Any riding school can provide track time and many schools have good instructors. But Fishtail Riding School has great instructors who really care about helping students and are willing to provide the individual attention that really makes a difference. Unfortunately most of them are quite bashful, so when I ask them for pictures, they keep sending me pictures of them riding their bikes. The end result is these could all be imposters. Go figure . . .
Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and Bruce was first running track days, Bill was one of his early instructors. He started racing in 2002, and at the time he was averaging over 70 days at the track a year. He won a LRRS championship in 2005, and he’s also been a fixture at Penguin Roadracing School. Bill is a very gifted rider, but we mostly let him hang around because he has lots of neat toys.
I'm just a farm boy from NH who likes to make anything with a motor work better: Made the rototiller go faster to get the chores done quicker; Broke the tractor in half doing wheelies; Plowed my dirtbike into a pile of chicken @#$@ using it as a ramp for jumping. Logical progression to Ducati service, eh?
Many of you may already know Eric from his days as a mechanic at BCM Motorsports. Eric has been with us for a whole lot of years (ten to be precise) - first as a rider, then as a corner worker, and now as an Instructor and one of our Suspension School instructors.
Eric's main ride is Chucky, one of the coolest Ducati Monsters ever, with no two pieces coming off the same bike. Not only that, he just struck out on his own, starting up Clubhouse Motorsports in the Lakes Region of NH.
He says he enjoys long walks on far away race tracks, but I won’t mention that because it will probably embarrass him if I do.
Rumor has it that Tim Hafner once punted him off his bike into the Michigan dirt, breaking h ... more >>
Gil’s one of our over-achievers. When he’s not riding at the track, he’s either working as a manager for PSNH or chasing bad guys as a deputy sheriff in Vermont. He started riding in 1970, and his first bike was a 1948 H-D 45 C.I. Basket Case®. Now he has a garage full of motorcycles and a trailer that resembles the Chrysler Building tipped on its side. While he has a some pretty neat machinery, we decided he was safer on something less powerful. So when he’s not looking we pull the plugs on all his big stuff, and he’s left with this. Don’t tell him though, After all, he does carry a gun for a living . . ... more >>
Guy Pike, alias GP, has been around riding motorcycles for a long, long, long time, 40+ years riding to be exact. Don’t let the GQ pose fool you; he really does know how to instruct. Bruce recruited GP as an instructor sometime in the 90's, and he’s been doing it ever since. Although he sometimes has trouble thinking in English (his admission, not mine), something cool always happens with his students. How much do we like GP as an instructor? When my son Nate started riding with us, I put him with GP.
Jerry Clark
Jerry is one of our steely-eyed killers. He spent 39 years flying for USAir, and he also flew fighters for the Massachusetts and New York Air National Guard (don't hate him because he's beautiful . . .). With all that spare time he started racing in the LRRS. He's done quite well for himself, winning the Amateur Achievement Award in 2006 and moving up to the expert ranks pretty quickly. Now he races in the Formula Fossil classes, as well as a bunch of other classes that I don't understand,so I won't try to explain them to you.
John Anderson
John is our newest classroom guy. He's been working with us over the season to get up to speed on the curriculum as well as help to redesign the program. While he may be on a generic track bike here in his picture, he just came over to the dark side and bought one of Gil Rainault's Ducatis. When he's not selling his soul to ride yet another track day, he's the Northeast U.S. training rep for Garmin. Got a question about why that little electronic box on your dashboard is bossing you around the way it is? John can tell you.
John Scholl
John Scholl is co-founder of ShooFly Logic, a computer programming company that does, well, programming for computers. I’d explain it all in more detail, but I’d have to make most of said details up, so what’s the point? He’s a junkie for anything with 2 wheels, either pedal or internal combustion, and he and his lovely wife Peg even built a trimaran that resembles something from Star Trek. All very cool. When John isn’t instructing for us, he’s usually planning motorcycle gatherings around North America where good friends can ride for days on end ... more >>
Laura Hafner
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because she’s married to me, the classroom guy. It took me a few years to convince her that track days were fun, but once she tried it she was hooked. If we had to describe her riding style in one word, it would be “smooth,” and she has a real gift for boosting a rider’s confidence. Don’t let her calm demeanor fool you though. She's a fierce competitor and a World Masters Rowing Champion.
