philosophicRAVES perfect (per.fikt) adj. 1) complete in all respects; flawless 2) excellent, as in skill or quality 3) completely accurate – Webster
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rave OPINIONspeedway
I love speedway. In fact I even like saying it... speedway. It's one of those words that you can't just say either. You have to emphasize it... SPEEDWAY!... like that. I'd love to get a speedway bike. Even though I've never ridden one... never even sat on one, I'd love to have one just the same, just to tinker on. My Dad used to take me to see SPEEDWAY! back in the mid-70s at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. They don't race there anymore. But the cool thing is that many of the current racers names are still the same. Some of the sons (and daughters too) of the racers I used to watch with my Dad 25 years ago are racing today. It's a generational kind of thing. 
Speedway is one of those slightly eccentric niche sports that they love in Europe but only a faithful few know about it here in the states. Kind of like squash or bocce ball or cyclocross. The cool thing about SPEEDWAY! is that the bikes and the racing have barely changed in 50 or 60 years. A modern SPEEDWAY! bike is nearly the same as one two decades old. The motors are better of course, but the chassis are very primative looking. As an example, state of the art front suspension even on World Championship-winning bikes use rubber bands for springs! And rear suspension? There isn't any! 
Speedway races are very short, only four laps, and usually last less than a minute. They're on smooth dirt ovals and all you do is go left. Sounds simple but its not for the faint of heart. Despite looking like very old fashioned machines, speedway bikes will go 0-60 in just 3 seconds and have no brakes whatsoever. You turn right to go left, hit the gas (actually alcohol) to slow down on a bike that weighs just 165 pounds and has about 50 horsepower. That would be like if your family car had 700-800 horsepower. Giddy-up! 
Finally speedway has colorful characters with great nicknames and exceedingly weird clothes. Bobby "Boogaloo" Schwartz, "Fast" Eddie Castro, Billy "The Kid" Janniro, Bart "Simpson" Bast, Rachalle "The Flying Tigress" Kerr and its still small time enough that after the races you can walk right into the pits and meet the racers. Last summer I met Billy "The Bullet" Hamill the 1997 World Champion and current National Champion right after he'd won his national title. It was cool. SPEEDWAY! I love it! – dave © Copyright iriguchi 2003 |
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