Monster Challenge Finals

Hey all,

I got back from the monster challenge in Alabama and I'm still a bit too exhausted to give more than a 'brief' reporting on the event.

I didn't win nothing, but given the other bikes there I wasn't disappointed at all. In a word: Wow.

The Barber motorsports park & museum are simply awe inspiring. The "Park" is basically an insanely high-end golf course, complete with pristine lawns, rolling hills, amazing sculptures (giant worker ants hauling off motorcycles anyone?) But instead of 18 holes of golf, there's a tight, technical racetrack you can see all of from most vantage points.

Finally, a billionaire who spends his money on something both snooty and pedestrian.

Just to show you how insanely well kept the place is, I commented to a track worker how well stacked and pristine the tire barriers looked.

"Of course it looks nice. It's made out of new tires"

The museum:
This place would make for a world class art museum, it just happens to be filled with bikes. At rough guess I'd say about 200 were on display and another 300 were stored in the wings, waiting for restoration. And none of the bikes are roped off, just placed on pedestals so you can really get close and look at (and into) them.

I've never seen a (Britten, Yamaha and Honda 500cc GP bikes, Vincent Black Shadow, Norvin, MV Augusta, Bimota Tesi, TZ 750, Board Track Racer, Ducati Daytona bike, etc. etc.) that up close and personal before.

Makes the Art of the Motorcycle show in Vegas look like a weekly swap meet for the rat bike club.

The show:

All the folks who brought their bikes were great people. I had far too much fun hanging out and chatting with them. Everything from old "internet" friends I knew from the Ducati Boards, to folks I'd met at the San Jose show. A great cross-section of enthusiasts.

Showing my bike at the museum was just terrific. Now I know how an artist who gets a painting shown in an exhibit feels. I had a blast doing a continuous meet 'n greet to the folks who came to see our bikes, answering questions, talking about this and that.

And just so you don't think this was some wine & cheese event: At one point they started up a bike down on the shop floor (bottom) of the museum. Naturally, we egged on one the guys to start his bike up, and he blasted the exhaust for about half a minute to much hooting and applause from the folks in attendance. This continued all day with little "sound wars" starting up between us and the guys on the shop floor. We were a bit nervous about this until we got word that Mr. Barber (the aforementioned gazillonaire who funds this amazing place) was heard saying how much he loved it.

In fact he loved it so much he let our bikes stay an extra day in the museum (we were only supposed to be there just the one day)!

After two days in the museum, we moved our bikes down to the Ducati tent, we got to do a couple of parade laps on the track (woo) we got to meet more fans, we got interviewed by some folks from the press (including speedvision?) and they judged the winners:

• A great guy from Sacramento won first for his all carbon fiber monster (the winner from the San Jose show)
• An "internet" buddy of mine won 2nd for his bike
• An 18 year old girl who'd built a sweet retro bike got third
• And my friend Steve won People Choice for his insane tigerbike

Trust me when I say after seeing the other bikes I don't feel one bit bad about loosing.

After the judging someone suggested that since our bikes were due to be crated up in a few hours for shipping, we might as well take advantage and go for a ride! This led to a misadventure where we couldn't go back in the park the way we went out, and we were forced to do a 45 mile round trip on some snaky back roads just to get in the back way.

Wheee!

Swag (besides the usual race track periphenalia) included a "Monster Challenge Finalist" tee shirt and nifty inspection plate cover for my bike engraved with "Ducati Monster Challenge Finalist" in a laurel wreath. I'm torn between putting it on my bike or keeping it encased in lucite.

All I can say is: Life is good!

Official press release from Ducati North America