| Author | Message | ||
     Jerry_haughton |
 Denise, Ben Bostrom, and EBear doing Starbucks  after Ben left i wondered out loud what he was driving. "Probably a rental," said EBear. i peeked out the window. hey Ebear, wanna guess again?  Greg White, the host of 2 Wheel Tuesday on the SPEED Channel  Jake Zemke and Denise  Denise and Mladin's koala bear edited by jerry_haughton on April 05, 2004 | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
 The Weapon  Eric Bostrom waiting in his pit.  Miguel DuHamel at speed in the pits.  DuHamel signs an autograph while Denise says "Hi Mom!"  this, i presume, is Mrs. Miguel Duhamel, and was a photo that was begging to be taken. edited by jerry_haughton on April 05, 2004 | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
 the rider formerly known as Ferris and the lovely Denise getting ready to make off with Mladin's incredibly heavy trophy.  Mat signs an autograph for me. he couldn't have been any more pleasant, freely at ease with the crowd of admirers and plainly enjoying himself.  remember Denise's koala bear above?  it has now been autographed by Mat Mladin, and will take a place of honor in our living room.  Mat, you're the man. today was an awesome day, and it was great to see EBear, Sparky and Jen, and Steve Brefka (thanks for the Oktoberfast gifts, Steve!) FB edited by jerry_haughton on April 05, 2004 | ||
| Rocketman |
Hey Ferris, what happened to Ferris and who's this Jerry Houghton fella? Seems he's stole your missus! Mind you, she's worth stealing if you don't mind me saying so! By the way, did you get to see any racing or were you to busy backstage? Anyway dude, the real Ferris would be the one signing autographs LOL  Rocket | ||
| Blake |
You're looking very Cali these days. Nice pics, thanks for sharing. Someone please tell Zemke his chin fur is crooked. | ||
| Blake |
Rocket, I agree, the Busa makes for a great touring bike. | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
Rocket, we'd planned to hang out on the grass with EBear and Sparky and Jen and Steve, but me 'n D were on a mission to get Mladin's autograph on Denise's koala bear so we hung out in the pits all day instead, and had an absolute blast. about five minutes prior to the start of the Superbike race we spotted Mladin sitting in his pit, alone, focused, waiting quietly to go to work. the Yosh crew was giving him plenty of space. at this point me & D had been stalking his garage area for hours, hoping to get the bear autographed, but hadn't seen even a glimpse of MM. anyway, it's five minutes before race time and we decided to go for it. i got my camera ready, Denise had koala bear and Sharpie in hand, and we were actually about two seconds away from walking right up to Mladin (yikes, in the sanctity of his pit!) and doing the deed. thank God an AMA offical spotted us at the last second and intervened, politely suggesting that NOW possibly wasn't the best time to be autograph-seeking. she was right, of course. whew. in retrospect we were crazy, but we had also been trying to get THIS particular autograph for the last several hours, and we were nothing if not persitent. anyway, after he won the race and did all the TV stuff, he disappeared for about 20 minutes then showed up in his street clothes, sat down at a table just outside the Yosh trailer, and signed autographs for literally hundreds of people, chatting and laughing with folks as they moved thru the line, being much more charming than the mental image i'd formed from watching interviews of him on TV. he stopped down and REALLY plugged in when an obviously phycically-handicapped boy was pushed up in a wheelchair. the boy was star struck, you could just tell. his mom leaned down to Mat and said "He's your biggest fan in the entire world." Mat couldn't have been any cooler, signing several autographs for the boy and spending a minute chatting with him and making him feel special. there were several times while we hung around that Mat went out of his way to make his fans feel cool, and while i still consider him to be a little on the arrogant side (but who among us isn't?), his racing ability AND his "human-ness" has earned my utmost respect. Jake was so cool. he's one of the best racers in the world right now, but nobody seems to have picked up on that just yet, as he was wandering the pits all afternoon with hardly anybody paying him a second look. after the photo with he and D above, i heard a woman behind us ask her husband who he was. he wasn't entirely sure. i don't think this THIS phenomenon will last much longer. and Ben Bostrom? well, he's gorgeous enough that I'D do him, that is if i could keep Denise off of him long enough. as i was taking the photo of him in front of his Hummer he actually apologized for looking so "bad", stating he was not a morning person. no worries, Ben. thanks for letting several of your fans have their way with you for a couple of minutes on an absolutely glorious moto-Sunday in Fontana, California. FB&D | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
