[crashking]

I remember when the Pace articles were first printed but I was young and dumb...

I shared them with my buddies and there were three of us who were tight. My friend Dave and I would always be out front and Cliff in the back. sometimes when we would stop he would say; "Guys, remember the pace." We just laughed it off. Too bad. In a decreasing radius Dave went off the road and hit a stone wall. A few hours later he dies from a torn Aorta. I was there with his family and have never gone through such hell.

It could have been prevented, the signs were there...crossing the yellow line was the most obvious. Cliff was always the smart one. If only we applied the pace.

I was leading and have carried guilt for that. I know he was in control of the throttle and his family never blamed me...great family. While I knew I wouldn't give up riding, during the funeral etc I would just say, "I don't know..."

Since then I took it to the track, destroy the competition, not your freinds became my motto. We had plans, he was getting ready to go to MMI...what we could have become...we will never know.

A funny note: Dave was a bit of a ladies man. While we were all sitting in the funeral home, all depressed a friend made a comment, "Dave must be smiling as he never had that many good looking girls on their knees in front of him in one day!" We needed that.

Just remember, when out on a ride if you or your freinds are hitting the yellow line or running wide, think about the Pace and the consequences. Its a great sport but as Nick once said...it punishes harshly. Keep all your memories good ones and ride safe.