Wow! That’s what ran through my mind all weekend while attending the 2011 Superbike Classic at the Barber Motorsports museum in Birmingham, Alabama this past weekend. I was up close and personal with the riders and the fans that make this event so special to everyone, that it was simply overwhelming. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Two months ago, things were at a little slow at work, so I decided to look up the dates for the vintage show at Barber this year. Brandon and I had gone last year and had a great time, so I was eager to return. Instead I see a banner ad for the “Superbike Classic” that is just a short time away. I took a look at the vacation calendar at work, but no one had asked off for the 17^th-19^th of June, so I penciled in my name for it. A few nights later Brandon and I were sitting around discussing ideas for the show, and that’s when I mentioned the race at Barber I had seen on their website. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could go as media and do a story on the race? Hell yeah!

Brandon applied for and was granted media passes to the event, with him as photographer and myself as reporter. Slight problem with those arrangements, but I will address them later. To say we were excited was an understatement. We were about to be given access to the grounds of what I consider to be some of the most beautiful property in the southeast, and, currently, one the greatest road courses to be found anywhere.

Have you ever been to Barber? If not, then you certainly owe it yourself to check it out. You don’t need to be a race fan to enjoy it either, but it helps. There are copses of forest everywhere that are accessible by walking trail or just by cutting through them to get a better view of the track. Many times have I walked down a trail and found one the many sculptures that just seem to pop up out of no where, solely for the purpose of being admired and reflected upon. It’s sublime in it’s own way.

The more time I spend at Barber the more I realize it was a dream that someone was able to realize. George Barber didn’t do it for the money, that much is obvious when you look around. He did it because he loves creativity and wants to share it with everyone. It just happens that his favorite creative outlet is racing machines, but he loves design and structure, and it is evident everywhere, from the buildings, to the fish ponds and sculptures, all the way down to the design of the track. I don’t know George Barber, but I think I understand him.

Enough of that, I’m gettin’ all misty.

So like I said before, Brandon is the photographer and I am the reporter. I’m the rapper, he’s the DJ sort of thing. Brandon is a damn good photographer, but I’m not sure about my reporting abilities, so I develop a strategy. We will study the racers, their history and stats, so we will know who Brandon is shooting and who I am reporting on. We kept making “cram night” plans so we could study up. Those study sessions never actually happened, though, until the night we headed to Barber. We did spend about fifteen minutes in the car memorizing names and plate numbers, but the topic swiftly changed to science fiction. I actually figured this would happen, so I started a thread in the forums asking for any and all info on riders that would be attending the AMA race at Barber this weekend. Marc , one of the regulars, replied with what a great track it was. OK, so I needed to interview the track.

Next, Kevin, our resident know-it-all, who actually does seem to know it all, said I should interview Larry Pegram, # 72 on the BMW S1000RR. Kevin mentioned that Larry had been around for awhile and probably had some good stories, and Marc seconded the motion. I already have an affinity for the S1000RR, having ridden one shortly after they were released in the states, so this was one of my early goals. Interview Larry Pegram at all costs.

After getting about three hours of sleep, Brandon and I headed for Barber. We went to the will call building and picked up our media passes, rather unceremoniously, I might add, and headed into the track area. The next couple of hours were frustrating, because we literally had no idea what we were supposed to do next. Looking back on it, it really quite funny, but at the time, it was no laughing matter.

I guess the problem really was that everyone expected us to know what were doing, and we were hoping for some cues. We had received our hi-viz vests that, paired with our clip-on passes, allowed access to almost anywhere, but we had no idea of the actual power that we held that weekend.

For example, I’m standing in the media center, waiting on the photographer’s meeting, when I spotted a couple of these books , the AMA Pro Roadracing 2011 Media Guide. I pick it up and thumb through it. Do you know what’s in this book? Everything. Rider bio’s, stat’s, pics, track info, other track’s info, race schedules, and previous race info all the way back to the 80’s. There is even a recipe for chicken marsalla in this book, it is so bad ass.

So I turn around and ask Melanie, the lady that is checking us in and handing out the vests and keeping the media center in working order, how much this book costs? She just sort of looks at me, shrugs her shoulders, and says, “I think they’re free to you guys. No one has ever paid for them before.”

Cool!

One more example: I’m standing around, still kind of lost, since my job is interviews, and I ain’t interviewing anyone. I’m thirsty, and decide to get a coke out of the fridge. Then I ask a Barber employee, who is standing nearby, where was I supposed to pay for this? He looked at me and patiently responded, “all of this is here for you, sir.”

Awesome!

After the photographer’s meeting, I get my vest and head down to the track. During the meeting, they made it clear that safety was the goal, so we were not allowed, under any circumstances, to cross the track during a race, which made perfectly good sense to me, and any other time we wanted to cross the track it must be done with the permission from the closest corner marshal. With this in mind, I approached the pit and crossed to the track, where practice was going on. I was standing under the flag tower on the front stretch at Barber!

The rest of day, I wandered around, taking lots of pictures and video for use on the website, but I must say, these bike racers are tough nuts to crack. They are focused, intense, and determined.   That makes it difficult for me to walk up and start asking stupid questions. I decided on stupid questions because I figured if I didn’t know what I was talking about, I could at least ask something funny. One look at some of their faces, though, and I decided that the question, “boxers or briefs” was silly, and they would probably tell me so.

