I finally made it back out to Summit Point, near Charles Town, WV for the motorcycle racing. The day started rough with a rider dumping his bike and slamming headfirst into one of the tire barracades. He was airlifted to the hospital with likely spinal damage. This is a rough sport folks! That was the worst wreck of the day but it wasn't the last. I was panning on riders in a sweeping turn when the following happened...

Losing It


Highside Exit


This guy got up and walked away...

K10D 200ISO, Shutter Priority-1/500 s, BIGMA at f6.7 and 310mm...

More to follow but had to get these up...

Mike

[J.Scott]

Yee-haa! Now that's a ride! Thankfully the rider was okay.

Awesome shots Mike.

[Jimbo]

love the first one and man the second is just too crazy. would have liked to see the look on the guys face! Nice work Mike. JIM

[metroeloise]

Wow! Have you shown it to him? He'd love it...

[sawtooth235]

Mike,

That series is wicked!

Ray

[mel]

Holy Cow. Awesome shots Mike. Dang. Looks like an exciting day.

[johnmflores]

That is by far one of the worst ways to get off a motorcycle. I did it once and saw parakeets circling my head just like in the cartoons.

Great timing! You can see the front wheel off the ground in the first shot, as the rear wheel is spinning up. It's got me a little confused as to how he's in that predicament. Looks like he grabbed a fistfull of throttle on the corner exit - he was probably chasing someone and had the "red mist"...

[Stratman]

Great shots Mike !!

[Sailor]

I'll ditto everyone else, Mike - great shots. Glad the guy was OK.

Jer

[daacon]

Wow timing is everything excellent shots Mike - I get scared just watching that sport. Not much of a motorcyle rider - love speed too much and knew at an early age I would likely not see an old age if a bought a bike.

[MRRiley]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone.

Eloise, I will be getting ahold of the rider and plan to send him a couple of 8x10s. He earned em!

John, I know what you mean. I've lowsided and that hurts enough for my tastes. Can't even imagine how bad hitting that track hurt this time. As for "How" its the exit of a long sweeper and there is a bit of a dip. He grabbed too much throttle just as he hit the dip and just slid out. I thought he was gonna lowside it but the next thing I know the bike is swapping ends and he is flying thru the air.

Also, I found out today that he broke his collar bone... OUCH! Not bad though considering that he probably flew 60-70' through the air.

Mike

p.s. still waiting for an update on the guy who was medevac'd. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

[xjjohnno]

Nice series there.
Had a much slower off last week avoiding a red light runner and now nursing a broken wrist and proud owner of a soon to be written off bike.

[Marc Langille]

Now that is a cool series Mike.

#2 is one heck of an ejection from the bike... ouch...

I've never hit the pavement harder than 35mph (bicycle racing, but no protective gear) - that was plenty!

[MRRiley]

Good to hear you came thru your scrape with only a broken wrist xjjohnno. Red light runners should be hung up on signal poles by their privates. I've had more near misses than I can count. Hope you get a good settlement for the bike and are back in the saddle soon.



Thanks Marc. I just wish the corner worker's stand hadn't been in the way for the 3rd shot.

Back in my much younger days I lowsided at almost 100mph and the worst part was praying I wouldn't get hit by the riders behind me.

Mike

[JMR]

Excellent work, Mike. I do hope the rider recovers.

JMR