There are a large number of people in the world who believe motorcycles are dangerous. Many of those peoples are mothers. What would your mother say if you rode a motorcycle that had no brakes and spent most of it’s time going sideways? Hit the jump for some pictures and a very cursory introduction to motorcycle speedway racing.
The small town of Auburn, CA has played host to a Friday night motorcycle speedway series for as long as I can remember. Luckily, our luxurious Reno headquarters are only a couple of hours away. As far as I could tell, it seemed like a good time was had by all and plenty of dirt was thrown into many a beer by the 70+ horsepower motorcycles and the even more ridiculous sidecars.
Truthfully, I don’t know too much about speedway racing but it is pretty impressive to watch motorcycles race around a track that looks to be about the size of a hockey rink. Currently, speedway racing is more of a European sport but it has a long history in the U.S. as well. I’ll let the magic of Wikipedia handle the task of bringing you up to speed about motorcycle speedway racing.
Motorcycles weren’t the only thing on the track last Friday. There was also a sidecar category that can only be described as Thunderdome on three wheels!
For the full gallery check out Flickr
Finally, to give you an idea of the sights and sounds of motorcycle speedway racing, here’s a little bit of video I shot last year. Apologies for the shaky cam.
For more on Auburn’s Fast Fridays check out their official website:
1 comment
Infinitegarage
May 30, 2013 at 9:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That is so awesome. I didn’t realize the side cars actually had passangers. That is nuts.