The daily grind grinds on
It’s only been a week since the second running of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Aug. 30, 2009. A year ago, I titled my post-race blog, “The Calm after the Storm,” and lamented about how the following week kind of felt like the day after Christmas. Well, it still does!
With the Ducati track day at Putnam Park Road Course on Monday, last week ended up being a shortened four-day week. With Labor Day last Monday, I’ve got another short week to help get over the post-Indy GP blues. However, there was plenty of motorcycle racing on this past Sunday to partially sate my “need for speed.”
The 13th round of the 2009 MotoGP championship, the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, took place in Misano Adriatico, Italy, last Sunday, Sept. 6. Sporting a donkey on his helmet, Valentino Rossi sailed from pole position to take the checkered flag, bolstering his championship lead to 30 points over teammate and Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner, Jorge Lorenzo. Check out full race coverage at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
The 11th round of the Superbike World Championship also took place last Sunday at the Nürburgring in the shadow of Count Ulrich’s 12th-century patriarchal Nürburg castle. Former AMA Pro Racing superstar, Ben Spies, continues to take the world superbike stage by storm. With a closely fought victory in race one and second-place finish in race two, Ben moved into the championship lead over Ducati’s Noriyuki Haga by 18 points. Check out www.worldsbk.com for complete details.
Last Sunday was also the season finale of the AMA Pro Road Racing series at the Thunderbolt Raceway at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J. Danny Eslick, aboard the No. 9 GEICO Powersports/RMR Buell 1125R, wrapped up the championship with his seventh-place finish in the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL series against a field of production-class 600cc middleweight motorcycles. Hmm, I don’t get that, either, but you can check out www.amaproracing.com to try to figure it out.
With four rounds left in the MotoGP series and three remaining Superbike World Championship rounds left to go, there should be some great heads-up racing to view Sunday afternoons before we have to hunker down in central Indiana to a long dreary winter.
I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Off in the wild blue yonder, again…
If you remember from a couple weeks ago, I shared some more milestones with you all from 40,000 feet during a five-hour flight to Los Angeles. Well, it’s another Monday from way up yonder as I make my way out to Oregon for a week of work in the great Pacific Northwest.
Believe me, all this airplane seat time gets OLD! To top it off, yesterday in Indy was cold, wet and miserable, so I ended up watching a marathon run of the old “Airplane”/”Airport” movies. Now how’s that for an inspirational precursor to a travel day of airports and airplanes!
There was one bright spot to start the day off, though. Our friend Liz at the South Bend Chocolate Factory Chocolate Café in Terminal A at the airport greeted me with a steaming hot cup of chocolate raspberry coffee this morning as I made my way to the departure gate. That’s always a welcomed experience to start off a day of travel.
Actually, the weekend wasn’t a total washout. Saturday was pretty much hit-and-miss clouds and a few spots of blue sky throughout the day with somewhat mild temperatures. I made my Saturday sojourn up to our friends at Ducati Indianapolis in Zionsville, Ind., to check out some new hardware rumored to have arrived this past week.
You may have noticed the new banner photo for The Experience. That was taken several weeks ago at Pro Italia in Glendale, Calif., and was my first viewing of the new 2009 Ducati 1098R Bayliss LE motorcycle. Guess what was sitting up in Zionsville this past Saturday? That would sure make a nice stable mate to the two Ducatis sitting in my garage!
Well, after copious amounts of drooling, I helped myself to a sampling of Bill Carr’s latest culinary exploration of a new jambalaya recipe he brought back from New Orleans during his recent 5,361-mile, two-wheel odyssey from Indianapolis to Daytona to West Texas and back. Wow, that’s a keeper!
Fellow “old racer guy”, Gene Burcham, was also at Ducati Indianapolis Saturday afternoon. His mission was quite different than mine, which usually involves new toys and testing the extremes of my palette. Gene’s recent reactivation of his road racing adventures during the launch of a historic new era in AMA Pro Road Racing at Daytona International Speedway revealed an urgent need to find some more ponies out of the only eligible Ducati to qualify and finish the new middleweight production class format Daytona 200 by Honda event.
Ducati Indianapolis and Carr Moto co-owner and performance wizard, Matt Carr, is assisting with Gene’s search for some big kahona’s out of his AMA Pro Daytona SportBike spec Ducati 848. After a week of magic potions, top secret incantations and countless dyno runs, we’ll see how Gene does next weekend at the round three event, Suzuki Superbike Showdown at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga. Make sure you tune in to AMA “Pro PrimeTime” program coverage at 10 p.m. (ET) Saturday, April 11 on the SPEED Network to cheer on Gene.
