HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE is the Champion, my friends…
‘Cause heeeeeeee kept on riding, til the end…
HE IS THE CHAMPION!
HE IS THE CHAMPION!
No time for LOSERS ’cause HE IS THE CHAMPION…
Of the Southwest Region!
PHOTO CREDIT: Mike LaPutt
Yearly Archives: 2006
Daytona – Day Four: Triumph! Joy! Exhilaration!
Patrick Bertinelli and the No. 93 Krewe of Helios-AZ Suzuki GSX-R 1000 overtake another rider on the fabled 31-degree banks of Daytona International Speedway.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Call it the Fantastic Fourth.
Patrick Bertinelli raced the No. 93 Krewe of Helios-Arizona Suzuki GSX-R 1000 to a thrilling fourth place in his fourth and final race – the Speedscreen Unlimited Grand Prix Amateur Championship at the CCS Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway yesterday.
In the process of completing his best finish for the race weekend, Bertinelli also helped teammate Ray Thibodeaux capture second place in the event, while fellow Arizonans Matt Heppler and Gary King rounded out the Southwest’s spectacular finish, placing sixth and seventh respectively in a race that saw a number of off-track adventures.
“I kept seeing guys going all over the track – off the track, in the grass,” Bertinelli said. “I kept thinking – it’s a 10-lap race, guys, you have to finish to place. I just stayed on the track and kept it pinned and was careful. It was a great race.”
Continue reading Daytona – Day Four: Triumph! Joy! Exhilaration!
WHY I HATE HARLEYS, CHOPPERS, CRUISERS & THEIR ILK
FWAAAAP!!! POTATO POTATO POTATO POTATO! brupppp…. brupppp….
To the average redneck, these are the sounds of angels on high. To me, they are the farts of overly expensive and pathetically useless pipes. I hate Harley-Davidsons. I hate choppers. I hate faux-Harleys and RUB bikes. To put it bluntly, I hate Biketoberfest.
PUH-ta PUH-ta PUH-ta ta ta ta ta… FWAPP!! FWAP! potato potato potato
For the past five days, my sweet husband Patrick and I have been embedded in Daytona Beach, Florida – the World Center of Racing, the Birthplace of Spring Break, and right now, the highest concentration of redneck chrome in the known universe. As you may know, Patrick is racing motorcycles this weekend – and a lot of you, whom I refer to lovingly as “THE REST OF US” probably think a bike is a bike is a bike. Two wheels is two wheels? Right?
FWAAPP! BWWWAAAH… BWWWWAAAAH… burrrrgle burrrgle burrrrgle burrgle…
Wrong. At 2 o’clock in the morning when they’re revving their ridiculously underpowered engines outside your window, THEY ARE MENACES TO SOCIETY. Yesterday, we left the comfy confines of the timeshare for the … charming … and LOCALLY OWNED Aqua Terrace Motel. It was really a cute place, if you have a good sense of humor about these things. If it were in Scottsdale and were renovated, it would be the ultra-hip Valley Ho. But it’s in Daytona during Biketoberfest – and if you don’t already know how I feel about Biketoberfest, read on…
Continue reading WHY I HATE HARLEYS, CHOPPERS, CRUISERS & THEIR ILK
Daytona – Day Three: Mechanical Disaster! Disappointment! Conflict!
DAYTONA, Fla. – Improper tire pressure, lack of horsepower and miscommunications in the pits yesterday conspired to produce one sucky day of racing for our Arizona contingent.
Continuing his triumphant return to Daytona, Ray Thibodeaux finished third in the amateur unlimited SuperSport race yesterday, but his podium finish was erased when Team Thibodeaux failed to take his winning bike to tech inspection.
Thibodeaux could not escort the bike to inspection personally because he was out on the track racing in the subsequent amateur middleweight SuperSport race, where a mechanical failure made it impossible for him to shift his bike, resulting in a seventh place finish. A successful protest was launched and Thibodeaux’s third-place finish was reinstated – about the only highlight of the day.
“That sucked!” Patrick Bertinelli said after a disappointing 11th place finish in the amateur unlimited SuperSport race, where low tire pressure had the No. 93 Krewe of Helios-Arizona Suzuki GSX-R 1000 bucking him up and down the fabled 31-degree banking of NASCAR Turn 4. Matt Heppler of Payson followed in 13th while Gary King of Cave Creek placed 17th. In the concurrently run expert unlimited SuperSport, Dave Stone cursed his way to an equally unhappy seventh.
“I had no horsepower!” Stone said, in one of his few comments that did not include the adjectival, adverbial, verb and noun usages of the f-word. “A friggin’ Ducati beat me! A Ducati!?!”
On the No. 613 aztrackday.com / All Stone Army Suzuki 650, Alan Chook placed seventh in the expert lightweight SuperSport race.
Because of inconsistent wireless connectivity, we hope to post the final day’s results on Sunday evening, October 22 – but that may or may not happen. So to tide you over, feel free to read our next entry: WHY I HATE HARLEYS.
Daytona – Day Two: Mayhem, Victory, Chaos
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Arizona contingent managed to keep their bikes sunnyside up today at the Championship Cup Series Race of Champions – through race officials couldn’t manage the same with their timing equipment.
Technological failures within race administration marred an otherwise exciting day of racing. Though we cannot officially convey the winners of the 14 races contested today, we can say that Grand Canyon racers claimed three podium finishes – or not.
Ray Thibodeaux won the amateur Unlimited SuperBike race, finishing third in the amateur GTO, while Dave Stone finished third in a thrilling expert GTO contest, as the Arizona contingent claimed about seven Top 10 finishes today at Daytona International Speedway.