Pikes Peak - going sideways at 100mph towards a 3000 ft drop
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Casey letting the back end drift last year on the HP2 Enduro
Image Gallery ( 5 images )Greg Trachy
Gary's brother Greg won the Supermoto class last year and came third in the overall rankings. He has been a stuntman for the past 10 years, mostly working on car stunts for movies such as The Dukes of Hazzard, Talladega Nights, and more recently the upcoming Borne movie. Although he loves sliding, drifting, flipping and crashing cars, he is serious about his motorcycle racing and has won at Pikes Peak three times (in 1996, 1999 and 2006) and has finished second four times. A real BMW fan, he currently has three early 1960s bikes (an R 69 S, R 60 and R50) and thinks that the design and feel of a Boxer twin is like no other. His ambition for this year? To break his brother's course record...
"Pikes Peak is a special event because it is one of those races like the Isle of Man TT, Dakar Rally, Baja 1000, and Erzberg, that just have such a mystique because of the obvious danger level, the elements, and the fact that they only take place once a year. Like Erzberg, Pikes Peak is scarily fast and has big cliffs that you do not want to go off the edge of, but it's different because it is about half paved and half dirt, with a much smoother surface. I learned a lot at Erzberg - mostly about the capabilities of the HP2. The track was so fast and there were big rocks, but the dirt was different. There was mud, sand, hard pack and very rocky sections, but the HP2 just kept surprising me in how well it worked in all the different conditions.
"I think the Megamoto's design will work fantastic at the Peak and being able to run with 17-inch wheels will work well on the paved and dirt sections. Traditionally, my brother and I have always raced carburated bikes, so the horsepower lost in the 5000-ft change in elevation has been drastic. However, that will not be the case with the Megamoto, and the extra 70 plus horsepower will be awesome! At Pikes Peak you can definitely feel the altitude change on your body. Gary and I usually like to be there a few days early and spend time at the top of the mountain to try and acclimatise. The weather changes very quickly up there though. You can start in the sun, hit rain at the halfway point and then have snow at the top.
"This is all just another extreme aspect of an extreme race though and I have had several close calls over the years. At the speeds we are going now the road gets very skinny, and at the edge is a 50-3,000-ft drop-off! I was battling for the lead one year when my handlebars got locked with the other rider's. We were going about 100 mph (160 km/h) towards this turn with a 3,000-ft drop on the outside. At the last second we were able to break apart and turn. We were both happy to see the finish!
"Success at Pikes Peak is really about finding a balance between what is a good paved set-up and what is a good dirt set-up, and I think that is where a bike like the HP2 Megamoto will really shine. I believe the Megamoto will require a little more fluidity in the rider inputs because we will be carrying so much more speed but the power delivery is awesome and I can't wait to have so much on my side for trying to break my brother's record!"
Casey Yarrow
Last year, BMW made its first appearance at the US hill-climbing classic race and came away with excellent results on the HP2 Enduro. Californian Casey Yarrow won the Exhibition Class (for motorcycles above 750cc) with a time of 12:20.951 and placed fifth overall.
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