,200 cc and almost 165 hp.  The racing bikes are about 1,000 cc and well over 200 hp.  Our view point was right on the final turn before they hit the straight away.  We would see them take a full S curve at about 100 mph and then hit a top speed of almost 195 mph on the straight away.  Since we were at about 5,000′ of elevation, the top speed was close to 20 mph slower than at sea level.

There were about 8 crashes in the three races and most of them happened in the corners at about 100 mph.  It is impressive to see these bikers crash, slid and then walk away with no injuries.  A rider from Texas won both of the SuperBike races (there were only 2 american bikers out of about 45 totals racers).  The Europeans and Asians really dominate these events normally.

Altough this is not about farming, this is one of my favorite pastimes and wanted to share it with you.  I would highly recommend attending this event if you ever can.