With another successful Saturday of eating, daydreaming and pot-stirring, it was time to make my way back to the ole homestead to make a feeble attempt at some household chores. I did successfully find another diversion, swinging through the downtown Indianapolis area to see how Mel Harder’s project was progressing. Mel, I thought the idea of moving into a condominium was to eliminate yard work!
Well, my laptop battery is about to expire, and I hear the beverage trolley rattling down the aisle. So it’s time to sign out and I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Old guys still go fast!
As I’m sitting here on a five-hour flight out to Ontario, Calif., I keep thinking about more milestones that seem to be popping up lately. Last week I shared some of the epic milestones occurring around the Town of Speedway and a few of the historic events that are launching a three-year Centennial Era celebration out on West 16th Street at the Brickyard.
I also spilled the beans about my good friend Reuben, who experienced his own milestone last week with the celebration of his 40th birthday. As much as he didn’t want it to happen, there was no stopping the inevitable march of time. He did put on a great surprise show, though!
Another longtime friend and former road racing teammate of mine, Jim Knipp, reached a milestone this past week with the celebration of his 50th birthday. Yikes, everybody I know is going over the hill these days.
Jim and I spent almost 10 years together as teammates on a locally sponsored motorcycle road racing team know as The Superbike Factory. Together, we campaigned in the Western Eastern Roadracers Association (WERA) series and the American Motorcyclist Association Pro Superbike series from the late 1970s through the late 1980s.
Our first venture into the AMA Pro Superbike Series was Daytona Bike Week in March 1981. With the help of Marc Wertzberger and his motorcycle dealership, Greenwood Honda, Jim and I put together a pair of Honda CB750F motorcycles and launched our campaign at the Daytona International Speedway. What an eye-opening experience that was. It was an unbelievable feeling to be going as fast as you think a bike could possibly go on the high-banks when Freddie Spencer and the freight train of leaders came whipping around you like you were dragging an anchor only nine laps into the race.
This past weekend marked the launch of a historic new era in AMA Pro Road Racing, continuing a motorcycle racing tradition that dates back to the inaugural running of the Daytona 200 on Jan. 24, 1937. Under the new ownership of Daytona Motorsports, a new age of AMA Pro Road Racing kicked off last week, culminating Friday night with the first-ever running of the Daytona 200 by Honda under the lights.
After 72 years featuring the innovations of Superbike and Grand Prix machines, the Daytona 200 has now been relegated to a middleweight production event. Wow!
Another good friend of mine also celebrated his 40th birthday milestone a little more than a year ago. Gene Burcham is a former motorcycle racer from the mid 1980s, and he also experienced his first and only Daytona 200 in 1988 when the format was full-blown 750cc modified Superbikes.
Like all of us in this era of milestones, Gene is experiencing his first major mid-life crisis. This past fall, he took the big fall and purchased a small fleet of new Ducati sport bikes, including two of the new 848 middle weight performance machines. That was just the beginning!
Months later and with new Ducati 848s, new truck, new trailer, new gear, new pit equipment, new this, new that and at age 41, Gene entered, qualified and successfully completed the 68th running of the Daytona 200 by Honda under the lights this past Friday, March 6 at Daytona International Speedway.
Now this isn’t just any old race to come back to after 20 years away from the sport. The Daytona 200 by Honda is also AMA Pro Road Racing’s new series format featuring middleweight production sport bikes with the likes of Ben Bostrom, Josh Herrin, Jason DiSalvo, Jamie Hacking, Miguel Duhamel and a whole host of ultra-fast factory backed riders competing.
Factory teams included entries from Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Aprilia and Buell. The only factories not represented were Ducati and Triumph. Enter local old fast guy, Gene Burcham! Of the 84 pre-entries for the Daytona 200 by Honda, only a pair of Ducati 848s were entered, and only Gene managed to qualify for the main event to be held Friday night under the lights.
I won’t even get into the severe disadvantage the new format rules imposed on the Ducati 848 verses the 600cc, four-cylinder machines and the other vee twin’s 1000cc and 1125cc allowance, but did Gene manage to put the only Ducati 848 twin in the 75th position of a 75-bike field.
After enduring 52 laps under the lights of Daytona International Speedway, the grueling congestion of a 75-bike field, the absurdness of a “safety car” on a course with motorcycles, Gene managed to pull off a finish in 51st position.
Congratulations, Gene, for putting the only Ducati into the history books of the first Daytona 200 of a historic new era in AMA Pro Road Racing.
