Sitting back in the folding cloth chair, I watch wisps of air form into clouds as they escape from underneath my helmet. The acrid smell of race fuel permeates the air and my eyes tear in protest of the noxious fumes. The drone of the one off exhaust echoes inside the blue canopy that we’ve put up to shield us pointlessly from the cold, gray, mid October Joliet morning. It’s 27 degrees outside; I’m shivering in my leathers and about to ride a real AMA Supersport bike. What the hell did I get myself into?

It all began a few months earlier when I was eating lunch with the owner of Safety First racing, Kevin Hanson and his crew chief Jim Rashid. In between forkfuls of a mouth searing Jalapeño, Steak and egg combo, I asked Kevin “Do you think we could get a chance to ride your bikes?” I expected a swift no, as I’ve been known to receive from the ladies on occasion, but Kevin actually agreed to it. Shocked, I began to stutter through a vain attempt to sound like I’ve been there before. Of course, I’m sure the unintelligible rant that came out of my mouth sounding like the ravings of a 10 year old that’d just snuck into his first R movie.

Fast forward to after the Mid Ohio season finale of the AMA series. Fred (the owner of this site, in case you didn’t know) and I went to pick up the bike from their home at 4&6 racing, nestled in the suburbs of Chicago . While there, I took the opportunity to talk to 4&6 Racing’s Engine guru, and engine builder for Safety First, Ed Hilton. Stupidly, I asked Ed how much power the bike was putting out, his response was “A little bit more than yours”. I don’t know what else I expected as this is just like asking a magician how he does his tricks. This of course sets the mind wondering. Will it be a beast? Will I be able to control it? Will I drop it? What color were these shorts before? Of course, I managed to sort out the shorts question, the rest of it would have to remain in the forefront of my thoughts.

So, now I sit here, listening to the GSXR600 growl at me as I try to convince myself that it’s just another bike. The call comes out from the Sportbike Track Time announcer that I’ve got 5 minute until I fulfill a dream. I drag myself out of the chair, muscles stiffened from the cold and head over to the warbling machine, barely able to walk from the cold, but riddled with adrenalin.

            The thing that catches me is the noise. This bike sounds mean. I’ve heard plenty of GSXRs in my lifetime, but the noise emanating from the Hindle exhaust is spine tingling. This bike sounds like a buzz bomb, with faint hints of chainsaw. It is truly the meanest sounding 4 cylinder I’ve ever heard. The revs jump up as the quarter turn throttle makes sure that the injectors are pumping much quicker than any pedestrian GSXR, feeding the expensive race fuel to the beast in big gulps. Each minute turn of your wrist results in the tach needle dancing wildly around the face of the dial. As I’m lifted off of the stand, my nerves jangled, I go to put my feet on the pegs and take off.

That’s when I notice the next thing, that I’m old. The pegs are set very high, as the team’s riders in 2006, Tony Meiring and Shane Narbonne, are both much smaller than I am and can tolerate this position as both riders are far more flexible than this brittle, 35 year old nonagenarian. I’m not contented in this position but this is no fault of the bike. Instead, I blame the ravages of age and my deep disdain for exercise for making this an issue. I eventually fold my legs up to meet the pegs, but I will not be able to put my toes on the pegs the entire ride

The second thing I notice about the ergonomics is that the bars are set very wide. I’m assuming that this is because both riders for Safety First came from a dirt track background and were used to it. For me, it felt almost standard bike like and offer maybe too much leverage for me at slow speeds. I will find out later that this set up has its advantages at speed.

First lap around the track we follow a control rider around the course, this gives me time to feel for the limited traction available and soak in the noise. The bike spits and pops on overrun, as I work my way around the track. I find myself actually kicking the gp shift pattern gear box up a gear accidentally, as the powershifter does its job flawlessly, despite the incompetent hack kicking away at it on accident, wondering where the revs went.

As we are finally let off of the control lap, I decide to throttle it a bit. The slight twist slingshots me toward turn one with a violent wail, front end waggling as the Pit Bull damper does its job faithfully. This evil sounding Suzuki 600 picks up revs far faster than any street bike I’ve ever ridden and treats it’s rider to a wave of torque that thumbs it’s nose at it’s 600cc heritage. I come up to turn one and grab a handful of the massaged stock brakes, The bike takes a set and just slows down without any instability and the feel coming through the lever is on par with any set of expensive aftermarket brakes I’ve ever sampled.

Turn one provides little reassurance as far as traction goes on this blustery morning. On the tip in, the front end skates a little due to cold tires and cold pavement. The soft suspension, set up for a rider probably 100lbs lighter than I am, is ideal in these conditions and helps the Dunlops bite into the pavement with as much reassurance as you can have in these arctic temps.

The fork has been reworked with GP suspension cartridges and its advantages become clear quickly. Autobahn Country Club is known for its bumpy pavement, but the Suzuki just doesn’t care. A month before, these bumps had me bouncing out of the seat on my bike and made life hard on the old spinal column. On the Safety First bike, they are rolled over and summarily dispensed as if they didn’t exist. The rear Penske must also be complimented as it gave me solid bite out of every corner and made this bike almost too easy to ride fast.

All of this had my senses trying to play catch up. I found myself hurtling towards corners, wide eyed and tensed up, thinking “I’ll just toss it over and hope I make it”. The Suzuki didn’t seem to share my attitude, as it went about its business as if to say “You do realize you’re riding a bike that’s pushed harder on a typical warm up lap?” The speed kept accumulating allowing me to sample the little Suzuki’s perfect steering and stellar chassis. Those wide bars provided the leverage to turn the bike quickly, with little need to muscle the bike around the track. This provided a tangible drop in effort and I would imagine that saves just enough effort to allow a top rider to push as hard at the end of a race as they had at the beginning. I‘d purposely tried to stay away from the rest of the pack as I didn’t want any red mist clouding my judgment, nor anyone else’s. The effortless speed of the Safety First GSXR caught me up, whether or not I wanted to.

I eventually pulled in, wide eyed, sore calves, arms pumped and coming down from the adrenalin rush. I had ridden a real race bike, one that is meant to compete at the highest levels of American roadracing and compete for the win. My few laps wobbling around on it probably made the Suzuki yawn and long for a real rider. For me though, it’s the perfect bike. It’s not that the GSXR is too powerful, it’s very strong for a 600, but modern liter bikes will out power it. It’s the ruthless efficiency with which this growling race bike devours the track that gets you. Its sole purpose is to lap fast and it does that in a way that can overwhelm at times, but is guaranteed to thrill.

I would have paid good money just to hear the motor’s scream, or felt the magic suspension, but I was granted the opportunity to experience that from behind the bubble and I can honestly say that I’m the luckiest boy alive.

Sportbikes.net would like to thank Kevin Hanson of Safety First racing, Jim Rashid of 4&6 racing for the hygiene tips and the magic carpet suspension, Ed Hilton for the 600cc motor of the gods, American Suzuki for turning out a hell of a bike and supporting racing all over the globe, Hindle Exhausts for the great sound system, GP Suspension and Penske Shocks for their help, the great folks at Sportbike Track Time for letting Sportbikes.net come out and play, Chicago Cycle for loaning us the trailer and finally Fred, for not letting me in the truck with the heated seats and the DVD player and for giving me this opportunity.

Go out and support racing in the U.S. and support the people who support your sport.