The Blue Ridge 500 TT 2

Museum: So is this also a bicycle race?

JR: Oh, man! We’ve been talking about motorcycles here, but we have it easy! We have it safe! In the afternoons when we go down there, about five in the afternoon, after what little traffic there is coming home, there are only a few people coming home, the bicyclists show up. Some of them speak English and some don’t because they are from all over the world. They paint their clothes on. Their protection —they don’t even have any. They paint these things on that look like clothes, almost, that’s how thin they are. They don’t practice their up-hills. They only practice their down-hills with the cars. . . . Here I am in full leather. I’ve got Metzler tires on my BMW that are as soft as chewing gum. You can’t make them slide. I’m talking about the newest equipment. So when you see a guy, here he comes on a little tiny tire, the diameter of which is about the size of a nickel and he’s running forty-five through a corner that I can barely run forty-five through, it’s terrifying. The bicyclists love these maps as much as the motorcyclists.