I would buy a condo, a jet, and a few expensive cars. Save some money. Stuff like that.
“What would do with your free time, Ted?"
I paused, glanced at the TV, and looked him squarely in the eyes:
“I would race motorcycles.”
Naturally.
MOTORCYCLE RACING
Motorcycle racing is an epic and badass sport. Turn on Speed TV or DVR a few races and you’ll quickly share this point of view. It’s fast, it’s furious, and it pumps adrenaline like a roller-coaster ride. To me three things make the sport interesting to the outside observer: the bikes, the competition, and the sheer insanity of enterprise.
Let’s consider the bikes first. Racing bikes are highly sophisticated machines built for one purpose: going absurdly fast on a closed racecourse. They are pieces of engineering beauty, machines capable of summoning up to 300 horsepower with the flick of a finger. Formula One Cars, by comparison, summon 550 horsepower, yet weigh at least ten times more.
Racers basically control a rocket between their legs. The bikes are capable of hitting zero-to-sixty in under three (!) seconds and topping over 200 miles per hour with a gearshift. Think about a Ferrari or a racecar. Can they hit zero to sixty under 3 seconds? Can you even faster than 160 MPH in a NASCAR? Think about race bikes another way: motorcycle racing is the only sport where teams have to slow down their vehicles in order to be competitive. Unlike NASCAR drivers who constantly look for ways to speed up their car, bike racers have to slow down their bikes in order to ride them safely or handle them through difficult turns. These bikes kick ass.A cursory glance at the bikes on Speed TV will remind you that the Japanese have a stranglehold on this market. Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Honda are all Japanese manufacturers and they seem to have the most competitive bikes in races. The people who ride Japanese bikes, however, come from diverse and international backgrounds. The sport also has races around the world, spanning continents and countries, and therefore boasts a truly international fan-base.
For example, the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is the most famous and closely followed racing series. (It is managed by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) based out of France.) Also known as “MotoGP,” the series puts on 16-20 “Superbike” races each year. The race locations? Qatar, China, Turkey, South America, the U.S., Europe and Russia. Aside from soccer, I can’t think of another sport with this type of international appeal. The sport has something for everyone and if you followed it, it would allow you to connect with sports enthusiasts across the globe.
Motorcycle racing, when you really sit down and think about it, is patently insane. Who on earth has the balls to ride these death traps, let alone race them against 20 other nut jobs? As I've explained above, these machines are extremely fast. Now imagine riding one of them at 200 miles per hour and falling off. I have no statistics for motorcycle racing, but I do have them for regular bikes: If you get into a motorcycle accident, you are 27 times more likely to die than if you were in a car accident. The main reason: you have nothing separating your relatively weak body from the pavement. Obviously traffic and automobiles come into effect here, but I think you get the point. The sport is extreme to the tenth degree.
Yet people keep racing these things and the Japanese keep building faster bikes. The sport is growing in popularity, and I assume we will continue hearing about it. I think racing bikes would be a total trip, but on second thought, maybe not the best way to live a long and happy life with 50 million dollars. I will have to compromise with my fifty million by watching MotoGP on 100 inch, HiDef TV. With my money, I will be able to afford the satellite package which gets me MotoGP around the globe, too. Awesome.
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