Not bad for a fellow “old fast guy”. Speed isn’t just for the young pups.
Now I hope Michael Lock out in Cupertino, Calif., hears about your feat and gets you some more ponies and a bit more top speed for your Ducati 848. Or maybe he could find out how the boys in Milwaukee wriggled out an allowance from Roger E for 1125cc so you could run your Ducati 1098 instead.
Oh, well, I think that’s about all the pot stirring I can come up with this week, and the battery in my laptop is about to go belly-up. So I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Will spring ever come?
Being a motorcyclist this time of year in central Indiana can be a very frustrating experience. It has been three or four months of snow, sleet, rain, bone-chilling weather and short, sunless days. When March rolls around with April just around the corner, the glimmer of spring is in the air, and the siren song of two wheels begins to tempt the senses for the first ride of a new season.
One of the rituals of the impending new season is the annual Dealer News Powersports Expo at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. This is one of the largest gatherings of all things motorcycles in North America. If you are lucky enough to get an entry pass to this powersports dealer-only industry event, there are treats to tempt every facet of the motorcyclist experience.
Last week I shared with you my experience visiting the Hayden family compound in Owensboro, Ky., to pick up Nicky’s 2006 MotoGP championship-winning motorcycle. This very special machine spent the following weekend in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s exhibit at the Dealer News Powersports Expo, along with a KTM 125 GP bike from the Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup and a very special Indian from the IMS historic vehicle collection. Motorsports legend Army Armstrong shared some of his life experiences with up-and-coming Red Bull Rookie rider Jacob Cunningham while visiting the exhibit.
This event provided a great forum to share the plans for the September 2008 Red Bull Indianapolis GP with North American motorcycle and powersports dealers. Over the course of three days, thousands of Expo guests visited and experienced the IMS and Red Bull plans for this very special event kicking off the 
celebration of 100 years of racing in Speedway, Ind. One of the more notable motorcycle racing legends to visit the exhibit was 1993 World Champion Kevin Schwantz.
Now if only the spring weather would make its way to Indianapolis with some 50-degree-plus days, I will finally be able to get out of my four-wheel cage and back to the ride.
See you all next week on redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Introduction
Hello all, and welcome to my first installment for the redbullindianapolisgp.com blog. Actually this is my first-ever blog, so this should be a lot of fun in the months to come, sharing my activities leading up to the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP.
My name is Greg Sickmeier, and I am a lifelong resident of the Indianapolis area. In fact, I spent my first six weeks in this world across Georgetown Road from the front straight of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a long, long time ago. Maybe this explains my love of racing and my need for speed!
A bit about me: I am a graduate engineer from General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich., now known as Kettering University. I’ve worked for Allison Transmission, another Speedway company, for 33 years in the service, sales, marketing and training organizations. James Allison, our company’s founder, is also one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1908. I just can’t seem to get to far from my roots on Georgetown Road!
During the early 1980s, I raced a Honda CB750F in AMA Pro Superbike and ran a lot of WERA and CCS events during a 12-year time period. At a few of the later events I attended, the Hayden’s were showing up, with Tommy, Nicky and Roger Lee in tow. They were on 125’s, and the youngest ones couldn’t even reach the ground. Someone had to hold the bikes up to get them started and catch them in the pits when they came back in. Earl’s Race Team was a very shoestring operation, with Earl’s old Ford box van packed to the ceiling. Wow, who would have known that all three of the boys would have turned into such great riders and sportsmen!
Another midlife crisis
I drifted away from motorcycles for a few years and have played a lot of ice hockey over the past 14 years or so. A couple years ago, I bought another street bike, and now this impulse purchase has turned into another serious midlife crisis! Four Honda’s, three Yamaha’s and two Ducati’s later in the past three years, I am thoroughly enjoying this second go-around with the motorcycles and the local sport bike scene.
Do you wanna be in the movies?
My involvement with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Red Bull Indianapolis GP started last summer with a phone call from a senior IMS staff member about borrowing my ’07 Honda CBR1000RR Repsol replica motorcycle for a promotional event. Boy, was I excited when I found out what was in the works! That photo shoot turned into a full-blown video session on the “Yard of Bricks” at the track. Yup, that’s me in the Red Bull Indianapolis GP Event Introduction video on the Repsol with Stephan Gregoire on the 1910 Thor. Check it out!
In future installments, I’ll share some more on that experience, along with many other experiences since then and many more experiences to come as we all count down to the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sept. 14, 2008.
I hope you all stay tuned each week here on redbullindianapolisgp.com for “The Experience.”
Greg