Daytona Stories - Skip Van Leeuwen

This little antidote comes via my sister and her ex- husband who was a racer. I knew of Skip because of the TT expert he was in his racing days, but I never got to know him personally until he was a distributor of Marushin helmets (back in the mid 80’s).

Skip Van Leeuwen

While I was visiting my sister, who lives near Solvang, California, I knew that Skip and a friend would be in the area, so we all arranged to have dinner together.

During dinner my sister related an event that happened to Skip during Daytona ‘back in the day’. 

The story goes that they were all at a night club which was full of racers and college kids on spring break. My sister mentions there was a ‘veteran’ racer who was an excellent ballroom dancer; it turns out to be Everett Brashear (AMA hall of famer).  Then she starts telling how Skip was flirting with a college girl and the girls’ boyfriend was not too happy about it.  It turned physical and a brawl ensued of bikers versus college kids.

Everett Brashear

Up until now Skip did not remember the incident; but he then chimed in with many colorful details. It sounded like one of the brawls you saw in a cartoon because Skip crawled out the bottom of the pile to hide under my sister’s cloth covered table. While he was under the table, they gave him Everett’s coat and tie (yes, people used to wear sport coats and ties to clubs) and he sat down at the table. By then bouncers were throwing people out and they came up to Skip and start accusing him of starting the whole thing.  Of course he insisted it wasn't him as he had been sitting at the table the entire time. He never did get thrown out.

Skip Van Leeuwen

Daytona hasn’t changed much over the years.  If you have gone, or know of someone that has been during Bike Week (or during the old days before it was known as Bike Week), there’s stories aplenty!

Riding Home from Laguna Seca - The Hawk Story

As I mentioned, I often ride to Laguna Seca for the MotoGP from Seattle. I think it is about 1,000 miles if you take the freeway, but the way I go it takes me 3 days or more, and it is about 1,500 miles.

Northern California has some great roads between Highway 101 and Highway 1 that are fun to explore. One year, while on my return trip, I was riding my modified Triumph Daytona and after looking at the map found some nice little county roads in the Sacramento valley that paralleled Interstate 5. (I hate riding down the freeway). It is a nice day; the sun is shining, its 80 degrees, and no wind. The road surface is not great (which is typical for California) and there a lot of rodents out, chipmunks and the like. I felt kind of bad because at this point I had actually run over two who had poor timing while trying to cross the road. 

My Modified 1997 Triumph 955 - It's for Sale Too!

The road is not too tight and most of the corners are fast sweepers and I was cruising along enjoying the day thinking how much I like ‘work days’ like these. As I came out of a wooded area onto a straight stretch, I glance down at the gauges to see if all is OK. I noticed I was motoring along at 80mph, not accelerating for the straights, just a nice pace considering there is no traffic on the road at all.

At the end of the straight was a hawk eating some road kill on the left shoulder.  I was confident by the time I got there that he will have taken off. Without backing off the throttle I start getting closer, watching him all the way. First he turns to the left and crouches down like he is going to take off. I’m thinking great, no problem. At the last minute he turns right and takes off right in front of me. OMG! I try to tuck in behind the fairing as much as possible but he hits me in the head (gotta love a full face helmet).  As I looked up for the corner I started seeing stars and had a little tunnel vision that was short lived.

I glanced in the mirror to check on my feathered friend and he is ‘spread hawk’ on the road, not moving. His wingspan appeared to be about 4 feet and I was thinking he could’ve knocked me out or off the bike. I never stopped as I figured there was nothing I could do for him and there was probably someone from the Sierra Club or Park Service hiding in the bushes that would want to pursue criminal charges.

The helmet only had some feather dust on it so it was a shame to throw it away – but I know I had collapsed the liner some. This is not the only bird I have killed on my bike. Once in Eastern Oregon with the ‘molar rollers’ I was going through a fast (100mph?) right hand sweeper and a blackbird came out the bushes and I got him with my right knee. I think I will start painting animals on my fairing like they did on WWII airplanes.

Riding to World Superbike, Seattle to Laguna

Let me start by saying that I am not a fast rider. I can do okay, but I am not a retired racer, nor have I ever taken ’track lessons’.

I used to ride with a bunch of dentists who called themselves the ‘molar rollers’ and there were some fast guys in this group!  Most of these guys rode Ducatis or 1000cc sportbikes.  David Edwards (ex Cycle World editor) called Wiley the ‘world’s fasted dentist’.  I’m not sure so about that, but he is fast on the street. I am not as talented as some of the doctors are, but when would keep them in sight when they are ‘on it’, I was a happy camper.

One year we all decided to ride from Seattle down to the World Superbike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, in Monterey. I started to have charging system problems with my CBR600F2 and stopped at the Honda shop in Eureka, California to see what the problem was.  I told the guys to keep on and that I would catch up with them later. I don’t know if you have ever ridden Hwy 1 from Liggett to Ft Bragg, but this road is a “10” in my book.  It has great pavement, beautiful scenery if you look, and very TIGHT corners that work their way through the coastal range.

Once I left the Honda shop, I found myself cruising along at the speed limit +10 or +15 with a big smile, in and out of the sunlight; the world was perfect. As I came through a straight stretch of the big redwoods 5 riders were pulling on to the road and tucked in behind me.  I think “Great, someone to ride with.”  I look in the mirror and these guys are right on my tail. Okay, so they want to go a little faster – I can do that. The 15-20mph corners are behind us and now the 30mph corners are ahead – which you can do at another 10-15mph safely. When the pace picked up, I checked the mirrors again and there are only two with me - the others have dropped back.

Again I got the feeling they want to up the ante so as Emeril Lagasse would say “let’s kick it up a notch”. Now we were on it to where the tires were starting to be the deciding speed factor and I checked the mirror again – now there is only one guy back there. One more glance to see if he is thinking about passing and I notice he was crossing the line in some of the corners. At this point, I do not want to be part of something that could get ugly, so when I came up behind a truck, I timed it so I could get around, but he couldn’t.  I backed it off a little and pulled into the first gas station I see in Ft Bragg –where the molar rollers are having an ice cream.

Several of them come over as I am filling up.  .  Now let’s sidetrack for a second.  During this story I was in my late 40’s and the Molar Rollers are 5-10 years my senior.  As we‘re chatting, the 5 ‘fast’ guys pull into the station.  One of them, the last guy behind me (who’s maybe 20), walks over and says to two of my friends and myself “It is nice to see some of you ‘old guys’ riding sportbikes”.  We’re just smiling as we all say “Thanks.”  Even though in my mind I was thinking “didn’t I just show you how it’s done?  You should ride with these guys because I’m not the fast one here.

The moral of the story.  Don’t judge a rider’s ability by his age.