This weekend at the legendary Road Atlanta road course is the third round of the American Superbike Series, the Suzuki Superbike Showdown. Road Atlanta has become one of the historic events on the calendar dating back to 1971.
At last year’s event it started raining during Sunday’s Supersport race. The problem was it was raining only on the back section of the track so riders came blazing in from completely dry pavement to newly wet and very slick pavement on the turn leading onto the back straight. Rockwall Performance Yamaha rider Lloyd Worrell was just one of the riders that got caught out by the slick track. Worrell went on a wild ride and check out the amazing job by Chris Clark on the No. 48 Bazzaz/Pat Clark/MS/Graves Yamaha of barely avoiding Worrell. There was just a brush of contact, but that only made the crash a little more spectacular.
I’ve got to thank Henny Ray Abrams for lending me one of his Nikon D3 cameras making it possible for me to catch this 18-shot sequence much better than I would have with my D300. With the D300 I would have only gotten 12 frames of the crash. Click on the photo for a larger version.
Rider Files 
Killer sequence man! Talk about being in the right place at the right time–or wrong place at the wrong time for Worrell.
Great stuff as always from The Master!
Stu
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Thanks Stu.
I caught a couple other crash sequences in the span of about 30 seconds in that corner. Fortunately I think everyone was relatively unscathed.
Larry
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Nice LL. You gonna be at RA this weekend ?
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Scott
Unfortunatley I won’t make Atlanta this year. I’ve got another job to do this weekend.
LL
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Hmmmmm? #13….would never put that on my race bike. Once I saw a rider with #666 on his bike. He died in a crash at Pocono that same day 😦
LL, I’d love to see a list of racer superstitions…that could get real strange.
Brian
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Brian,
Yours would start as the No. 1 of superstitions. Avoiding certain numbers.
Larry
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Wow if was i was Clark i would have parked it after that lol
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Larry, First off, sorry you won’t make Road A this year. Next, that is so cool. You don’t see sparks in daytime photos very often! And also I live here in Gainesville, Georgia if any “Rider Files” fans need local help while here. John Blackstock (678)316-6579.
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For superstitions the number 13 or 666 wouldn’t be chosen…by many I assume. My oddball superstition was
1. never to race wearing something somebody lent me or gave me for good luck.
2. who’s next?????
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I know car racers used to have a big fear of driving green cars. I heard some motorcycle racers way back in the day had the same superstition. I have no idea where that one came from.
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Sounds crazy I know, but I knew someone who went into fits about bringing peanuts into the pit area. Go figure?
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Maybe they were allergic. ???
I know Miguel Duhamel was extremely allergic to peanuts. Whenever I went out to eat with him he would ask the waiter/waitress if any of the foods were prepared anywhere near peanuts.
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