So I decided to observe a little.   Couldn’t hurt to try to learn my subject better before attempting anything rash. I did learn I need to get the Speed Channel on my cable package. I’m missing out, big time.

As I walked through the pits on that first day, I recognized a name that I had memorized the night before: Ryan Kerr, # 28. He was just sitting there, all by himself, so I approached him and asked for an interview, which he promptly gave. Afterwards, as I walked away, I realized that I hadn’t recorded any of it. No voice recorder, no video. I was going to have to get better at this, real quick.   So I decided to go find Larry Pegram. The Fan walk was just starting, and I found Larry at his pit, signing autographs.

“Hi Larry, Johnny from Nashvilleriders.com. I was hoping to get a short interview with you. Doesn’t have to be now, you just tell me when and where. “ He looked at me kind of funny. I guess it wasn’t normally done this way, but then he said, “Yeah, sure, meet me at my tent at 12:45.”

Sweet, I had my first bonafide interview lined up.

I went back to media center, and the instant I walked in the door , I realized I was drenched in sweat. It was like 95 degrees out there, and I had been tromping around for the better part of three hours. I was not a pretty sight, but I cooled off a bit and headed back towards the Pegram Racing tent located in the paddock.

The interview went really well, I must say so myself. I made a mistake by referring to two first questions, which some you may have noticed, but for the most part, Larry really opened up and just talked for a few minutes. I was ecstatic. I watched the video back in the media center three times.

The rest of the day I followed Brandon and our new found friend and mentor, Julian Taylor, CEO and Editor in Chief of “All About Bikes”. It’s a new publication that offices out of Pennsylvania. Julian really knows what’s going on, and as we shadowed him for the rest of the day, we both learned a lot. He took Brandon to all the best shooting spots and I watched him interact with everyone, from rider, to mechanic, to corner marshal. He had tons of insight. I was really getting comfortable with what I was supposed to do.

Brandon and I headed back around six, picking up some beer on the way to the hotel. He ordered pizza, and while we waited for it, we had a couple of cold ones while watching my interview.

Wait a minute? Did he just mention “the camera man from Super Bike Family”? This dudes got his own reality show on Discovery HD! I’d never even heard of it. It’s really time to upgrade my cable package.

About two beers in is when I discovered I was physically exhausted and Brandon was worn out too, but it was daylight outside, so we ate our pizza and drank our beer until about 9 o’clock, when it finally got dark. I gave away the last of our beer to some random person in the parking lot so it wouldn’t go to waste and we crashed, hard.

Day two.

We both woke up fresh and ready to go, and really tackled the day. After our previous day, we decided to skip taking pictures of qualifying, and we concentrated on making a game plan. Brandon would work a race, hit the winner’s circle, then come in to download pictures and hit the track again. I would walk the pits and look for interesting things to take pictures of and I had my target interviews to hit, namely follow up with Ryan Kerr, and go after the elusive Ben Bostrom. I went back to the Media Center frequently to cool off and drink water, so we were both in pretty good shape all day, except Brandon got road rash taking pictures of a motorcycle. Go figure.

I took pictures of umbrella girls, mechanics working on bikes, riders resting in the shade with wet towels on their heads after practice or qualifying laps.

I finally got my Ryan Kerr interview. Good kid, lots of talent. Like I know, right? All the same, he was humble and respectful, and could ride the tire off his bike

Several times on Sunday, I went on Bostrom hunts. It was like hunting for bigfoot. All the signs were there, and people had heard of him, but no one had actually seen him. The man is elusive to say the least.

But I got him.

Found him at Fan walk, but this time I waited in his pit. There must have been a line a mile long to talk to the guy and get his autograph, so I just waited in the shade behind him. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t going to pounce on the guy, I just needed this interview to make my weekend.

When Fan walk was over, there was still a bunch of autograph seekers that he didn’t get to, so I hoped he didn’t think I was one. I could tell he was tired and wanted to get back to his A/C, but he gave me an interview anyway, and at first he was wooden, but he opened up, and expressed his appreciation for his fans, and genuinely was thankful for what he had. It was a short but great interview, I think.

The racing was very competitive, and I watched most from the media center. I did go down for the starts most of the time, and watched the podium presentations, but I always made it back for the press conference with the riders. The chemistry between these highly skilled racers is electric. You can tell that some are friends, some aren’t, and on the track, it counts for squat anyway. These guys are serious, they would run over their own grandmother to make the podium.

So, what did I learn?

I learned to talk to everyone, the corner marshall, the fan, the t-shirt vendor, the people that stock the food. They do this all the time, and they know stuff.

I learned that you have to behave as if you belong there, but not like something is owed to you.

I learned that I need to upgrade my cable package.

I learned that not all umbrella girls are attractive, and sometimes they are guys.

You gotta use sunscreen.

It was definitely a great weekend, and a huge thank you to the Barber and AMA staff for making it all happen. Every single one of their people working the event was happy to be there, and the enthusiasm was contagious.

I can’t wait to make my next race!