On Fathers Day, and in memory of the old "Loudon Classic" lets Take A Trip To Bizarre-o-World, shall we?

Several years ago this day would have been spent in the steamy confines of New Hampshire, with the series at the New Hampshire International Raceway. The Father's Day race at the track better known as "Loudon" ended years ago after safety concerns and rider injuries made racing there on modern Superbikes basically impossible.

I don't think about Loudon very often, but did yesterday. Tight on time, I had to interview Miguel DuHamel in the Honda team room as he changed into his street clothes. It was there that I caught a glimpse of the scar on his leg where his femur was pushed through his kneecap as a result of his infamous Loudon crash on this weekend in'98. As I usually do when I think of that day, I also wondered what my friend Tom Wilson is up to these days; Wilson's career--but luckily not his life--ended at Loudon. DuHamel's Loudon injuries were grave and life-changing, but the bigger tragedy of Loudon may very well be that Wilson, a very talented motorcycle racer, never raced again after his ghastly and senseless crash.

Why bring all these bad memories now? Well, honestly, I wouldn't be if I hadn't read a recently published column written by a local newspaper writer who essentially defends the circuit and gives an interesting account of what brought about the end to what was the oldest AMA race (calling it the oldest motorcycle race in the US is a misnomer) at Loudon.

The writer, Kevin Provencher, and Loudon's PR man, Ron Meade, give an interesting if not imaginative and inflammatory account of the situation at Loudon, criticizing the factory riders and the AMA for what they see as transgressions that led to the demise of the Loudon AMA Superbike event. The article contains a plethora of curious statements including a justification for racing in the rain at Loudon because it would have allowed the Harley-Davidson Superbike to win, among others.

It's difficult to find any compelling or reasonable thought in the statements that these men make in this piece. How can they not see what so plainly played out presumably right in front of them? Oddly neither DuHamel or Wilson's injuries, caused when they impacted walls at Loudon after crashing, are mentioned.

"Time wounds all heels" as my old boss Jim Hansen used to say.

Today, all of this seems like such a tempest in a teapot, or a moot point of you will. The AMA Superbike series left Loudon because of injured riders and also because the new track never really suited high performance Superbikes made after the mid-1990s. Now, on this Father's Day the series is not at a facility that boasts "the most state-of-the-art protective air fence of any motorcycle course in North America". We're at an 85 million dollar purpose-built road course in Utah, one that's fast, safe and beautiful.

With this writing as evidence, it's hard not to be of the opinion that many of the fellows in Loudon just don't get it, and never really did.

Read the story here. (New window alert)

And if my buddy Tom Wilson is out there in the cyber-world, happy Father's Day my friend.