ps: that IS Mladin's trophy we're holding above, and it is INCREDIBLY heavy. as one of the Yosh team members took the pic he asked me not to drop it. i'm really glad i didn't. | ||
| Al_lighton |
Way cool, Ferris, I was there both days, sorry I missed you. Saturday I took Zach in the cage. here's a cool photo we got, Eric and Jake were most gracious.  | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
that's very cool, Al, and cool for Zach!  | ||
| Pdxs3t |
Great pics Jerry! Looks like both you and D had lots of fun. Jim ans Shel | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
Jim and Shel, you've got a pretty good idea of what we've been up against trying to get pix posted with my new digital, and last night (early this morning, actually) was a real challenge trying to rig the computers such to pull it off. the new card reader is the bomb. thanks for the kudos (and for the technical help), and yeah, yesterday was a keeper. edited by jerry_haughton on April 05, 2004 | ||
| Rocketman |
Obviously you've never ridden one Blake!  Rocket | ||
| Bomber |
sounds like a conversation we had at Illinois HD/Buell last week . . . . a couple of guys (one of whom recently moved up to Wisconsin named Nallin) brough in a couple of race bke for us to drool over, including an XB-motored flat tracker . . .. I was drooling and grabbing my, ehem, parts, and observed "oh, man, put a couple of LED lights on that thing and let me loose" a buncha folks expressed horror over all that motor without any wieght to haul around . . .. . sheesh . . . .what a bunch of sissies I may not be able to ride ANYTHING to it's potential, but nobody'll smile more n me when I'm done! | ||
| Socoken |
"I may not be able to ride ANYTHING to it's potential, but nobody'll smile more n me when I'm done!" best damn quote ive heard all day | ||
| Blake |
Rocket, I certainly have. Big, heavy, smooth, plenty of power, comfortable, good wind protection... perfect touring bike. | ||
| Pdxs3t |
Anytime Jerry! JC | ||
| Rocketman |
Blake you're upto your old tricks again LOL Why am I arguing the merits of a Hayabusa. I must be mad! So you forgot to mention the sportsbike handling and very efficient brakes never mind the ability to out run any litre class sportsbike built today. I always thought touring was about taking your time and savouring the moment. I know, there's also the Steve McQueen method of touring Rocket | ||
| Jprovo |
I'm sorry that I missed you guys at the races, but it looks like you all had fun. I was busy being a cornerworker on turn 3, where the bikes come off the banking into the infield. Watching the race literally 10 feet from the apex of a corner is totally unique. At race starts, the whole hoard of bikes come screaming towards you, the cacophony of their exhaust noise making your heart increase in tempo as they dive by you into the corner. The all manage to squeak through two and three wide, rubbing and bumping against each other like salmon swimming upstream, and as you revel in the sound the make as they race down track, you remember that they will be back in less than two minutes. We had a particularly spectacular high side at turn three on Sunday, and Ben Bostrom low sided there on Saturday while trying to chase Eric down. One moment you're watching the corner, cheering Eric and the Ducati on, hoping that there is a snowball's chance that he will actually catch Mladin. The next second you are watching Ben go down in a shower of sparks. The adrenaline springs you into reaction, and you remember to start waving the yellow flag to warn the rest of the riders while the guy standing next to you is yelling into the radio "Turn three yellow, bike 155 down, riders left, rider up..." You are busy scanning the track for debris, wildly waving that yellow flag, meanwile