I can hardly believe it has been a year since I first threw my leg over my dirt bike and raced flat track. Over the year of racing I was able to score two second place trophies and one third place trophy in the Beginner class. The beginner class is really nice for people like myself who don't have the space to practice and don't have a membership anywhere to practice and train.
If I have learned anything from my first year, you got to practice A LOT in order to get better. And thats the great thing about flat track motorcycle racing. It seems simple in concept and principle, so simple that anyone can come out and participate, it takes a lot of time and practice to really get good. Sometimes it can get frustrating and I feel as though I am not progressing, doing it so rarely, I am lucky enough to have great mentors in the community like Chuck Dickenson.
Chuck(pictured below) is in his 80s now and is a role model of the sport. He always is willing to help newcomers into the sport, he is always smiling and talking with everyone he sees, and he is incredibly fast racing in vintage, classic, brakeless, and the specialty age group classes.
A quick story about how I learned about Chuck...
I went to my first Flat out Friday motorcycle race and he was being interviewed by the local news station. Seeing him on the television, in his leathers shown in the photo below, big grin on his face, with his old vintage Triumphs, I knew that one day I wanted to meet that guy and shake his hand.
Fast forward to one of my first races at Aztalan and I was looking for someone around the pits who had a pump to fill up my tires. I stopped over by his pit and got to talking with him and his family, and without hesitation, he grabbed his air tank and proceeded to take it over to my pit area.
Yes that is right, an 80 year old man is carrying a heavy air tank over to my pit, to help ME. Someone who was under prepared, scared, didn't know what I was doing. We didn't really even know each other, but thats how selfless he is, willing to help a stranger out when in need.
I don't know how to better tell you about how great of a guy Chuck is, so when you see him out at the track, make sure to say hi, and be sure to offer to carry any air tanks for the man.
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I digress, this wasn't supposed to be a post about Chuck, but I digress, I was trying to really drag the shutter on the following photos.
Something more unusual than I usually do at the track.
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