next to you, “… bike up, 155 re-entering track at turn 9, Turn three green” You pull the yellow flag and think damn… that was Ben Bostrom. I’m totally hooked on cornerworking. I’m trying to see it I can work Laguna Seca and maybe get Golden State Brag to help at next years Fontana race. What a freakin hoot. Most of the riders were cool, responding to our thumbs ups and waves during the parade and cool down laps. The sound of Eric Bostrom’s Ducati was something to behold, and the Buells were sorely missed. I think the only Buells I saw the whole weekend (besides mine, of course) were during the $10 spectator parade lap. I think that I saw Sparky leading the lap on Saturday (at least it was a blue Firebolt with someone wearing gear similar to Sparky's). IMHO, The most impressive rider of the weekend was Jeremy Toye. Jeremy finished 13th and 11th on Saturday and Sunday respectively with a Stock R1 Yamaha. It was impressive for Jeremy to beat out more than half the field with a bike that had a license plate hanging off of it. James | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
James, nice report, and i wished i'd known which corner you were on. remember the short spectator "bridge" at the end of the in-field grandstands directly behind and above you? Denise and i were up there for a bit looking down on the riders as they slammed off the banking and thru the chicane. pretty effin' impressive, as you eloquently point out. i remember doing the Fan Lap last year on the Thong and "hurtling" off the banking onto the in-field (hah! doing all of about 50 mph!) and thinking what a brutal transition that is. can't imagine doing it at the speeds they carry thru there. thanks for the great report. | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
 this is the view of Ben that Denise had at the Starbucks. she has been sighing ever since.  wish i had one of these in my stable...  Rocket, you asked if we saw any racing? yep, sure did. this is the start of the Superbike race.  here's Mat and the boy i talked about earlier, who i bet didn't sleep a wink last night thinking about his encounter with his hero. good stuff, glad i got to share in it. FB edited by jerry_haughton on April 05, 2004 | ||
| Sandblast |
Sorry I missed you Ferris- I was there Sunday as well. I was mostly in the infeild grass area, man it's cool being that close to the bikes near a good corner. I loved the sound of Eric's Duc, and it is AMAZING to see Zemke slide that bike out of every corner- sometimes he was actually smoking his tire under acceleration. Mladin is super-human- did you notice how much higher his exhaust note was than everyone else's? Sounded like the 600s. Any way here are a couple of my pics...  | ||
| Sandblast |
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| Sandblast |
That doesnt look like the right number on that bike above. Any way you get where I was at... Here is one of the kick off party on Thursday- thats Hayden and Spies, (and me) I was THE ONLY person that rode to the party, other than Greg White on his scooter, it was hailing like hell and raining buckets. When I walked into the party at outback with my leathers drenched, everyone started clapping, it was funny. You can see where Spies signed my helmet (he is with HJC)  | ||
| Sandblast |
Greg White and I- he was really cool, said he is going to buy a Blast for his wife maybe. He hung out and talked racing with us forever. I really feel bad that Sparky and Slaughter some how missed out, I wish I would have known they did not know- I was suprised when I found out you werent there Sparky. You go to everything.  | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
cool pix, Sand, musta really been a treat to hang with those boys. cool for you for riding in instead of taking the cage (er, like me 'n D did yesterday...) | ||
| Timbo |
TOO COOL GUYS! Thanks for sharing the pics. Timbo | ||
| Henrik |
Jerry, Sandblast; Awesome - thanks! Henrik | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
thank you Timbo and Henrik (oops, and Blake ) edited by jerry_haughton on April 06, 2004 | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
I miss playing photographer at the race tracks. Its been too long a time. I am so looking forward to doing it all over again and these pics just set that fire even hotter! Thanks for sharing guys. Tell Denise my daughter now wants me to get her a koala to get signed! |
